Paddlesports (Kayaking, Canoe, Stand-Up Paddle boards)

Yeah, i imagine it's even better down south. My in laws used to have a place in Porthmadog and even when it was grey in Manchester you drive over Snowdonia and the clouds just seemed to clear!

I'm in the process of interviewing for a job which would be fully remote, definitely considering the option of moving nearer the sea at some point, although somewhere like Brighton is tempting, too often i see posts in the various facebook groups of amazing weather down there!. My wife is fully remote too so it's only really my job holding us back!
 
Martynt74 said:
Yeah, i imagine it's even better down south. My in laws used to have a place in Porthmadog and even when it was grey in Manchester you drive over Snowdonia and the clouds just seemed to clear!

I'm in the process of interviewing for a job which would be fully remote, definitely considering the option of moving nearer the sea at some point, although somewhere like Brighton is tempting, too often i see posts in the various facebook groups of amazing weather down there!. My wife is fully remote too so it's only really my job holding us back!
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Amazing. Personally I couldn't cope with Brighton. Too many people. Although you'd certainly get the weather. I'd move to Scotland if it wasn't so cold! Especially as you can just roam free up there!

I'd probably just move further west in Wales if I was staying here in the uk. Maybe the Gower peninsula. Although you have to always drive through Swansea to get out. Takes so much time!

But fully remote opens up everything! And get so much time back!

Life is too short not to make most of it!
 
Side note. If anyone is around Bristol to Swansea area and e ever wants to go out on the water. Drop me a message. I'll probably come. SUPs welcome!
 
Zatoichi.uK said:
Roughly how much would it be for a complete kit to get me started? I'm hopefully doing the discover course in the next couple of months.
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Depends what you're after but you can get a pretty decent all around board and paddle for £500 or thereabouts. If you think you are going to get into a particular type of SUP in future you could go more specialist shape straight away. A lot of people who buy all around board shapes actually really should buy more touring orientated shapes as that is what they end up doing.
413x said:
It was a big move. I was ready to buy a house. And it felt like now or never to move. Had a lot of chats with the gf about moving over. Really wished I'd done it sooner.
It is hard sometimes seeing my old friends doing stuff together. But I'm not super social. I do want to make some more friends around here into this stuff though. That my mission for the year.

Body board, mountain biking (new hobby) and kayaking are my things. And it's so good for that here.

Tenby is amazing. If I can get my job to be fully remote I'd love to live there. Or new Zealand. One of the two!

Oh. Wales is no where near as wet as what I was led to believe. OK, the winters are. But the summers can be nearly as good as the east. Its definitely a bigger seasonal effect here!
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Good for you fella. I am originally from south wales and my folks still live there. It's a great place to live. I gravitated to London for work but totally see the appeal and may go back at some point. Couple of my welsh friends have moved back in recent years and have great lifestyles.
 
Skidder said:
Depends what you're after but you can get a pretty decent all around board and paddle for £500 or thereabouts. If you think you are going to get into a particular type of SUP in future you could go more specialist shape straight away. A lot of people who buy all around board shapes actually really should buy more touring orientated shapes as that is what they end up doing.
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Cool ta that's not too bad really and certainly cheaper than mountain biking at the moment. I'd expect I'd end up mostly river and perhaps some flat ish sea at some point so yep would lean towards the touring kayaks.
 
Zatoichi.uK said:
Cool ta that's not too bad really and certainly cheaper than mountain biking at the moment. I'd expect I'd end up mostly river and perhaps some flat ish sea at some point so yep would lean towards the touring kayaks.
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I'm not sure how Kayaks compare price wise, but i believe that @Skidders advice was more aimed at paddleboards rather than Kayaks :)
 
Zatoichi.uK said:
Ah okay no worries. Yeh would definitely prefer kayaking than standing up myself!
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Sorry I kayayk as well but didn't clock that is what you are talking about. Kayak you are probably looking at spending a bit more. You are talking probably 600-800 for the boat approx. Paddle around £100+ depending on materials. With any paddle sport don't skimp on the paddle. Assuing flat river paddling and sea I would be looking at recreational touring boats / entry level sea kayaks
 
Skidder said:
Sorry I kayayk as well but didn't clock that is what you are talking about. Kayak you are probably looking at spending a bit more. You are talking probably 600-800 for the boat approx. Paddle around £100+ depending on materials. With any paddle sport don't skimp on the paddle. Assuing flat river paddling and sea I would be looking at recreational touring boats / entry level sea kayaks
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Top man thanks. Will start to have a shop around I think.
 
Got out on the sea at Lytham last night. Ended up doing almost 6 miles which was the longest sea paddle i've done in Lytham, made it to the first pier at Blackpool and then turned around.

It was windier and choppier than the forecast had implied it would be and so there were a few nervy moments where a drenching was definitely possible! Being on the sea is so bizarre in that you can have small choppy 18" waves all coming from one direction and then suddenly get some 3 foot rolling waves coming from a complete other direction.

What i think was most bizarre though, and i've found this a few times on the sea. When paddling north against the flow it really feels like you're putting effort in to move forward, yet on the return it felt like i wasn't even moving or putting any effort into my strokes, almost like being on a paddle simulator. The only sense we were moving was by looking at the shore.

Then finished up with some attempted pivots, it's been around 6 months since i last tried it and mostly failed. Why i thought i could do them now i have no idea. Also learnt it definitely isn't warm enough in the sea to be falling in wearing shorts and t-shirt. My feet were like blocks of ice on the drive home.

My quads were definitely feeling it by the end.
 
Kayaks are closer to a grand at the moment I've found. Its put me off buying my own at the moment as it's a lump of plastic at the end of the day!

I have still not gotten out on the SUP. Soon!
 
MM-Seat said:
Kayaks are closer to a grand at the moment I've found. Its put me off buying my own at the moment as it's a lump of plastic at the end of the day!

I have still not gotten out on the SUP. Soon!
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I guess there's a lot more to them when compared to a SUP so that keeps costs high on the decent dropstitch based ones and then it's not quite popular enough to attract the big influx of generic boards from China at that cheaper price point.

What you waiting for?
 
Great to hear some of you are getting out. Damn the wind forecast was completely off this morning reckon was blowing 25-30mph and not the 12 forecast .... did impact on how far was intending to go as only requiring a light paddle while i'm recovering from something nasty..did 7km at least getting home had that wind on my back:) sun was out in full splendor mind went capri shorts & barefoot today but still needed a long top & layers that wind was chilly!
 
The other half and I done a paddle boarding lesson last summer and have been speaking about getting our own boards for this summer.
For a first board she has decided to order from Amazon which were the FB Sports items. Has anyone had any experience with these boards?

If not, What are recommended all rounders for beginners up to intermediate level that would be under £400?
 
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michty_me said:
The other half and I done a paddle boarding lesson last summer and have been speaking about getting our own boards for this summer.
For a first board she has decided to order from Amazon which were the FB Sports items. Has anyone had any experience with these boards?

If not, What are recommended all rounders for beginners up to intermediate level that would be under £400?
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Slightly out of budget

https://www.thesupco.com/sup-boards-c1/fanatic-10-ft-4-fly-air-pure-2021-p1147

https://www.thesupco.com/sup-boards-c1/fanatic-12-ft-6-ray-air-pure-2021-p1156

https://www.thesupco.com/sup-boards-c1/jp-allround-air-sl-2021-p2594

If you don't want to push the budget you could go a bit off brand (JP and Fanatic are top tier but these are their most price concious offers). Hear the itiwit boards decathlon does are alright
 
I have the 11'6 Ray Air Pure (probably slightly better suited than the 12'6 above) and would say it's a good board. I'm ~100kg and 6'3 and it feels solid even though it's only single skinned.

I always believed that the Aqua Planet Pace boards weren't meant to be too bad, however i saw 2 people on them on the River Lune the other week and they looked like they were paddling a banana due to how bowed they were in the middle.

The Gladiator Lite boards also seem to get decent reviews and are within your price point, however they only come in a very all rounded 10'8 and i think most people would be better around the 11'6 size.


What i would say would be to move fast. Stock still seems in short supply and it's not even ramped up to busy season yet!
 
Skidder said:
Slightly out of budget

https://www.thesupco.com/sup-boards-c1/fanatic-10-ft-4-fly-air-pure-2021-p1147

https://www.thesupco.com/sup-boards-c1/fanatic-12-ft-6-ray-air-pure-2021-p1156

https://www.thesupco.com/sup-boards-c1/jp-allround-air-sl-2021-p2594

If you don't want to push the budget you could go a bit off brand (JP and Fanatic are top tier but these are their most price concious offers). Hear the itiwit boards decathlon does are alright
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Thanks for the links.
I've been looking at the fanatic boards as have read some quite good reviews of them.
Would the Fanatic 10'8 possibly be better suited for me with being 6ft and nearly 90Kg compared to the 10'4 size?

Martynt74 said:
I have the 11'6 Ray Air Pure (probably slightly better suited than the 12'6 above) and would say it's a good board. I'm ~100kg and 6'3 and it feels solid even though it's only single skinned.

I always believed that the Aqua Planet Pace boards weren't meant to be too bad, however i saw 2 people on them on the River Lune the other week and they looked like they were paddling a banana due to how bowed they were in the middle.

The Gladiator Lite boards also seem to get decent reviews and are within your price point, however they only come in a very all rounded 10'8 and i think most people would be better around the 11'6 size.


What i would say would be to move fast. Stock still seems in short supply and it's not even ramped up to busy season yet!
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I have also been looking at the Gladiator boards as they appear to get a good review. Same as the boards posted above (Fanatic boards)
I'm tempted to return the FB Sport board the girlfriend has ordered and get either the Fanatic or the Gladiator as they are quite close to budget for me.
I'm 6ft myself and a bit below 90kg so I assume a 10'8 size would be fine for me and assume a 10'4 size would be too small.
 
Most boards above 10'6 (i didn't know 10'4 boards existed) will cope with your size/weight. It more depends on what your intentions are really.

I bought a 10'8 Bluefin board initially, but after ~8 months i found i did all my paddling on canals/rivers and so changed to a longer board to benefit from increased glide and tracking since i was pretty much just going in a straight line, turning round then heading straight back again. When i got a longer board it felt much better.

I've been on the sea in my 14' board and it's ok, but i much prefer my shorter 11'6 Fanatic for the sea. Mainly because it's wider so offers more stability.
 
I will mainly be using it on lochs or in the local harbour mainly.
I done a paddleboard school in the harbour where they also do cave exploration trips etc so would like to do that too.
I think maybe the 10'8 would be ideal with a width of 34".
 
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