I haven’t told you about my recent upgrade from inflatable paddleboards to a proper racing sup board. Yes, that finally happened. I bought a second hand JP Australia board from a paddler in Fort Lauderdale. He is about to upgrade to a new board and needed a new home for his old board. It was a good deal and I just need to fix some minor dings.
The thing is that my current storage arrangement was not ideal for rigid boards. I have been riding inflatables for the last two years and I can be as careless as I want. Inflatables don’t ding. Rigid boards do and easily. With the new epoxy (I believe) board in hand I had to do some arrangements to avoid board decay. Obviously these board are reinforced o withstand and last a long time, but they are heavy and bulky – it’s a 14 feet board – and it can tough to maneuver it in small spot. Thankfully I have a wide yard and from my car to my storage place I can carry the board rather easily if I’m careful.
I have been storing the inflatables on the floor right outside my kitchen wall. It’s shaded under a huge tree but the boards sat on this tree roots. It’s quite leafy so the leaves were working as cushions for the boards. That didn’t work so great for the rigid board. When I lower the board on top of the hard roots sticking out of the dirt, I can hear the thumpf! and it hurts my soul. The board doesn’t get scratched or anything if I’m careful but the sound is awful.
Having two inflatables, I ended up with the hard board on top of the first inflatable and the other inflatable on top for shading. The problem with that is that I need to remove the fins everytime.
Talking to some friends they said the best thing is a rack that can be easily built with a few wood pieces. That is going to be my weekend project. I even have the 2×4’s already for the structure of the surf rack. Will post pictures to let you know how it goes.
