Even thought Minnesota has more coastal line than California, Stand-up paddleboarding has been slow to market. Not to mention the more sportier aspects such as cross-fit and yoga. That’s why when I heard about Rave Sports, right here in my own back yard (White Bear Lake), was releasing a Yoga/Cross-fit board, I was all over it.
I am in love with my first born in the fleet, the Boga Yoga board. Purchased over 4 years ago now, it still is my trusty touring and teaching board. Since then, I’ve tried Starboard, ATX, Isle Soft and Pau Hana in the repertoire of yoga SUP. Boga has been the swiss army knife for me. I love to paddle out and warm up, then hit the yoga sequencing. Not many of the boards fly with a paddle warm up and turn around to be as balanced as a manduka on hardwood lying on the surface of the water.
We spent a morning on White Bear Lake, prototyping a few concept Cross-fit Yoga boards from Rave. Trying to put my midwest pride beside me(I really want to see them succeed) and the protective nesting nature of calling to your comfort (insert my first board – Boga) – I took a unbiased view on trying the boards out. For me, it comes down to 3 elements to score: size, balance and glide.
Size – Size DOES matter. If you are above 5′ 5” (my un-expert opinion), you need a board that is over 10′ 5” and 34” wide. Don’t ask me about the dynamics but just simply walk, nose to tail and find your center. You will see where you dip in.
Balance – Gonna be perfectly honest here, I did not know how much importance a stringer had in the overall balance/stability of the board. Let’s just call it the placebo effect, but I’m not convinced I need stringers all the time.
Glide- My good friend, Randy told me, once you get going, its all about keeping
going. Otherwise you have all this energy to start back up again. Well it sure helps if your board is a positive glider. That way when you switch grips for sides, you still have that momentum to keep you forward without having to build all that inertia again.
Here we are. Wh
at is the review? Positive. Except that the board doesn’t hit the marketplace until April 2016. My only hope is that, the board comes off the shelf with all these vast improvements where other aging boards have fallen short
. I’m confident this local MN board will give those coastal glances a run for their money. You will find me toting this one around next season.