Ready – start – go!

The Swiss ICE SUP Race is on for April 30, 2017. The race is 16 km and can be paddled solo or in Teams. FIT OCEAN will participate in a team-effort. 2 men (both 6km) + 1 woman (4 km)

At least that is the plan… 

• Have done 2 training-sessions this far on FIT OCEAN Speedster (12’6 x 29’’x 5’’) and on the FIT OCEAN Ultra (12’6 x 25’’x 5’’) I am managing 8 km/h average over a 3km run.
• No idea if that is good or bad.
• It is definitely not getting everything out of the boards as Dani from supsafari.ch can do 10 km/h on the FIT OCEAN ULTRA. ? Why the FIT OCEAN boards are that fast you can read at the bottom of the article.

So I need to crank up the condition/ skills/ mindset. And stop playing with the go-pro, gliding just from the wind…

Training goals:

-Less ‘way’ (zig-zag). Going more in a straight line and stop wasting energy. Here is a link to a thread I found useful

-feathering the blade. Link

-Build up condition. I need to be able to paddle 6km non-stop at a decent speed.

? Why the FIT OCEAN boards are that fast?

The boards are that fast because of the combination shape + design details + construction.

We develop shapes in our backyard in Switzerland, here is Marcel testing a sample. We are a bit addicted to ordering samples and drive our factories crazy, but creating 3D shapes on the computer is one thing, but the real input comes from testing.

The design-details (width, thickness, fin, etc.) results also from testing.

One of the main points is that we make the 12’6 length (which is an official race-class) boards not 6’’ (15cm) thick, but we make them 5’’ (12 cm). This has several advantages that contribute to speed: Less weight, more stability (lower center of gravity) and sharper rails (better water release). This thickness is also used on some starboards, red paddles and especially the ULI Race-board (ULI won the Molokai 2 Oahu race). Some think it is a disadvantage from having a thinner board, and that will bend more, but the 20 PSI fused double layer takes care and provides a super stiff boards easy.

Here is a test-report from a happy customer on Amazon (German)

The construction is very stiff because they are made out of fused double layer MIRASOL drop-stich. We call it Premium Double Layer Light (PDLL). This fusion (melting together 2 layers) is much lighter and stronger then gluing the layers. The boards can therefore be pumped up to 20 PSI and are much stiffer.

Here is a link to buy the speedster online in Europe or in Swiss

Time to make time to do more paddling.