See this- outdoorindustry.org/press-release/red-paddle-co-to-release-the-dragon-at-surf-expo/
Don't vomit with the spin in the press release.
Tandem SUP is much harder than it looks. If paddlers don't co-ordinate their strokes, falls will ensue. Even the stablest board becomes tippy once someone else is moving around on it.
But I was shocked at how much power two people can create together. It's awesome. But it also presents a problem for inflatables. You get a rhythmic pitching which grows and grows until the board is flexing wildly and it hugely limits the speeds that can be attained. So, even though this board is 8" thick, unless it has some serious extra stiffening somewhere along it's length, I wonder whether this is really going to work if four paddlers really start to put down the power together. I have a 16x32 6" thick (400 litres) tandem starboard inflatable, and it is a very fast cruiser with two people on board. But once they both really go for it, it feels like you'd need to strap a 4x2 to the deck to stop it flexing. With four people on board the problem might be far greater still.
But this is just a guess - I haven't tried one. So maybe I'm completely wrong.
Well, I suspect they are going to need RSS - and then some. But then again, they must have tested it. And John Hibbard is a gifted paddler, so he'll have tried it with some other decent paddlers as well, I guess. It's funny that the video didn't really show any footage of four people really going for it over any distance though. The "bounce" kinda develops over time. But maybe this will turn out to be just one of the things you have to learn to paddle these things successfully - how to minimise the flexing and paddle smoothly, keeping the board from pitching. Maybe different patterns of strokes across people for instance might work best, rather than everyone paddling the same side at the same time. It will be interesting to see how this develops - and whether if one person tumbles, everyone falls down like dominos.
We are racing these next weekend here in the uk so will be interesting to see how they perform, we raced the red xl sup last year and smashed the competition it was amazing how much speed and power 4 people can generate!
Select to expand quotecharlieuk said...
We are racing these next weekend here in the uk so will be interesting to see how they perform, we raced the red xl sup last year and smashed the competition it was amazing how much speed and power 4 people can generate!
That's great - wear a GPS and find someone to video it? I can imagine that a 22 ft board with 4 people on it could go seriously fast.
Hi Guys,
Thought I'd give you my thoughts. We spent a fair bit of time working on this concept to get it right and to avoid the various issues that you think might encounter.
Stiffness. The Red Dragon doesn't have RSS but it doesn't encounter the flexing issue others have found on tandem boards. We achieve this by paying close attention to the rail construction. There is a lot of structure and thickness in the rail construction. The other board mentioned only had a 0.7mm thick rail so of course you ended up with all kind of issues. Using the MSL material also boosts the stiffness but reduces the weight (23kg). The actual plan shape of the board helps keep it stiff. Finally the board has 4 valves so all riders can inflate it.
It's a pretty easy board to travel with especially with your 3 other team members.
I'm just about to jump on a transatlantic flight and have checked it in as a standard bag. Just like you would any other Red inflatable board.
We've had 4 high levels paddlers on it going at full power and it's really quick. No flexing issues. Kick turns need some practice though!!
I encourage everyone to have a go. Team racing really brings a new dimension to sup racing and opens up all kinds of possibilities. It's pretty fun and we are super keen to see where this goes.
Thanks for your interest.
John
Red Paddle Co
We have been using a few over here in NZ for a while, they are fabulous. It does definitely take coordination and teamwork, but the speed they get up to is amazing. And they're also just great fun. It doesn't have to be 4 people, as you can see we do 2,3,4,5, it's all great. Especially fun for kids too!
And as John says, there is no bounce.
We saw the Dragon this week in Orlando, FL USA at Surf Expo and the buzz was great. The people who had tried it said it was fun, competitive and that practice and technique were paramount. Stronger paddlers can be beaten by more practiced, more coordinated paddlers. It seemed like something more suited toward 2000 meter or 1000 meter competitions, elimination rounds and perhaps better for spectators, also. Like K1 or C1. There have been a lot of mega sup racing videos with 6-8 people on a super wide board. The Dragon seemed more realistic, more efficient and from what I heard, bounce isn't an issue especially when you are on time and coordinated with the other paddlers. I suppose like any crew. There were a number of race directors who seemed excited to get them into their events. Something new. It travels. It's social. It's competitive.
just got back from racing these and the xl sups today and it was a huge amount of fun, you notice that they are definitely more tippy than the xl and balance and coordination plays a bigger part than the xl were you can pretty much just go flat out. 3 people is apparently the fastest on the dragon, we were doing four up and just a straight line 200m sprint unfortunately i didn't have any form of gps to track speed but they definitely feel quick and when you get working together you really feel the speed increase. It a tuff call between which is more fun the red xl or the dragon. I think for sprints i would say xl but for distance probably the dragon. Just really need to try a hard version now!
