When "stand-up paddling" spilled over from the USA to Europe a few years ago, it was not foreseeable that this sport, which involves standing on a surfboard and paddling, would develop into such a trend. Many windsurfing brands quickly recognised the huge potential of SUP and developed their own boards for the new target group. However, because SUPing quickly becomes tedious or even annoying when the wind picks up, there was nothing more obvious than to give the SUP boards a windsurfing option, true to the motto: "Paddle when it's calm, windsurf when it's windy" - the main thing is to have a good time on the water!
Wind SUPs are therefore boards that can be used for both stand-up paddling (SUP) and windsurfing. These boards are available as fixed boards or for inflation ("Inflatable WindSUPs"). As the sport has spilled over from America to Europe, the dimensions are given in feet and inches. Ideal for cruising back and forth on the lake and with sufficient volume are boards between 9'5'' (9 feet, 5 inches) and 11'6'', which corresponds to around 3.00-3.50 metres.
But be careful, Not every SUP is automatically suitable for windsurfing! You can find out what you should definitely look out for in our photo gallery:
Please note:Boards without a centre fin or daggerboard are absolutely unsuitable for windsurfing (!) because the lateral drift is too great in light winds!
Inflatable WindSUPs are ideal if you have a storage and transport problem and as a family board for light winds, as you won't get any abrasions on the soft, rubber-coated deck and the board can also be used as a children's bathing island in calm conditions. WindSUPs, whether fixed or inflatable, are ideal for cruising in light winds and manoeuvring and are in no way inferior to classic longboards.
On the other hand, if you are looking for a board for planing and want to go out on the water with large sails at more than 12 knots (4Bft), an inflatable WindSUP is not a good choice. The reason: inflatable WindSUPs glide much later because they have design-related disadvantages with small and non-profiled plastic fins as well as thick and round edges; freeride boards can do everything better! Exceptions are the inflatable windsurf boards Starboard Airplane and RRD AirWindsurf, which also work surprisingly well for planing.
Ideal sail types for this board group:Children's sails, ascent sails and small freeride, freemove or wave sails
