We tested 6 14' boards with 5 paddlers.
The boards tested:
Starboard Ace 25" wide
Starboard All Star 25"
Starboard All Star 26"
Bark Dominator 27.5"
Custom Bark (based on Dominator shape) 26.5"
JP Race (2013) 27"
The paddlers:
The testers were all experienced paddlers and competitive racers. To provide an idea of their speeds in flat water, they all competed in a race last fall and averaged between 5 - 5.5mph over a 9 mile course.
- Male 5'11", 148lbs, racer
- Male 6', 185lbs, racer
- Male 6', 190lbs, racer
- Male 6'4" 225lbs, racer
- Female 5'6", 135lbs (estimate), elite racer
Test methodology:
- Length of the run was about 0.3 miles (or 1600 feet or 485m)
- Paddlers were allowed several seconds to reach full speed before hitting the start line for each run.
- Straight line runs with no buoy turns
- Each paddler tested all 6 boards doing an upwind run and downwind run for each board (actually 7 boards were tested but there was insufficient data on 1 board so it was eliminated from the results. Each paddler completed a total of 14 runs)
- About 3 minutes of rest between the upwind and downwind legs for the same board. About 7-8 minutes rest between boards.
- Staggered starts were used to avoid competitive racing effects
Conditions:
- Lake Ontario
- Flat at start with about 5mph side-offshore breeze
- Wind speed increased to about 7-8mph and shifted to side-onshore, creating small chop as test progressed
Conclusions:
The fastest boards were the Starboard All Star 25" and Starboard Ace 25".
Beyond that, it was more difficult to draw reliable conclusions since the times were pretty close and there were also some data gaps (software glitches and some missed times due to spotting problems since there was only 1 person recording all times at both ends of the course with binoculars). One lesson learned doing this test is that we need at least 2 time keepers/spotters to make sure we capture all results. We just didn't have that luxury this time round. We used paddler signalling at the far end to mark lap completion times.
Because of data gaps, changing water and wind conditions, and fatigue effects in later trials, I only feel comfortable listing the overall speed order of the boards tested and not all the gory details. With those caveats, here is the order of the boards tested (fastest first):
1. Starboard All Star 25"
2. Starboard Ace 25"
3. Custom Bark 26.5"
4. Bark Dominator
5. JP Race (2013) 27"
6. Starboard All Star 26"
The 25" All Star and 25" Ace were very close (although if we removed the 225lb tester's results, the Ace would be slightly faster). Of course, the order will depend on the individual paddler and especially their weight. It's interesting to see that the 25" All Star was the fastest board while the 26" All Star was the slowest. It goes to show you that these shapes were very close to each other in our test.
The 25" All Star was the board our elite female tester and our fastest male tester (6', 190lbs) said they liked best. The Ace was just as fast if not faster, but it's unusual shape has more of a learning curve and testers may feel uncomfortable on it the first time round.
In general, narrower boards are faster but some shapes are more flat water focused while others are more of an all-round shape. Of course, if you get too narrow for your weight, you end up being slower - and we saw this in our test, particularly with our 225lb tester. Being a flat water focused shape seemed to help in our test, which was mostly in flat water. Of the boards tested, the Barks are the ones that have more of a flat water shape. However, when the wind and waves picked up a bit in the second half of the test, paddlers made favorable comments on the speed and handling of all-round shapes - particularly the All Star.
It's interesting to see the different approaches to nose design by Starboard vs Bark. Starboard's noses are blunter/higher volume and have some rocker. Bark noses are piercing and try to take advantage of the full water line of the board. The Starboard noses tend to splash as they're being paddled, even in flat water. It looks like you're going slower, but that wasn't the case. They also tend to ride over small chop. The Bark noses cut more quietly through flat water and when it gets a bit choppy, the nose will cut through the water more. Depending on the paddler, they have different preferences on which nose style they prefer. Our fastest elite male racer (who couldn't make it to our test) prefers the piercing Bark-style nose since there is less up and down movement of the nose going upwind. He's been riding a Dominator for a few years though and that's what he's used to. Personally, I prefer the Starboard nose that rides over small chop and it's definitely faster for me upwind (and downwind). My All Star and Ace go faster upwind in chop for me than my 25.5" wide custom Bark did. Recent 2014 race designs by Fanatic and NSP/DC also seem to be adopting the Starboard style nose. Just make sure your board is well suited to the type of conditions you like to paddle in. And of course, demo in your local conditions.
