New Season… New SUP

You’ve spent countless hours enjoying your all-round paddleboard—it’s introduced you to the joys of paddleboarding, developed your skills, and maybe even ignited a passion for exploring further. With a new season approaching, it’s natural to wonder: is now the time to upgrade?

At The SUP Company, we’ve helped countless paddlers progress from beginners to confident adventurers and racers alike. Our experience clearly tells us one thing: every paddleboard is a compromise. As you become more skilled and start specialising in a particular discipline, whether it’s touring, surfing, or racing, your original all-rounder might no longer perfectly align with your evolving interests and paddling goals.

Why Consider Upgrading?

Paddlers consider upgrading for various reasons. It could simply be that they purchased an all-round paddleboard to see if SUP was for them, but it has now become more than just a fleeting interest. Perhaps they desire better quality materials, greater rigidity, increased load-carrying capacity, or improved efficiency. In our experience, the most popular reason for upgrading is efficiency—wanting to go further with greater ease. Often, all-round paddleboard owners seek more from their equipment, as an all-round SUP is a ‘jack of all trades’ but ultimately a ‘master of none’ culminating in a feeling of wanting more from their equipment and time on the water.

Time to Specialise

Choosing the right paddleboard is not unlike selecting the right car—it’s about finding the correct tool for the job. If your primary goal is speed, you’d choose a performance vehicle ideal for the track, happily compromising abit of comfort, boot space and extra seating. Similarly, if you’ve discovered to want to carry more equipment efficiently and while remaining efficent with some creature comforts, you’d probably opt for a diesel estate car (not unlike some touring paddleboards!). While an estate car can certainly go around a race track, it’s unlikely to do so regularly, and you’d accept the compromise in outright performance compared to a more focused vehicle for the job in hand.

While some more specialist boards can require a higher skill level to handle effectively, but this doesn’t mean there isn’t a focused paddleboard category with a paddleboard that rewarding well matched to progressing paddlers without being overly challenging.

We can break down enhanced performance into three popular categories (there are more niche paddling areas like white water and foiling, but we’ll stick to the three most common):

Touring Boards

• Pros: Longer and narrower shape offering superior glide, faster speeds, and efficient tracking. Ideal for long-distance paddling and exploring.
• Cons: Less manoeuvrable, harder to handle in waves and tight spaces, and typically less stable for beginners.

Our best selling inflatable touring paddleboards would be the Starboard 12’6 Touring Deluxe Light and the Red Paddle Co 14ft Voyager. While the most popular and capable hard paddle boards are the SIC Okeanos (a favourite of ours also!) and the Starboard Touring.

Surf-Specific Boards

• Pros: Shorter length, increased rocker, and narrower tails for better agility and responsive manoeuvrability in waves.
• Cons: Reduced stability, challenging to paddle in flat or choppy conditions, and slower glide.

The best selling dedicated inflatable paddleboard is without doubt the Starboard Wedge.

While calling our most popular hard surf SUPs is actually quite difficult as longboards such as the Fanatic Style Master are fantastic fun, while super easy and rewarding surf shapes like the Starboard Whopper is always very popular, especailly with those starting out.

Race Boards

• Pros: Designed for maximum speed, efficiency, and competitive paddling with excellent tracking and glide.
• Cons: Less stable, require advanced skills to handle effectively, especially in rougher water conditions.

Our best selling inflatable raceboard is without doubt the Starboard Allstar Airline, closely followed by the Starboard Sprint Airline.

Calling out our most popular composite raceboards is really difficult as they themsevles have their own sub catergoies such as Allwater, Flatwater, Technical and Downwind: but boards like the Starboard Allstar and Infinity Blackfish are very, very in demand by those wanting the best.

Understanding these trade-offs is key when choosing your next paddleboard. It helps to have a clear idea of your expectations from your next board. At this point, we recommend that paddlers have an honest conversation about their real paddling needs. It’s common for paddlers to allow occasional scenarios, such as a week’s surfing holiday in Cornwall, to influence their decision-making. Our advice is always to buy for the majority of your use. If you’re primarily paddling on rivers with friends for fitness, don’t let a brief surfing holiday overly influence your choice. Either accept your new board’s limitations during that week or hire a specialised surfboard for your holiday.

Moving from Inflatable to Composite Boards

A popular upgrade path is transitioning from inflatable paddleboards to composite boards. Composite boards, constructed from fibreglass, carbon fibre, wood, or other materials, offer enhanced rigidity, responsiveness, and superior performance. Inflatable paddleboards can only be shaped in outline, thickness, and rocker line, whereas composite boards can be precisely shaped across all surfaces, distributing volume strategically. This upgrade to a hard paddleboard can transform your paddling experience, particularly for higher speeds, sharper turns, or improved wave-riding capabilities. However, composite boards are heavier, less convenient for storage and transport, and require dedicated storage and transport solutions. They’re also less resilient than inflatables and need protection from drops and dings.

Try Before You Buy

Since launching The SUP Company in 2015, we’ve understood that choosing the right paddleboard is crucial for maximising enjoyment, progression, and achieving paddling goals. We proudly operate the UK’s largest paddleboard test centre, offering an ideal environment for trying multiple boards. Visitors travel from across the UK and even from countries such as Norway, Holland, France, and Spain to test paddleboards and paddles back-to-back. We recognise this isn’t possible for everyone, so we extensively use and test equipment ourselves. This hands-on experience sets us apart—we don’t simply repeat marketing brochures or push surplus stock. If you understand what you don’t like about your current paddleboard or have specific paddling goals, we can use our experience to assist you in finding your perfect board remotely.

Is an Upgrade Right for You?

Ultimately, upgrading your paddleboard is a personal decision driven by your developing interests, aspirations, and the enjoyment you seek. Visiting our test centre helps you find the ideal board tailored to your needs, ensuring your next board complements rather than limits your progression. If you can’t visit our test centre, pick up the phone, book a WhatsApp video call, or drop us an email—we’ll help you explore your options and ensure your next board matches exactly what you’re looking for.