SIC Maui 12’6″ Air Review
Inflatable paddleboards are the new hot thing. People are buying them in droves. City dwellers like them because they are easy to store. Beginners like them because they are inexpensive. Rock hoppers like them because they can take an impact without getting dinged. Even experienced paddleboarders are using them. They are even being used by experienced paddlers as a primary ride.
Before then my primary cruiser had been an old NSP 14′ Race. A nice, fast board with a tough skin, but a little tippy. It was fine for years, but then I had an accident. I tore my right ACL, and suddenly that tippy board was harder to handle. The tips were also painful, putting the wrong kind of stress on my knee. When I carried that 14′ board, sometimes it would spin and put pressure on my knee in just the wrong way. Something had to change.
An inflatable seemed like a good choice. A soft deck to cushion any fall. Something wide (but not too wide) to keep me from tipping. I had tried inflatables from time to time, and I wasn’t very impressed with most of them. They felt very floaty, didn’t track well, and were too soft. I had been looking at the SIC Okeanos hard boards for a while, and when I saw there was a line of Okeanos inflatables, I wanted to try the 12’6″. Not the highest of the high end, but very solid mid-range boards. Good price too at under $900.
The 12’6″ board is designed for cruising. It’s 31 inches wide, so the emphasis is stability and smooth riding, not speed. It has four tie-down points in the front and six in the back, adequate for overnight or even multiple night journeys. There’s a bit of rocker in the nose, but most of the board is a straight line. With a flat bottom, it doesn’t carve through the water like a traditional flatwater board, but it does move fairly quickly. With a good stroke, you can cruise at steady 3.5–4 mph. Not exciting territory, but quite adequate for cruising.
In light to medium chop the board does fairly well. Since this is an inflatable flatwater board instead of hard board, it doesn’t have the sharp bow and hard rails that cut through small waves. It’s still basically a flat planing hull like an all-around board. This makes it perform differently, especially with short chop coming from the front. If you paddle it quickly, it tends to stay at the top of the little waves, not impacting them head-on like a traditional all-around. I had never experienced this behavior in a board before, and it was a pleasant surprise. The 31″ width keeps the board relatively stable in side chop, but it will get flipped in bigger waves. One thing I want to try but haven’t had the chance yet is downwinding this board. The flat, floaty hull seems to be well-suited for that kind of paddling, replacing the three fins with a single dolphin fin.
With four tie-downs in front and six in the back, the board is equipped to cruise and camp. This is enough deck storage for a tent, sleeping gear, food, and water. (The attached bungies are fine, but probably not enough for a serious trip.Consider using a stronger cord for a lot of gear.) The 31″ wide deck is plenty stable to carry gear. There’s a camera mount in the nose and D-ring in the tail for attaching a leash. One point to make also about long trips on an inflatable: hard board decks are very… hard. Okay, what I mean is that they tend to hurt your feet after standing on it hour after hour after hour. The slightly mushier deck of an inflatable makes a big difference on your soles.
Underneath you have a flat bottom with three fins at the rear. I really like the three-fin setup. Inflatables tend to get pushed about by crosswinds because of their height above water, but the three fins help compensate for this. They also assist with general tracking, with is helpful with a board this wide. It will turn easier with the solo fin setup, but even with three fins it turns quicker than a standard 14′ race board.
I have to say, I get a general feeling of quality with the board. The skin is thick and tough, with the rails (the part that will get the most impacts) especially so. The instructions say to pump it to 15–20 psi, and I highly suggest going to 20. At 15 psi the board will taco a little; that’s paddler speak for the way an inflatable board will bend in the middle like a taco. At 20 psi the board stays pretty straight when I stand on it, plus it goes faster. It’s worth the extra 2–3 minutes of pumping. The board will still jiggle when jumped on, but on the whole that extra pressure makes a difference.
Speaking of pumping, this is where I started seeing problems, not with the board but the pump. It pumps adequately, shows the psi with a nice gauge, and the hose screws into the board and pump fairly easily. Unfortunately when you start getting to 15 psi and higher, the pressure starts unscrewing the hose from the pump. This doesn’t happen suddenly, but if I watch the hose as I work those high pressures, I can see it slowly unwind until, “Hssssssssss…” This is a very minor air leak and is easily fixed by giving the hose a half rotation, but I usually have to do this 3–4 times I pump it. I wonder if this is a pump designed for up to 15 psi like most boards and just isn’t really designed to go higher.
The bag fits everything fine, but it’s a little on the cheap side. This is especially true on the underside by the wheels which has started to wear away. This should not be happening to a board only a few months old. I don’t even roll it that much, so clearly there’s some cheap material on the bottom. It feels like it’s a plastic covered by a leathery material, so maybe that area would be better served if it was just plastic? A couple of my board bags have a thick plastic wheel housing, and that seems like the right thing here too.
I think these are some QC things which should shake out. (Listening SIC?) The board itself is excellent for the price range, and it offers a great ride. Besides the 12’6″ size, SIC offers an Okeanos Air in 11′ and 14′ board in this range, and if they are the same level of quality, I’m sure they’ll be satisfying rides for an experienced rider. No, this isn’t a raceboard, but it’s a solid ride. Sometimes that’s what you need, especially of your goal is to explore. It’s also a good board to learn on. SIC offers an 11′ Okeanos Air and also a 14′ for longer distances. Any of these should be fine, but I really like the solid feel of the 12’6″. It really is a fine cruising board.
