Going Tough (Tec)

When I started paddleboarding (late 2000s), it was just when the sport started to explode. Most of what you could buy were just large surfboards. There were some flatwater boards, and companies like Starboard and Naish were coming out with raceboard designs. It was an exciting time for the sport!

One thing that happened to me as a result of seeing all these new and exciting models was that I got a little obsessed with them. What lover of the sport wouldn’t be? Those cool sleek shapes, the dugouts, the destroyer noses. All designed to excel in specific conditions. Who wouldn’t want a whole quiver of those: one for surfing, on for chop, one for racing, plus an inflatable, and one for…

And let’s just say there comes a time when that gets a little tiresome. Besides taking up lots of space in my garage, I was getting to the point where I didn’t want to keep buying anymore. I wanted to stick with the fewest boards I needed and let it go at that. By fewest, I meant three — which may seem like a lot, but if boarding is your thing it isn’t so bad. I needed a cruiser and inflatable, both which I had, and an all-around surfing/casual/play board.

It was that last one that was vexing me though. It needed to be a hard board and tough. I had literally tried out or interviewed the maker of almost every tough all-around board out there, and was still kind of dissatisfied. Then I was staff at a Halloween Paddle last year in Sleepy Hollow (yes, that Sleepy Hollow — I was Ichabod Crane), and I was helping someone unload their Bic Tough-Tec boards. These had always been on my radar but I had dismissed them as “those heavy beginner boards”. But these were the newer models, still tough but a little lighter.

And as I shlepped them off my colleague’s car, I started to wonder if I should just get one of these. They fit all my criteria: tough as nails, good surfing shape, tie-downs. So I started to look around. Of course Tahe (the watersports company formerly known as Bic) had been out of all their boards for two years now, so the used market was for me.

I finally found a 10’6″ near me. I was still wondering if I had made the right decision as I loaded this slightly battered board onto my car, but time would tell. Bic has kept the same shapes for a long time: they have been selling their 9’2″, 10’6″, and 11’6″ models for a long time. It took a cruise on choppy water to understand why. This small board sloshed over the small waves instead of wallowing through them. It was really fun to paddle! Maybe the most fun all-around I’ve ever paddled. Now I knew why Bic had kept the same shape for so long — it was pretty good.

Most all-arounds tend to just push water around the round nose and under it, but this shape has a little more rocker than most all-arounds. That means the nose is out of the water even when balanced, and that creates a little bow wake. This type of board tends to top out at about 3.5 mph. I’m not sure how fast this is yet compared to other boards of this size, but it felt faster. I’ll have to test it to make sure.

The board is so tough it doesn’t need a bag, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad idea. Since my roof rack has a black rubber surface, that’s tending to make black marks on the deck pad. Yes, it’s cosmetic, but I really like a clean board. The rails are also scratched because the board was stored on its side on concrete. Again, cosmetic but I like a clean board. I’m going to repurpose one of my board bags as soon as I have the time.

All-arounds tend to have flat decks — the better to balance on, my dear — but these surf models don’t. The curved deck makes it a little less stable, but that also means it turns really quickly. A beginner may not notice the subtleties, but you can foot-steer really nicely. That makes working chop or waves is much easier. Of course I haven’t taken this board out into the waves yet, but I’ll report in how it works.

I think advanced users will scoff at a Tough-Tec. My 10’6″ is 32 lbs, which is on the heavy side. It feels kind of plasticy, not that smooth resin-coated texture we like. But I think these are good choices if you want a board you can rely upon and won’t get dinged every time it hits something. There’s absolutely nothing cool or rad about them, but maybe that’s their charm too in a toy piano way. You’re taking something sub-optimal and ding great things with it. And maybe a sub-optimal toy is really what’s needed. I think after all the buying, maybe something that just works fine — not amazing, but fine — and can survive a beating is what I need.