My husband and I had seen pictures and videos of these ShuBu boards (ShuBu is short for Show Up and Blow Up) and wanted to see them in action.
Honestly, we were extremely skeptical that something inflatable would work anything like an actual stand up paddle board.
It rained the morning of the demo but that didn't stop Macky Hall from wanting to get on the water....which was fine by us!
He arrived with several different boards for us to try (a Hobie, something else that I can't seem to remember the name of, and the ShuBu).
The big reason I wanted to try the ShuBu was because of the transportability factor.
A ShuBu comes in a bag.
You take it out of the bag, blow it up, play on the board, deflate it, and stick it back in the bag.
No anchoring down a heavy board to my car.
Because of this factor, I really hoped the ShuBu would work for me.
Macky unrolled the ShuBu and started pumping it up.
This was the first time our Innkeepers had seen a ShuBu as well so Lori marked the occasion by taking some video:
Once the board was pumped up to 11 psi, I took it out onto the water.
The first thing I noticed was the stability.
It was surprisingly stable for an inflatable.
I was able to stand up with no problem at all.
One thing I did notice once I stood up was that I could feel everything that was happening in the water beneath me.
With a regular board, you can obviously feel the chop in the water, etc., but with the ShuBu, I could feel which way the water was moving, how big (or little) the chop was, how it hit the fins, etc.
Once I started paddling the biggest difference for me was the speed. You definitely don't glide over the water as easily on a Shubu. But it's not meant to be a racing board. It's a cruiser. It's meant to be fun.
And it really is.
My husband and I switched boards several times.
The first thing he did when he got on the ShuBu was jump up and down on it.
My husband is significantly bigger than me so you could see the board sinking into the water just slightly...but it still withstood his weight.
He took it into a little bit of chop (though there wasn't much that day) and practiced some turning maneuvers that Macky had just taught him.
We switched boards again and I tried some turning and walking around on the ShuBu...it was very comfortable.
Amazingly comfortable.
I couldn't help but laugh the entire time I paddled on the ShuBu.
It just doesn't make sense to me.
It's a blow up.
It was really hard for me to get over that!
I did eventually get over it.
The other great features of the Shubu (apart from the transportability) is the bungee rip chord on the front of the board. Life-vests, backpacks, etc. can be tied down for long excursions. I really dig that.
The biggest reason we really wanted to demo the ShuBu though, was for the kind of SUPing we're looking to do closer to home.
We live near the James River. There are some areas with great flat waters, but we want to try a river run....
and you don't want to take a super nice stand up paddle board onto the river.
Rocks would damage it, fins would be demolished...it just doesn't make much sense.
ShuBu's however...can withstand rocks. The middle fin on the Shubu is removable. It just makes sense.
Because it was raining while we were out testing the boards I didn't take my camera, therefore I have no pictures of the ShuBu in action.
However, we did end up purchasing two ShuBu's from Macky that morning....
so there will definitely be pictures of our next adventure....I promise.
Here is my ShuBu in the bag.
Thanks again so much to Macky Hall of Chesapeake Boardsports for bringing the equipment out in the rain to let us demo our ShuBu's and for a great paddle at Tabbs Creek!
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