Guide

It's time to pack it up: make sure your SUP board lasts the winter

12.10.2020

Translation: Eva Francis

At some point, the time will come: the last warm weekend when you can get out on the water with your SUP board. The right storage will protect the material. And there's a little folding trick that helps to get the board back in its bag.

You come home, store your board neatly in the cellar and think: «Surely I'll get out on the water one more time this year!» Then winter comes, you dig out your skis or snowboard and the next time you come across the bag with your SUP board, it's April. Not good at all. «Storing the boards folded in their bags creates stress points in the PVC material,» explains Maurus Strobel, CEO of Indiana Paddle & Surf. «We recommend that inflatable SUP boards are stored horizontally and lightly inflated. Clean, dry and out of sunlight, as minus temperatures, UV light and heat damage the material.»

A dry cellar or a garage parking space where you can store the board lengthways is worth its weight in gold. You can save money in other areas to compensate for this, suggests Maurus: «In my opinion, special PVC cleaning products aren't necessary.»

FYI: It's better for your board if you store it unfolded. If you don't have the space, you should at least store it loosely rolled until you next use it. Then there's the question every time of how best to fit it in its bag.

It's not always easy to fold the board neatly back up.

The folding trick

Some tips are so simple that anyone could work them out. And yet they make a difference. Packing an inflatable SUP board away neatly in its bag should actually be really easy. Take the air out, close the vent and then fold up the board – what could possibly go wrong?

Most of the time, you grab the top of the board and start to fold. Everything's flat for the first few folds and you're thinking: this time it'll fit perfectly. Yeah, right. From the third fold, there's no space left. You end up with a misshapen, bulging bag. If you're unlucky, you'll bend the fin box at the end and have to start again.

Things went better using the tip that Maurus gave me on my showroom visit (in German): don't fold the top forward straight away; fold it back first. Then you can fold up the board as normal. This prevents the inner coils shifting uncontrollably. So, now you can pack it up. And then unpack it straight away when you get home – as long as you have space to store it.

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Michael Restin

Senior Editor

Michael.Restin@digitecgalaxus.ch

Simple writer and dad of two who likes to be on the move, wading through everyday family life. Juggling several balls, I'll occasionally drop one. It could be a ball, or a remark. Or both.

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