PENDLEBOARD 8’6  TEST REPORT
8’6 X 30, 125L

Introducing the Pendleboard
The Pendleboard is the first of its kind to market – a part inflatable, part rigid board to offer the travel and storage convenience and resilience of a blow up with the performance of a fibre glass in the surf.  The premise is simple. Inflatable boards are limited in the surf owing to the voluminous, shapeless nature of their rails, especially toward the tail. So, Matt Pendle found a way to marry the tail of an epoxy board with the front two-thirds of an inflatable to put the performance back in the business end. The technology is similar to that used in rigid hull inflatable boats, with the PVC section shrouding the hard tail with an overlap of around 20cm, and when you pump it up and stand back the join is kind of invisible. We didn’t know what to expect when the Pendleboard arrived all boxed up, but on unpacking found ourselves uttering a quiet ‘wow’, for it is a superbly packaged bit of kit. The wheeled bag is sleek and would look good being wheeled around a chic Southern France beach town (which when flying to you will obviously encounter no baggage problems) and the three piece adjustable carbon paddle is beautifully finished. The graphics look slick and assuredly understated; this is a premium package. Everyone we spoke to raised their eyebrows a little at the concept, and like us, were keen to know above all how it really goes in the surf…

Brand Claim 
The Pendleboard website is full of plus points: increased stability from the fuller nose, less pumping, more durable because there are no hard rails to chip, more convenient so you can remove your roof racks or even ‘sell the big van’!, extra volume up front allows you to ride a shorter board…They also address the
obvious question of durability around the join: ‘In 18 months of testing dozens of boards, no connection has failed. From sample 001 the method has not changed, the method is bombproof’.

Performance 
Hopping on, you get some of that inflatable feel underfoot but the board overall feels stiffer. It feels light to paddle and very responsive to draw and sweep strokes as you’d hope with a board of this length. Our best testing day was in head high offshore surf, and the fuller, higher nose did catch a bit more wind on take-off but once you drop in and step back on that tail, it’s all business. The board draws a nice line off the bottom turn, allowing you to lean into it. It’ll charge down the line and you can pump it for speed gains before throwing it up for a nice finishing move. Cutbacks, foam climbs, hacks, it’ll do everything you want without having you wish you were on your regular hardboard. One bonus we weren’t expecting was the reassurance of an inflatable nose in a busy line up. At 8’6 with a cushioned front section, a sup surfer can be less imposing than a prone longboarder, though you may have to explain the technology to your lay-down brethren.

Verdict
For a paddler reliant on inflatable tech who wants to properly step it up in the surf, the Pendelboard must surely be the leading choice. As regular epoxy board users, we could see ourselves taking an extended tour of South America or somewhere and with the Pendleboard as our only stick, wouldn’t feel like we were compromising. In short, the Pendleboard is really fun to surf and should be considered as a surfboard that inflates rather than vice versa. This isn’t a low budget solution and it deserves to be combined with the supplied 3-piece carbon paddle to be fully appreciated; people unsure of the price should really try the Pendleboard before ruling it out. With shipping and travelling with sup’s becoming increasingly uncertain, it’s very reassuring to see this technology work so well, who knows where it will lead in the world of stand up?