STARBOARD LONGBOARD 10’0 BLUE CARBON TEST REVIEW
Verdict:
A surfer’s paddle board. If you’ve lost the love for short, wide surf SUPs, Starboard’s sleek Longboard will light a fire in you. It carries speed between smooth, powerful turns and sits high in the pocket in fast, hollow surf. Outside of the freesurf realm, the Longboard will suit the modern competitive longboarder with its automatic noseriding capability. Covers ground quickly, catches lots of waves, loves a big bottom turn. We’re impressed.
Overview:
Once out of the board bag, we were very excited to get the Starboard Longboard in the surf. Ours was the Blue Carbon build: light, tough and reinforced with two carbon stringers to absorb the punishment high-performance surfing in good waves.
The Longboard has a continuous curve to the rail that bows out from the rounded nose, past a sleek mid-section before sweeping into a very refined tail. The tail is blade-like in its thickness with a rounded-pin shape.
Underneath, a moderate concave offsets the nose rocker before flowing into a double-concave which blends in to a Vee around the tail.
The deck has a segmented EVA deck pad with tail-kick, and the nose is finished in grippy Startouch – no need to wax.
Brand Claim:
This is a high-performance Longboard paddle board that is versatile, incredibly responsive and smooth to turn.
This stand up paddleboard is inspired by our legendary Starboard Surf Longboard model, designed to perform in waves from 1ft small beach breaks to head-high reef breaks. The boards offer fast down-the-line surfing, as well as the ability to perform in the critical section of the wave. These cutting-edge shapes are totally well received by our team riders and anyone who have tested them.
Performance:
The Longboard’s 4.3” thickness fades out from the centre line to give the deck a gentle dome. Paddling around, this gives the board the effect if sitting low in the water which is preferable for getting out through surf and slicing into chop.
This 10’0 x 29” surfboard paddles laser-straight and rolls into the take-off like a big wave gun. A note here about the tail: just a modest step-back allows you to sink the tail and manipulate your paddle-in turning radius. Short notice turn-and-burn take offs are also possible.
We surfed the Longboard in perfect head-high plus long range Autumn swell. It was the perfect match. On a screaming fast wall, this board sits high and tight under the lip to make unmakeable sections. On rolling A-frame peaks, it swoops off the bottom before projecting up to a quick, smooth rail transition to a crisp re-entry straight back down the face. You can wind the Longboard up to high-speeds with compress and release pumping, it feels like a smaller, lighter board when engaged.
The Longboard isn’t all about power surfing though. Even we could make it to the nose on this one for an extended five over the nose, and what’s more trot back to a drop-knee cutback into the pocket. Starboard’s refined Longboard can do it all from knee-high runners upwards, but comes alive when the juice turns on. This would be a great board for big winter surf.
Vital Stats:
Price: £1899
Length: 10’0
Width: 29”
Thickness: 4.3”
Volume: 133 litres
Weight: 8.8kg
Fins: 185mm Centre, 2x FCS2 4.5”