supCAT boards

I happen to be a card carrying member in the club for people that like to eat dessert first. So without further ado, here is a supCAT:

Back in the day, my start paddleboarding happened on other people’s boards, of the flat-bottomed foam type. After awhile, along came a Kahuna (from CLC) – a board I built myself from someone else’s design. This board awesomely features a kayak-like front end which makes for very quiet paddling.

Living in the middle of the country, close to all sorts of water in the flat and fresh style, those flat-bottomed ‘starter’ boards were noisy, so the v-bottom front end of the wood Kahuna was a giant step up. With that v-front I could at least paddle along whisper quiet. Great stuff for the dawn patrol on a misty, cool morning in flyover country.

I love that board. It is one I still have, but its fatal flaw is that it skitters around almost as bad as a leaf in the wind. A big skeg, on what is still a very flat bottom, mostly solved that problem. But after the exercise designing a big skeg (and making it adjustable and removable) I was infected with the desire to make a board all my own. So I did.

The supCAT pictured above is the result of wanting a SUP that does better in a straightish line, dreaming about it a bit, and then just getting out in the shop and making my vision into something real.

Today I’m paddling (and enjoying) a supCAT that is everything I hoped for. I’m moving along with a set of plans, a kit, and a book about building supCATs. All so that others can build their own to the extent that they want to. Hop on over to supCAT boards for more on these paddleboard catamarans. Or cataSUPs. Or standamarans. Or whatever your hybrid word of choice happens to be for these boards that you stand on and paddle.