Downwind SUP and the Fremantle doctor

Hi, I've just moved to Perth from Dunsborough and need to get some ocean back under my feet. With the waves soooo tiny here I'm looking to downwind SUP to reconnect with the ocean and would love a bit of guidance on what to get. I'm 69kg, and have been thinking about a 14' as i'm looking for speed, and say 28" for some stability.

I'm concerned about a board that will handle the Fremantle doctor with all the cross chop and would really appreciate your thoughts on the choice of length and width for a start, but also a board that will handle the Fremantle doctor cross chop.

Plus 1 for the Allstar I do have one for sale full carbon As new save big dollars 14 x 25

I'm facing a similar conundrum.

A little bit heavier (76kg) and have been borrowing mates 10' starboard and naish for a little while. I decided I would prefer to get something a bit faster to do some fitness work in the river, along with a downwinder and maybe a bop race. Which i guess is a little difficult to get in the one board. My two other mates are wanting to get 14's or 12'6 for downwinding. So I guess i need something to keep up with them.

Standup Paddle Sports in osborne Park kindly let me borrow carbon 14'ace pro and a 12'6 allstar for the weekend. So we all swapped between those and a naish 10'

I found the 14' to be noticeably quicker and probably a bit more tippy but only to a point then it seemed to stabilise. it was a 28" which i had thought would see me falling off, but i managed quite well with both boards to the point where I completely forgot about balance.

However, I found the 14 to just be too much board. it was a PIA moving it around from the car to the garage etc. which had sort of put me off a 14'.

Saturday was around 12 knots when we took them out. On the 14' heading from bicton baths up to leuwin into the wind was fine as long as I was pointing directly into the wind. once it was slightly off it was a real struggle to turn the board. the wind was just blowing me off and I really struggled to turn the board. I went out again sunday morning and against my mates advice we paddled downwind first as it was fairly calm. Put in at east freo and paddled down past chidley point. We had a great paddle back up blackwall reach through the boats until we hit bicton baths, where the 17knot NWer came in right into our faces. I was on the 14" ace pro and really struggled when I got slightly away from direct into the wind. at one point I got blown sideways and spun around and just could not get the board to turn around. I was flying downwind, just not where i wanted to go. I wasnt confident enough to put my foot right back and do a pivot turn (I eventually dropped to my knees and managed to slide back and pivot it) but it was a real struggle and turned me off the board. Perhaps a bit harsh given the conditions but I didnt think they were that bad and probably something I would go out in again, just maybe a bit more sheltered.

I did find the 12'6 allstar just a bit more manageable. not sure if it was the length or the design of board. Also I wasnt on it when we were beating into the wind, but my mates who were both seemed ok with it (although they are more experienced paddlers than me). I am thinking of trying a starboard BOP and maybe a fanatic fly carbon or the falcon and make a decision from there. But all the choice is doing my head in. I should stop reading reviews on forums and watching youtube :)

clintoo - long boards, and/or boards with a lot of volume in the nose (and to a lesser extent the tail) are a PITA in cross-winds. It is typically a very under-discussed aspect of the design of a board in reviews, so beware.

Me and my friends regularly paddle in pretty dire cross-winds (up to and beyond 30 knots) because this is an unavoidable part of the downwind courses we do. In those conditions, there are some designs which you just cannot control. The best boards in those conditions are generally those with thinned-out noses and tails, like e.g. the Jimmy Lewis M-14 - the ones that look more like big surfboards than kayaks.

Most of the fastest flatwater race boards are pretty grim in strong cross-chop and cross-winds. That's not really what they were designed for. Open ocean boards are more adaptable, and can be much faster and manageable in bad conditions. But of course, they will be a lot slower in perfectly flat water. It isn't possible to design a board that is the best at everything - the laws of physics prevent it. So you have to make a choice based on your paddling priorities, I'm afraid. Unless you specifically intend to race on flat water, it is often better to buy a board which has a broader range of skills than just flatwater speed. Most of the contributors on any forum are heavily competition-oriented (and/or sales-oriented), so their attention is drawn to the fastest board no matter how torturous it is to paddle as an everyday ride. And of course, every new board is apparently always faster than the old one in all conditions, despite us knowing that pretty much all designs tend to be a series of choices and trade-offs...

With practice, you will get a lot better at handling boards in difficult conditions. But if you have tried a board in the conditions typical of those you want to go out in, and you found it did not put a smile on your face, then look elsewhere, no matter what other people might tell you.