Fact Sheet

Ripple Board Air SUPs: inflatable stand up boards for hard units

Don’t be mistaken, Ripple Air SUPs are not inflatable pool toys!.. They are serious pieces of kit that when inflated, are literally as hard as wood. Made from the same material as gymnastics flooring, Ripple Air SUPs come with a doubt-crushing 12 month warranty.

Why should I buy a Ripple Air?
• They’re insanely strong:
       o 12 month warranty
       o When inflated, they’re as hard as wood.
       o They survive dings that would crack a fiberglass board
       o More resistant to heat damage than fiberglass boards
       o You can literally drive a car over them!.. But please don’t (for your car’s sake…)
• They look awesome
• The board, paddle and pump folds away into a backpack (super easy to transport).
• They inflate in 3 minutes
• They easily carry paddlers >120kg
• Their performance and handling is very similar to a solid board
• They require minimal maintenance!
       o They can be stored inflated, partially inflated, or deflated. There’s no good reason to deflate your board between uses unless you specifically need to.
   o If they spring a leak (very unlikely) then they are easily repaired using the repair kit we provide with each board.
   o Resistant to heat damage
   o You don’t even need to rinse them after use!..

Each Ripple Air SUP package includes:
• Your Ripple Air Board
• Adjustable-length collapsible aluminium paddle (black colour)
• Hand pump with pressure gauge
• Heavy duty carry bag (back pack)
• Repair kit with PVC patches matching the

How are Ripple Air SUPs so incredibly strong?!
The secret is their super-robust construction. iSUPs are not hollow, they are made from a core of inflatable mesh (‘drop stitch’) encased within a flexible outer skin (PVC sheeting). The components of Ripple Air SUPs are explained below.

Premium-quality ‘drop stitch’ core:
Drop stitch is a material that uses millions of flexible nylon threads to bind the PVC on the board deck to the PVC on the board underside. When the board is inflated, these nylon threads are pulled taught and the board becomes rigid (as stiff as a fiberglass board). When the board is deflated, the dropstitch collapses to be flat, allowing the board to be rolled up like a beach towel. Drop stitch is so strong, that in the 1950s the US Army were building inflatable aeroplanes using it (the Goodyear Inflatoplane)!

Manufacturing drop stitch is a very slow and labour-intensive process, hence it is expensive. The determinants of the material’s quality are the stitch density (the number of nylon threads per cm2) and the stitch pattern. Stitches running in parallel lines result in channels of weakness, whereas stitches arranged in a diagonal grid pattern create boards that are stiff in all axes. Our drop stitch is the best available- a high stitch density and diagonal grid pattern.

Reinforced rail construction:
The drop stitch core is like a sandwich with open sides. The rails close these sides to make the board airtight. Rails are the inherent weak point of Air SUPs and their construction is therefore critically important. Some Air SUP manufacturers simply glue one or two strips of PVC along the edge of the drop stitch core- this design that is susceptible to bursting. In contrast, our rails are constructed by pulling the PVC on the board deck and underside to meet along the rail, and then glueing two PVC strips on top. The result is a rail that is essentially 4 layers thick and very strong.

Smooth nose rocker:
Drop stitch can only be made as flat sheets, therefore building a smooth curve into an iSUP requires know-how. Consequently, many iSUPs on the market either have no nose rocker, or have a sharply upturned nose and look like a banana… The nose rocker on these ‘banana boards’ is created by simply glueing two pieces of drop stitch at an angle, so that the nose points upwards. This is a weak design and looks terrible. In contrast, Ripple Board Air SUPs have smoothly curved nose rockers, just like our fiberglass boards.
PVC deck surface, undersides, and rails:
All Air SUPs are sealed in flexible PVC (there is no alternative). Different materials are occasionally used for inflatable dinghies (e.g. Hypalon) but these are not suitable for Air SUPs because they do not bind to the drop stitch core.

What should I look for in an inflatable SUP board?