TARSAN offers an extensive line of high quality boards whether you are a beginner, novice or expert TARSAN has a board for you.
TARSAN’s selection of boards include: Bark, Gerry Lopez, Nectar, Riviera, 404, Laird, Coreban, Hovie, SurfTech and custom shaped boards. Let’s not forget the importance of the paddle.
TARSAN carries Quickblade paddles which are created and designed by a four-time Olympic canoeist who has spent decades to perfect the finest paddles which are comprised of strength, durability and performance. TARSAN’s offers the entire Quickblade paddle line from kids paddles to all Carbon paddles and everything in between including adjustable paddles.
At TARSAN’s you will find everything a stand-up paddler needs in merchandise and apparel. The Bark line of apparel is offered exclusively at TARSAN’s. There are too many stand-up accessories to mention. Come on down to the shop and check out the wide variety of items available.
How to find ”Your” Board: To start out, you have to take in what kind of SUPing you will be doing. Do you want to be doing the flat water race series or charging massive waves all winter? TARSAN’s have race boards for flat water, made for speed. They have the flat bottom with the sharp ”V” in the nose, to displace water. These are used by the best of the best, to race and tour anywhere from 30 mile races to 200 mile camping paddles! Next, we have cruisers to have fun on, while getting a killer workout. These boards range from 9 feet to 12 feet, and have the wave riding ability, with the right amount of foam to put on some mileage. We also carry some insane surfing boards, like the COREBAN Nitro. This 8foot 5 inch short board is ready to be rode in some critical waves. Made for experienced surfers and small kids, this turns on a dime and gains speed like no other.
Some of the boards that we carry here at TARSAN’s:
All Water
These are boards that are good for all conditions – “all arounders” – they are good for flat water workouts, cruising (or touring as it is sometimes called) and can even catch a wave or two. These are not boards you will take across a 20 mile channel, but are great for coastal touring.
Flat Water
Flat water is kind of a loose term – some would call the ocean right in front or our shop “flat water” – but basically the term refers to paddling in lakes, marinas and the ocean on calm days. Flat water boards come in all shapes and sizes, from kneel designs to rounded nose surfboard looking shapes
Racing
Race boards – or fitness boards – are all the rage. And stand up racing is a TON of fun. Not sure which part is more fun, the actual racing or the community you join at your first race. Contrasting a race board to the above two types is like the difference between your beach cruiser and top racing bike. Our race boards all come from Southern California shaping legend, Joe Bark. Joe has spent 30 years designing the fastest paddleboards and when he made his first entry into stand up, the wins started to pile up quickly. He is the shaper for Women’s champion Candice Appleby and many other big names in the sport. Race boards are usually either 12’6″ or 14″ and really are as fast as they look
Surfing
Pretty much everyone here at the shop came from surfing. We all love it. But once you add the paddle to the mix, it got really interesting. There is no greater feeling then turning your board around and paddling it into a wave and surfing. Stand Up Surfing is just tons of fun. So it is by no mistake that when the shop was set up – TARSAN opted to carry a full line of SUP surf specific boards. For those boards we did not mess around – we went straight to two masters- Bob Pearson and Gerry Lopez. Bob has been making Laird Hamilton’s SUP surfboards for years. And we are lucky enough to have a select number of hand shaped Bob Pearson boards in the shop. In addition, we obtained the last of the Gerry Lopez shaped boards from Riviera Paddlesurf. In addition, we carry the full line of Coreban sup surfing boards. These boards are the best of both worlds – they are high performance long boards but also have the flexibility of a shortboard with five fin set ups. ALWAYS respect the other surfers in the water if you are SUP Surfing. Please go here to the WPA’s site and read their suggestions for SUP Surf Etiquette: http://worldpaddleassociation.com/2010/12/31/sup-surf-etiquette/
Rental
We carry a full set of rental boards and sometimes we even sell a couple of them. The boards we rent are mostly All Water boards from Riviera and Surftech – and are close to or are the exact models of what we carry in the store.
Hybrid
The hybrid boards are boards that are kind of like the All Water in the sense that they do it all, but they lean more towards surfing. A lot of our customers purchase hybrids – they want to go out and paddle flat water for a while and then paddle surf. Our Corebean line is the best example of a hybrid board. Their boards are really great paddling boards- but are also high performance surfing boards
Whitewater
Its getting so that where ever there is water – there is stand up and rivers are no difference. Whitewater is a fast growing segment of the sport- especially with Teva adding it to their mountain games event each year. Besides, who would not want to surf a standing wave? Our Surftech B1 was born out of the white water scene – all though more of an All Water board- this board has some distinct whitewater characteristics. First off, you cannot break it. It’s pretty much indestructible. It has channels running down each rail for better water movement down fast moving currents- and it has more volume to make it tougher and stronger. Surftech made these boards for whitewater kayak sensation, Dane Jackson and modified them for more of an All Water feel. The result, a super stable, hard to break, fast moving board that surfs and paddles really well
Yoga
If you think of it, it makes sense that Yoga is actually becoming one of the fastest growing parts of stand up paddling. We all love Yoga, but try a downward dog while balancing on a stand up board and you will get why this is become so popular. We have the Surftech Universal which is the board of choice for many SUP Yoga clinics. The board is stable – but still has enough give to make yoga challenging and fun.
Kids
Go to any stand up race and you will undoubtedly see dozens of kids out paddling. Many board makers are now taking notice of this trend and are churning out smaller, lighter boards just for kids. Our Coreban 9′ Fusion and the Riviera Nugg are actually great kids boards for just regular paddles- and as a bonus both are EXCELLENT surf boards
Custom
With TARSAN’s many years in the stand up paddle community, we are one of the few shops who know the shapers in the industry on a first name basis. That means we can help you get a custom board of your choosing – complete with all of your own colors, logos, and of course, built for what you want – whether it be a race board from Joe Bark or just a cruising board- we can arrange for you to get the best board built to your personal specifications.
