shaped and designed by Steve Boehne KuKu Hoe means "Stand Up Paddle" in Hawaiian. We have adapted and trade marked this name for the use of our Stand Up Paddle board collection. It seemed appropriate since the first guy Steve ever saw "Ku Ku Hoe" was Leroy Achoy a Waikiki beach boy and tandem surfer. In the 70's before cheap water cameras, Leroy would stand on his tandem board and paddle in the surf at Waikiki taking pictures of tourists and visitors enjoying the ocean. He would hang his camera around his neck where it would remain dry. Decades later Laird Hamilton has made stand up paddling possibly the fastest growing segment of the sport of kings.
The Carver Model:
This Carver is an 8'6" x 28" x 43/8" thick
This Carver is a 9' x 29" x 43/8" thick WATCH PATRICE GET ABSOLUTELY BARRELED ON HIS CARVER!!
The Carver model has a pulled in nose with good kick for late drops and a narrow tail for carving turns. The rocker is relatively straight in the center for speed and wave catching ability. The tail rocker is more blended than the other models for speed. The Carver can be shaped up to 10' long, but it has become the favorite for hot, experienced riders in the 8' to 9'6" range. Experienced surfers know that a wide tailed SUP is hard to bottom turn or go vertical in a juicy wave. You can see that the tail template on these boards is pulled way in to 17". This also allows fast rail to rail zigzags with out moving your back foot. New additions to the Carver family for Summer 2009!: - Carver SW (single wing swallow) The Added wing breaks the outline making the the turning radius react like a board 8" shorter. We match the wing directly on the sweet spot where the surfer pivots. The water releases and projects off the side fins adding speed and quick reaction turns. Wings located further up the board tend to make the SUP "tippy" and grab rail. This board is recommended as a 2+1 fin set up. -Carver SW (single wing with Bat Tail)
-Carver DW (double wing with Bat Tail) w/ Quad Fin set up. The double wing is used to match up with the quad fins. We match the wings in the sweet spot of the fins just like on our high performance shortboard fish models. The rocker and V are matched to flow water out the tail. Quad's are very fast!
 Infinity Team Rider Patrice Chanzy, SUP Journal 2009. Patrice rides the Carver!
The Standard Kuku Hoe shape:
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This is the model to get when you are first starting. It has a flowing outline and rocker that offers a stable and good performing ride. Consult the size chart on the "What size to get?" page. This board is 12' long and 29" wide. It is red opaque on the bottom with a black pin line and a flower inlay on the nose. It has our rubber traction pad in blue. You don't need wax! This 12' length is great for distance paddling and ocassional surfing. I can shape this model up to 33" wide for really big guys. most people order it from 10' to 11' for surfing.
The Competitor Model
This Competitor is 10' x 29" x 4 3/8" thick The competitor model has been developed to perform in the "slash and shread" style predominant in SUP contests. It has a very special rocker with a flat speed section in the center. The tail rocker and V-bottom are focused at the "sweet spot" directly under your feet as you turn. The V-bottom behind the fins is flattened out to make the turns smoother and add projection. There is a pronounced kick in the nose to accomodate big off-the-lips and reentries. This is a three fin or quad fin design from 9' to 10'6" long. Consult the size chart (expert paddler) on the "what size to get?" page.
The Nose Rider Model (available also from SURFTECH)
This is a Ku Ku Hoe version of our famous Rad Noserider longboard. These boards are normally 28" wide, but I shape them up to 33" wide for big guys, so they are very stable. The wide concave nose makes them easier to nose ride than a regular long board. Surfing on this model is so much fun because I use the same "sweet spot" rocker that I use on the Rad Noserider, they can zig-zag turn and you can walk all over them like a platform. This board, with a nose riding rocker is desgned for waves 6' and under. Available from 9' to 11' long. There is now an 11' Surftech Nose Rider model available. It is 28" wide and 4 5/8" thick. This board is a great first board and works well for guys up to about 200 lbs.
The AVISO Quad Fin model.
This Aviso Quad is 9'8" x 28", 22" nose 18" tail. The Aviso KuKu Hoe, is totally stealth, 100% carbon fiber. it is the lightest, strongest (nearly ding proof) sup known to man. the incredable lightness means incredable performance. The Aviso Quad is a short, stubby shape that will nose ride and turn fantastic. With a 22" wide nose, 28" width and 18" wide tail this board is incredably easy to paddle. An aggressive surfer could get this model as his first board. It has the same high performance bottom rocker and V-bottom as the Competitor, but has a wider tail with a quad fin set up that makes it rip in small waves. This board is the "anti-fish" because it has very curvey hips that pull the outline into a narrow diamond tail. This allows forward stance rail turns rather than rear stance tail turns that a fish requires. Plus, you don't have those silly tail tips to break off.
There is now a 10' Surftech KuKu Hoe model available. This board is designed for bigger guys. While most 10' SUP boards are 4 1/4" thick, this Surftech model is 4.75" thick. This extra thickness allowes a 200+ pound guy who is an experienced paddler to enjoy a shorter board with adequate floatation.
Below, Dan Boehne rides our Surftech 10" Kuku Hoe. It has a slightly pulled in nose with a little extra kick and a double concave tail with 3.5" side-bites. Like many guys getting their second Kuku Hoe boards, Dan has found that he can do most of his shortboard maneuvers on this highly responsive board.
RACING AND TOURING BOARDSThe difference between a surfing hull and a displacement hull is how they are designed to go through the water. While surfing, after you catch a wave, your board accelerates to a speed much faster than you could paddle alone. Your surfing board has a relatively flat bottom that gives you planning speed and foot steering. However, if you are racing or touring and not catching waves, your flat or concave bottom board will not slice through the water as fast as a rounded bottom with a sharp “destroyer” bow and a narrow pin tail. This is called a displacement hull because you never reach a planning speed by just paddling, so the hull is designed to slice through the water instead of skimming on top of it.
Rocker is a key element in a displacement hull. My objective is to have as much board length in the water as possible, but to not push water like a barge. Therefore, I shape a very sharp, vertical bow where the water line just meets the sharp entry point. The bow is kicked up seven to eight inches above the water line so that oncoming waves don’t come onto the deck. In the tail, the water line should be about 1.5” deep because the water is brought back together along the rail. The rocker, bottom contour and rail shape determine how deep the board sits in the water.
The longer and narrower the hull is, the faster it can go through the water. The problem is stability, so I make racing boards narrower for speed and touring boards wider for comfort. Otherwise, they are the same “slippery” design. They are much thicker than surfing boards, about 5.75” so that chop does not wash over the deck, you would be standing nearly 2” above water line except that I shape in a ¾” deep deck concave on boards 28” or more wide. In widths of 27” or narrower, I start shaping a lowered cockpit, sometimes 2” deep. By standing in the lowered cockpit you are down to water surface level and your stability is much better. These deep cockpits however, must have a rear-slanted drainpipe that sucks accumulated water out of the cockpit.
I am experimenting with stabilizer wings like a submarine installed towards the nose. These hydrofoil wings improve stability and offer a slight lift to the bow when you are “railroading” down a wave. We are the first to incorporate this idea onto a racing sup hull and we have found that it provides more stability to our ultra narrow models. This idea is so new that we are still testing the limits to the design. (Photos coming soon!)
Many people do not intend to race, but they still want a fast board to do distance paddling on. They want more stability as well as some gear carrying capacity. I call these boards Touring boards. They are the same fast hull shape, but just wider for a more stable platform to stand on. These boards are usually 30” to 32” wide.
How do you determine how long and how wide a board you should have?
WIDTH: The taller and heavier you are, the wider you need and the rougher the water will be, the wider you will need. A guy under 5’10 and 190 lb can learn to paddle 27” wide in smooth water. You need to add about an inch of board width for every additional 2” of your height or 20 lb. of weight or combination of both. For rough Open Ocean paddling, you either need to add more width, perhaps up to 30” wide or get a board with a lowered cockpit and drainpipe. You could even get a board slightly wider with a shallower 1” deep cockpit.
LENGTH: Longer boards, to a certain limit, are faster, go in a straighter line and are more fun to paddle. 12’6” has become a popular length for competition because it is easier to transport, accessible to more people and not as expensive to purchase. The 14’ class is becoming more popular because it is noticeably faster that a 12’6” board and still manageable to transport. For those who just have the need for speed, 16’ and 18’ go even faster, but present certain problems. The first obvious one is that the turn around a race buoy is excruciatingly wide and slow. Also, if you are rounding up into a strong head wind while rounding your down wind mark, it may become nearly impossible to complete the turn. Next, when you are going down wind, they do not fit into the space between the waves as well so they tend to stab into the wave in front of you. Therefore, longer “open class” boards require much more kick up in the nose that in turn reduces the water line length. Open Class board lengths make more sense for smooth water racing or one direction racing like from Catalina to the mainland.
CARBON FIBER: From what I will say, it may appear that I don’t recommend carbon fiber. This is not exactly true, I just want to make it clear what carbon fiber does and doesn’t do for you. You may decide that the cost per pound saved is not worth it. Basically, carbon fiber costs $18/per foot – per side. So, a 14’ board glassed with carbon fiber on both sides would require 28 ft. x $18 = $504 added to the cost of the board. Carbon fiber is perhaps 1/3 stiffer and stronger than regular glass, but it is actually no lighter than regular glass. So if you replace one of the two layers of glass that we laminate onto each side of a board, the board will be 1/3 stronger, but no lighter. For the lightest race boards, we eliminate one layer of regular glass and laminate only one layer of carbon fiber on each side. This will reduce the weight of the board by about 5 pounds and provide nearly equal linear strength to a board. But, because the lamination is so thin, the board will dent easy. In addition, the board absolutely cannot be left in the sun for even a few minutes. It must be put into a board bag immediately after leaving the water. This weight savings costs you $100 per pound saved, but you have a board that dents easily and will “blow up” in the sun (when not in the water).
DOWN WIND BOARDS: Down wind boards are shaped just like giant Wiamea guns. They paddle almost as fast as a race board, but they have a planning bottom, not a displacement bottom. This is because the objective is to catch open ocean swells which accelerates your speed above paddling speed. Down wind boards have a big “kick” up in the nose so they can ride over swells and a fuller round tail which is better for foot steering while “railroading” a swell.
This board is 14' long, 27" wide.
TANDEM: We didn’t know what to expect when I made our first 16’ tandem SUP. What we found out is that it is very fast, in fact, I paddle about 20% faster on the tandem with my wife than I do by myself on my own board. This is a great way for a couple that wants to cover some distance to paddle together. The guy never has to wait for his partner; in fact he will actually be faster by having her along. There is so much buoyancy in a tandem that it will easily carry two 200 lb men.
The Touring Board: hand shaped from 12' to 16' long.
This Touring Board is 14' and 30" wide with a fuller nose and a pin tail.
DECK PADS: We install a traction deck pad on many of the Ku Ku Hoe boards to avoid using wax. This is especially good in tropical climates. The traction deck pad does not tear your skin off if you fall on it like sand or salt decks can do. With a new board, the deck pad costs $100 installed and $175 installed with clear Monster spray grip all the way up to the nose. Deck pads are also sold seperately. see: How To Order PADDLES: find more information about our surf paddles |
