We go to Red Paddle Co international / SUPboarder Vlog

This summer we went to visit Red Paddle Co International at their home in South Devon, UK. It was a fascinating day meeting some of the team behind the brand and chatting all things SUP. We learnt a huge amount about the new 2021 gear, and the RnD behind Red Paddle Co's quality products. We also asked Red Paddle Co some pokey questions regarding their board price points and comparing their boards to others on the market! It's clear to see how after 12 years in the making, and with offices and teams in over 50 countries across the world, Red Paddle Co have become arguably the biggest inflatable paddleboard brand on the planet.

[@marcalfaro3943]

Great company and amazing costumer service! Thanks for the video!!

[@SUPboardermag]

good to hear your feedback.

[@ianham]

That was fantastic! Thanks for the tour guys. Great to see where my two Red Paddle Co boards came from. I had a slow leak in my Voyager a couple years ago at Lake Tahoe. Red tried very hard to find me a local replacement. It wasn’t possible on our timeframe. Once back in Seattle they made the exchange for a new board possible through my local shop. Great boards and great support. Loved seeing this video. Thanks.

[@SUPboardermag]

Thanks for your feedback Ian. Its great to hear about your experience with Red. Thanks Reuben

[@neilphelps8618]

What a brilliant video. Anyone considering buying a Red board should watch this. For me, it’s complete reassurance about my board and everything else. Thank you 👍🏻

[@SUPboardermag]

Glad you enjoyed the video and are enjoying your Red board. Thanks, Beau

[@craigthorne4815]

Great video. love the new Red boards. I'm new to SUP. had couple lessons used to canoe years ago, But Paddle boarding is the way to go. I want to tour with a decent board and lose a few pounds. I really like the Voyager 13"2 but MIGHT be a challenging for a newbie. saving at the moment will be ready in a couple weeks to purchase. Thanks again for a great video and for the RED team for share their views and commitment.

[@SUPboardermag]

Thanks for watching! And happy paddling, any videos you think we need to do let us know. Thanks Reuben

[@climbjay]

This video just sold me a Red board! Excellent content. Great company ethos.

[@SUPboardermag]

Red make some great gear. Have fun

[@kevinboard2577]

Like the look of the new pump, some really nice design changes.

[@SUPboardermag]

Yeah and it look like a transformer! 😉

[@robmilligan3650]

Really interesting video, especially the detailed explanation on double chambers. I was particularly interested to hear their thoughts on price versus value and how this fits with the whole brand concept. A good advert for Red!

[@SUPboardermag]

Yeah we were looking forward to asking them those questions.

[@applemanuk]

As somebody new to SUP these last few months, I wanted to do a great deal of research before purchasing my first board. But more than that, I also wanted to understand who were the people behind these companies, and the reason why they were bringing their style of boards to market? I quickly discounted those popular brands that were bringing boards with kayak seats, or cheaper lower end boards, as the low price point would involve compromise somewhere in terms of construction, or quality of materials used. I looked at various brands and quickly realised that the Red Paddle Co offered me exactly what I was looking for, & for so many different reasons. If you are doing your research prior to buying a board, I think this video will be invaluable.

[@SUPboardermag]

Thanks for the comment Jonathan, happy SUPing Reuben

[@thomasanderson5929]

Most people cant afford a Red board and even if they can, most cant justify putting the money towards one (will it get used enough to justify its price?). Red boards arent worth it. They are excellent though.

[@ragetobe]

I completely agree but there are other companies out there with the same pedigree like Starboard who make a huge effort to make sure we are getting the best product possible but not hurt this planet at the same time. It’s a little like buying a wetsuit, if you do your research you will find Yulex, if you try it you will never buy a neoprene wetsuit ever again but most people take the product that is pushed at them and will never discover anything else. I feel like Red’s presence is everywhere I look and I had to look a lot harder to find Starboards and even then the reviews of particular boards are missing here and there. This video feels a little like they are swooning over Red and that’s ok but there are others and I wonder if they will visit their headquarters.

[@holgerweglage929]

Thanks for the Video! Very interessting. I'm planning to buy my first iSUP next spring. Don't know yet witch board I'll chose. But Red Paddle looks like worth thininking about and trying. Regards from Germany

[@SUPboardermag]

They are one that should be on the list for sure.

[@CostadelaLuzVideos]

Great vlog guys!

[@SUPboardermag]

Thanks for watching

[@RobHill00]

Interesting stuff! Reminded me to check and see if the 9’6 compact was in stock anywhere and found one!😀 So your video helped give them a sale! Need to sit down after forking out that much though!🥴 I have a 2020 voyager 13 great board but a bit too big for lock hopping on the river! Great on the lake loaded up!👌🏻

[@SUPboardermag]

Hey Steve. Red aren't the cheapest but at least you know where that money is going 🤙. Happy paddling Reuben

[@MrPielips]

many thanks for sharing, love my 12.6 sport.

[@SUPboardermag]

Great to hear!

[@dafyddhunter159]

Awesome- thanks guys 👍😀

[@SUPboardermag]

No problem 👍

[@liambuchanan8904]

loving it new voyager here we come

[@SUPboardermag]

It does look really smart. Thanks Reuben

[@jameshallworth8053]

Great video tour of the Red HQ. Especially interesting and encouraging to hear that Red are trying hard to make their products not only more sustainable in use but also move towards circular use of materials! The rest of the SUP (and other outdoor sports) market would be wise to listen to the head designer at Red Paddle Co., before long circularity and true sustainability of products will be a license to operate!

[@SUPboardermag]

Well said James!

[@climbjay]

Love that palm jacket

[@oldskull70]

Very nice video !!!!!! One suggestion that I would make is to have a chance to buy just the board or board plus paddle , everything without a pump . I mean , you could decide what package you want ! Thanks for Sharing ! Cheers !

[@SUPboardermag]

Good idea!

[@roywang1294]

I actually just emailed someone from Red about your suggestion before seeing your comment! For everyone who reads this and feel the same way, please contact Red about this suggestion. Let's hope they eventually take this suggestion seriously once enough of us contact them. For a paddler who already has a good quality travel paddles or a good pump, they really don't need another pump or paddle when they buy a new board.

[@oldskull70]

@@roywang1294 , thanks for your comment ! That’s exactly my point ! Why by a board and get another pump or a paddle that you don’t need or don’t want ? Thanks again and cheers !

[@sjab2]

Great vid. I always thought they were a much bigger company.

[@SUPboardermag]

Yeah its interesting when you get behind the scenes with these brands. They are a very welcoming crew!

[@climbjay]

They are big!

[@mitchellsewell275]

Awesome connection with a world-wide reach. One of the neat aspects of our world getting smaller by way of the web and such, is the ability to get a more personal connection with folks regardless of their location on the globe. I recently spoke to their NA office in BC and appreciate learning more about the home office in the UK!

[@SUPboardermag]

Thanks for the comment J.M

[@colettefalloon6882]

How well does the 13.2 voyager pack up with the nose voyager Hull and nose thingy. Plus the back fins

[@SUPboardermag]

Ha ha just like the Compact. We are trying to get hold of one to find out. Reuben

[@duncantait9929]

AWESOME AND REALLY NICE PEOPLE

[@SUPboardermag]

They are a nice team. We had a great afternoon and learnt a-lot. Thanks Reuben

[@pauladams8475]

How awesome would this company be if they could manufacture their products within the UK? We seem to be great innovators in the UK, send the ideas to China for production, which then get copied and produced (at a poorer quality) and sold at a fraction of the price, to ultimately fail within a limited time. Absolutely loving what Red are achieving and striving to improve on such a great product.

[@SUPboardermag]

Yeah It would be great to see this Paul.

[@andydwyer6110]

excellent tour really opened my eyes next boards red cheers

[@SUPboardermag]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@DmKkk-dm1uv]

Hey guys! Awesome video. It was really interesting to watch. But I was hoping that you ask RP why they don't make hard boards and why they have no ambassadors? Maybe you know something about it?

[@SUPboardermag]

Good questions. With the hard boards. At a guess I would say they think the iSUPs have always been the way forward with regarding transport and storage. And their slogan used to be 'no compromise'. Meaning they were trying to make their ice ups as good as hardboards. But We will ask them when we see them next time. We will ask about ambassadors also. Thanks Reuben

[@Aleks_iz_Gadykino]

Interesting review. In my opinion, two fins on voyager is a controversial decision. We gain in stability but lose in maneuverability. I really expected that voyager will install kick tail and speed tail as on the sport series.

[@SUPboardermag]

Good to hear your comment Alexsey. We look forward to getting on a Voyager and see how they perform . Good to see Red doing things differently to everybody else. Thanks reuben

[@Aleks_iz_Gadykino]

And I expect that red will return voyager 13.2 one fin and tail add a kick tail and sport.

[@mitchellsewell275]

Seemed as though the target was stability and that the end users typically are less concerned about maneuverability. Using the automobile analogy of a SUV vs a sport sedan, yes?🤔🤷🏻‍♂️

[@Aleks_iz_Gadykino]

@@mitchellsewell275 From personal experience of using this model, I will say that with one fin, it has no problems with stability.

[@colettefalloon6882]

I'm not sure if I understood. Was it explained that double chamber sups are built in weakness as the board is cut into. But the new v Hull is cut in ??

[@SUPboardermag]

Very well spotted Colette. But I'm not 100% sure of the way they do the V hull and the DC boards do have many more edges that could fail. I do know that Red never put anything into production unless there are 100% happy with it. thanks Reuben

[@csweet207]

This was incredibly informative. Thank you!

[@SUPboardermag]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@andrewbutcher3391]

Everything this company does is right.

[@Kurtations]

Nice - very nice! It is all about quality. And Red is about that! Im after another new isup for friends to ride on and no way would I think about buying from any other company. As that dude at the end says you (we want) to make it last as long as we can. Wish every company for every product would think like that! I have had my i wind sup for a few years now and its still in perfect condition. I was at the beach lately and some folk bought some cheap generic isup for 1/3 price than a red and didn't blow up first time - screwed valve. I said take it back now get your money back and get a Red. Simple as that. You can afford it. A red will last you basically your life time. Which seems impossible but maybe true.

[@SUPboardermag]

Nice words Kurt. It's going to be one of our biggest focuses in the future regarding all our inflatable SUP reviews, how long will they last and how good a quality are the boards. Sometimes it is very hard for us to tell when we are only testing over a few months of course. Thanks Reuben

[@jonybeam6997]

Best SUP in the world by far

[@pierc]

Not true about not having critical failures, my sons Red 9’8 ride has a critical failure. The board is 5 years old but looks brand new because it’s hardly been used, we took it on holiday to Greece along with my 10’6 Ride; I have taken my 10’6 Ride away loads of times over the years, without issue, so genuinely didn’t realise you couldn’t use Red boards in the sun. Second day of the holiday a fin fell off the board and was lost into the sea; I noticed that on the rail under the batterns the board was literally falling apart at the seams. I contacted Red, I was expecting a reaction of shock at the failure, maybe an investigation, but they said the board was old and it was expected at that age, but was safe to continue to use. Within next day or two the board had burst, presumably the glued rail was supporting the welded seam below and it could no longer take the pressure. If we had been at sea and the pressure of chop etc had burst the board then this could have been very serious. Certainly any time an inflatable board fails leaking air then in engineering terms this is a critical failure. The board continued to fall apart over the next couple of weeks, all of the fins fell off, it’s now fit for the bin; I brought it home though as I was intending to make a KZbin video documenting it. The boards were inflated to 15psi as I thought the sun would push it up, but measuring my 10’6 it was always well below 20, so the difference in pressure by the sun was only a couple of psi. My 10’6 was absolutely fine though. I have always been of the mindset that my board is my pfd, and have been miles away, where an issue like this could have meant ditching the board and a long swim home, so it’s a lesson learned, I will be buying a waist pfd. To be fair to Red they eventually offered me a discount on a new board which was justifiable for the age of the board, the guy I was emailing was always very pleasant and professional and I am not sure any other company would have done any better. I would buy another Red love the look of the 13’2 voyager, but perhaps not for a board that didn’t need some specific performance characteristics. With all the videos of boards getting dropped off building, ran over by trucks, and cruising around the med it gave me the impression the boards would keep going till they wore out; there are clearly limitations to inflatable boards, I will be hiring abroad in future instead of taking them with me.

[@SUPboardermag]

WOW.. this is a little bit of a shock to us! Stuff falling off boards is not good. What age/ year was the board? Thanks for letting us know Paul. Reuben

[@pierc]

@@SUPboardermag I bought it in January 16 and used it from that summer onwards, think it was a 2015 board. My son was only six at the time, so it didn’t get a massive amount of use. I did see two other red boards without any fins, whilst on holiday. Red also sell them as spares so it did get me wondering. Red mentioned that the manufacturing technology had changed since then, I hope that’s the case as I would like one of their 13’2 voyager boards. I do like the ethos of the company. The combination of a 5year old board and the sun must be an issue; having said that my 10’6 of the same age has its red deckpad areas faded to pink and is absolutely fine, so might be a bit of luck involved.

[@SUPboardermag]

I do know that they change their manufacturing process a few years ago

[@sissimoslemonis7710]

Guys the double chamber practicality has been debugged well. Did buy a touring of Starboard 14 x 30 and have exactly this failure pattern! After 15 x of use. Don`t buy DC!!! The board was loosing always the pressure with 24 hours and last time also in the water. Barely made back to shore on the central chamber, well knowing that it was loosing air too.

[@SUPboardermag]

Thanks for your comment and shame to hear about your issue with a double chamber Starboard Touring. There are so many more inner workings that can fail on a double chamber board. Thanks, Beau

[@sissimoslemonis7710]

@@SUPboardermag hello Beau, This was the main reason to reply. Red paddle has the right argument. Double chamber is just increasing the risk not making safer boards. So the arguments in this video are not theory but reality. Also if one chamber is not well inflated or loses pressure the stress between the chambers will cause higher incidence of failure. Regards

[@SUPboardermag]

Great points about the pressure difference too

[@nurledge]

amazing co

[@SUPboardermag]

Thanks for your comment 👍🏼

[@00Nescio00]

Hey guys is it possible to turn those automatic generated subs back on? It says not available for this video, some parts are really hard to understand (when there is background noice or large hall)? Thx!

[@SUPboardermag]

Hey Tim, sorry about that. Im having a play around with the YT settings to try and get it to work. We will work on fixing this issue in future. Thanks Reuben

[@00Nescio00]

@@SUPboardermag no stress but thank you so much!! 🤙

[@davidleespicer5457]

Interesting to hear their viewpoints on double chamber technology. My wife has a Red and I have a DC Touring Starboard. I wouldn't trade my DC for anything. It increases stability because the DC is right underneath your feet.

[@SUPboardermag]

You are right David a DC does increase stiffness but Red done have a fair point too. All interesting stuff. Thanks for the comment Reuben

[@climbjay]

Red boards aren’t exactly unstable

[@sissimoslemonis7710]

You are lucky that it did not fail.

[@azualbet3805]

Would be cool to have one for Starboard but they're based in Thailand!

[@SUPboardermag]

Something for the future perhaps...

[@luistilli2328]

I Love red paddle boards. Greetings from Portugal

[@SUPboardermag]

Hello 👋 Thanks for the comment. Glad you are enjoying your Red paddle board. Thanks, Beau

[@PANTAOLAS]

***** The point of view, about the double chamber: 36:15

[@emersonw.8570]

At 9:40 you mention about the glue. Not making a big deal as I know these boards are top notch as I have a 13’2 2019 voyager and just got a 2021 13’2 voyager. Glue marks show. Not left out in sun and usually take psi out after a few weeks.

[@SUPboardermag]

Hmm, if there's a problem with your new board defo contact Red.

[@scottybeegood]

I ditched those flat bungee straps after one trip with them. WTF?

[@SUPboardermag]

Why was that Scott?

[@MrPenguinInHisIgloo]

Really interesting comments about double chambers. Wouldn’t consider one after hearing that.

[@SUPboardermag]

Always interesting to hear what brands think about certain manufacturing processes.

[@nicolasgilles]

Yeah, not a big fan of them, but there are some consideration to be done local legislations. For example in France, most paddle boards are considered "beach toys", and are not allowed to be taken further than 300m from the beach, unless it's 3.50m (11'6) or longer, and if inflatable *must* have multiple (>2) chambers.

[@SUPboardermag]

Very interesting comment Nicholas

[@mitchellsewell275]

@@nicolasgilles Which shows the nonsense of government overreach! 🗽 We thank France for her contributions to our liberty! 🥂

[@haroldsimpson7260]

where are red boards made? is it china

[@SUPboardermag]

Hi Harold, yes they are. Thanks Reuben

[@burbusbond]

My only grumble with red boards is they look so boring. Not likely to get me more followers on insta 😉

[@SUPboardermag]

Good to hear your thoughts barbus

[@ackosadventures2486]

Looks a great company making great boards but you can’t buy one anywhere

[@SUPboardermag]

Yes that is true but alot of other brands seam to be having the same stock issues. Thanks Reuben

[@zunezvenzon1748]

Sound is awful. Too much echo.

[@SUPboardermag]

We did struggle with some rooms with echo. We will try and improve that in the future 👍🏼

[@mitchellsewell275]

Adds to the authenticity. This was a real life tour in a real day; not a studio production.

[@JeremyLawrence-imajez]

@@SUPboardermag you need to mike everyone with Lavalier mics and use shotgun mics on camera for the more ad hoc chats. Good sound is way more important than good image quality when making films/video. And I'm speaking as someone who works with images. This is why dubbed films for example are always awful. Bad sound makes everything crap, it's never a cool artistic choice, unlike with low-fi filming