Extreme Kites Kiteboarding

The Jimmy Lewis Mano stand up paddle board is a unique design, taking shortboard characteristics into a SUP design. The nose is considerably narrower than a standard SUP shape, and the overall shape looks like you took your favorite squash tail surfboard and enlarged it, keeping the proportions the same. I have the 9'4" x 28" wide, which is the second smallest of the available sizes in the Mano. For my weight 215 pounds I would not want anything smaller.

I have ridden it a couple of times, and it is definitely made for experienced stand up paddle surfers only. Stability when paddling in bumpy water is sacrificed for surfing performance in this model. Both times I have ridden it so far it has been challenging conditions with strong side-offshore winds and chest to shoulder high hollow waves on a lower tide. The Mano was up to the challenge, allowing late drops with the extra nose rocker, and turning easily as fast as the 8'11" Gerry Lopez Lil' Darlin by Surftech that I was using previously. It has plenty of glide for it's size, and I also noticed less wind resistance because of the pulled in nose when paddling into 30 knot offshore gusts. The slightly narrower shape allows it to handle steeper sections and a little more speed than other boards that I have ridden.

If you are interested in trying it out, come by the shop sometime and take it for a demo. Just make sure the wind is offshore, cause in bumpy onshore conditions this is not the board to use.

That board looks sweet!

Here's a couple of more photos of the JL Mano 9'4". Hopefully we will get some surf over the next couple of days and I will get a chance to use it!

These pics are making me crazy. Although I do not have much idea about paddle surfing. But when I looked at these pics I just started thinking of some extreme sports. Thanks for the pictures.