Touring Paddle Board: Tower Xplorer
Our inflatable touring paddle board package is one of the best values on the market. Includes a 14' by 32" by 8" inflatable SUP, a 3-PC Aluminum Paddle, a high-pressure SUP pump, and a high-end Tower branded diamond grooved deck pad, a standard longboard fin box with a removable center fin, a hand hold strap, a roll-up carrying strap, a towing ring on the nose, and a leash attachment ring on the tail.
Touring Paddle Boards - A New Frontier in Inflatable SUPs
Touring paddle boards are built to go fast and long distances. Touring paddle boards are meant for those SUPers who want to go long distances, travel fast, and cut through the water with ease. It will shock you how fast the touring 14' Tower Xplorer inflatable paddle board is. At 8" thick, it will also shock you how rigid it is. At the time of introduction, not only is there no other 14' iSUP on the market. Nor is there any other 8" thick iSUPs on the market. The Xplorer represents and entirely new class of paddle board, and everyone who tries it falls in love.
Traditional hard board unlimited racing class SUPs are the fastest boards on the market. At 14' or longer, and with many over 7.5 inches thick, they also present a massive storage and transportation problem. For speed and glide, the longer the better, but it's a bitter tradeoff. You need an oversized room or garage to store them, and you've got to crate them for shipping (at a cost of $1000s per shipment). This is largely why more manageable 12'6" length hard boards have become the standard racing class size, but really they're still monsters to transport.
However, when you go with an inflatable, the length is largely irrelevant for storage and transportation as you just roll them up and go. We figured the longer the better, and we were right on the money. Once we tested the boards, we were blown away at the speed. It's the fastest board in our entire line-up... and it fits in a duffel bag when rolled up. A touring paddle board with this performance would typically be upwards of $1500 at retail. As we are a direct to consumer company, we provide you with incredible value for a high quality board.
Amazing Rigidity
Be weary of newer boards made with the fused process. While they may be lighter, they lose rigidity and durability in this newer construction process and are much lower quality boards overall.
The Tower Xplorer Inflatable SUP is made from extremely rugged materials like those you'd find on the highly regarded Zodiac boats and extreme river rafts. The amazing rigidity in the Xplorer is created by thousands of vertically oriented strands of identical length that connect the top deck to the bottom. When inflated, they form a structure that has the rigidity of a piece of plywood, and the thicker you go the exponentially more rigid it gets. The Tower Xplorer is an unparalleled 8" thick. You'll be amazed. We can literally put the front tip of the 14' Tower Xplorer on one chair and the rear tip on another chair and a 200 lb person can stand in the middle and you can barely see the thing flex. A touring paddle board of this quality will ensure that your paddle boarding adventures last for years to come.
A Viable EPS/Epoxy Board Alternative - We're not kidding!
Traditionally, inflatable SUPs were only a consideration for traveling - store one in the cuddy cabin on your yacht, take it with you on the plane, or haul it into that secret mountain lake or river and you can stand up paddle board in the farthest corners of the earth. With the combination of speed and rigidity of the Tower Xplorer, an inflatable SUP is hard to beat on flatwater with anything less than a full-fledged racing hard board... and don't be surprised if it outperforms a few of those.
Although most high performance touring paddle boards are hardboards, our inflatable touring paddle board has proved to match up with traditional touring hardboards. With its 14 foot length you have the ability to bring cargo such as bags, coolers, fishing gear, snorkeling gear and many other items that you will need on a long touring journey.
Benefits of an Inflatable SUP over an EPS/Epoxy board
- Easier to store - When rolled up, it's 1 foot in diameter and 37" wide.
- Indestructible - Never worry again about dings and board cracks. I've literally thrown these things off a 2nd story deck and I frequently set it down anywhere (gravel, a parking lot, even on cement stairs).
- Easier to transport - No need for roof racks. About the size of a rolled sleeping bag, it easily fits in any car or boat, and can even be strapped onto a bicycle or motorcycle. You can even take it on a plane.
- Softer - You can literally play bumper boats with these. Kids can jump from one board to the other like they're jumping on an inner tube. You won't get knocked out in the waves either.
- Easy on the feet - While very rigid, the air does cushion your feet a lot more than a hard board, no matter how good the deck pad is.
- Less expensive - Which also makes it a great idea as a second board for travel or guests.