Joe Bark Interview – Board Previews and Tips

I did this interview with Joe Bark last month over the phone. I just learned about Joe while getting more and more into the SUP distance paddling arena. Joe is famous for his paddleboards and is now expanding into stand ups. He's got a new 14' SUP racer coming out from Surftech in the future and we got the scoops in advance. I haven't gotten any date for the board release but it hopefully will be by Q1 2009.Transcript: (Scroll down to listen to the interview)Evan Leong: What's the Surftech one going to be in your words?Joe Bark: Just a really good all around board, whether it's dead flat or really good bumps in any direction and it's stable, and it seems to penetrate through the chop but it runs really good and just a really good board. (0:00:23.) I think we were just real lucky on it.Evan Leong: It's 14' by what?Joe Bark: It's 29frac12;" or 29"+ and has really responsive rocker on it and releases nice, with just tiny bumps, so tiny and you're catching them. Even xxxx (0:00:53.4). Just a really neat board, I'm really excited about it. I have had several people try it and the demo day [at Outdoor Retailer Expo] really went well. People look so excited about it. (0:01:06.9)Evan Leong: In California where you guys race, are there trade winds or a lot of bumps or not really?Joe Bark: It's usually flat. Some of the races have downwind but very few and even if you get them, when we do get a downwinder it can really be good, but it's usually a day late or a day early of the race, but there is really good downwind but on the race day, usually it's not happening. Usually it's just a flat California run.Evan Leong: How is the Surftech board gonna work in Hawaii especially like in this Hawaii Kai run or Maliko on Maui where there's a bit of bumps and wind and especially in xxxx (0:01:52.8) side shore with kind of cross winds?Joe Bark: It should work pretty good from the feedback we've sent some boards over and we've got some of those guys trying out now and they've been very happy with them. So the feedback is coming back from all over and it's really good (0:02:09.0) Well, the stand ups are changing by the day. When you shape by the time you put it on the water, it might not be what you really wanted at that time. Because you know the sport is growing so fast and it's changing. Your goal is (0:02:24.5) to have_____ speed and stability where as lay down water paddle, knee paddling paddle board (0:02:28.1) traditionally, you can handle that same board in most conditions, be it California board or Hawaiian board. Where as the stand up (paddle board), you almost see a quiver. If it's going to be a side chop this much you might give up a little speed to go on a little wider board. And some guys are really agile they can handle a narrow board and it doesn't bother them at all. The other guys can't get any direction or power unless they get a total stability, so it's really tough. It's a tough way to figure out who wants what, but as long as you got stability and speed that's going to do it. (0:03:03.9)Evan Leong: So the boards that are here in the island, are those customs (custom made) or is that Surftech's.?Joe Bark: No, they're customs like the one that Pete Johnson just bought, it's the one that run in that Shay (0:03:15.3) raced in that North shore race, the Hennessey's race (0:03:18.1) and then a friend of Mark Rushlow? (0:03:19.4) set me up with Kalai Fernandez (0:03:21.6) he just got one; I guess he put it in the water yesterday and that was a 14'. Jim Russi has a 14' as well. There's a 16' that Pete Johnson had is what won the xxxx race (0:03:37.1). With the same exact boards stretched to 16', I've started with that board at 12', tried at 13' it went good, tried it at 14' it went good, went 15, 17, 18 then 18-6 and they're all just stretched out and very stable. I'm not putting a rudder on those 14' because they seem to drive and control, be able to _____(0:04:04.2) with the glide wi...