Nrs Star Phase Inflatable Sup Board

From family fun to fitness paddling, from lakes to rivers, the fun and stable NRS STAR Phase Inflatable SUP Board is the perfect all-around SUP for paddlers who like to mix things up. Available in three sizes to suit nearly any paddler, the Phase is equally capable for touring, fitness paddling, families and light river running. Advanced materials and construction create a lightweight board that's easy to transport to and from the water. PVC-coated drop-stitch material inflates to a fully rigid 20 psi (1.38 bars) for superior paddling performance, then folds up for compact transport and storage. Textured foam deck pad provides comfortable, no-slip footing as you paddle. Top-quality Leafield D7 inflation/deflation valve for unsurpassed reliability. Sturdy webbing handle in the center of the board for easy carrying. Four stainless D-rings on the nose give you options for attaching gear. Includes one 9" (22.9cm) fin, travel bag, high-pressure pump and repair kit.

What is Drop Stitch? It's a pretty amazing material NRS is using to build their inflatable SUP Boards. Other uses for the technology have been floating docks, high-pressure rescue lifting bags and airplane wings! This material lets NRS build inflatables with flat surfaces that can be inflated to rock-hard rigidity. You get hard-shell performance along with the easy transportation and storage of an inflatable. What makes this possible? Tens of thousands of fine threads. The process starts by joining two pieces of polyester woven support fabric with thousands of fine polyester thread lengths. This base material is made in strips from five to ten feet (1.5m to 3m) in width, and up to 400 needle heads may be used in the setup. Each needle sews a continuous, evenly spaced thread, back and forth between the two pieces of woven fabric, locking them together into an incredibly strong unit. These drop-stitch sewing machines are marvels of complexity. When a change is made in the spacing distance between the two pieces of woven fabric, it can take over 20 days to remove and replace the required needles. The tens of thousands of polyester threads create a super strong inflatable material.

Next, an air-tight coating is applied to the outer surfaces of both sides of the material. The sidewall material is made of polyester base fabric that is coated on both sides. Polyester thread is used throughout because it is strong, durable and has very little stretch. The actual assembly process involves labor-intensive gluing of the sidewall material to the top and bottom pieces of the drop-stitch material. Then a wide seam tape is glued over each lap seam for a bomber, air-tight final product. What you have now is a super strong construction that can be inflated to pressures up to 20 pounds per square inch (psi) or 1.38 bars for metric minded folks. Drop stitch a high tech material that lets NRS build new, innovative inflatables that are stretching boating world boundaries. Innovation, NRS-style.