In 2002 Corran Addison founded Imagine Surf, which is now one of the leading plastic Stand Up Paddle board brands. They specialise in ecologically-friendly boards for a range of uses.
Corran has had a long career in kayak design and has designed some of the most popular white water and freestyle kayaks, which a lot of kayaks are measured against today. Corran's developed sense for white water design helped shape one of his creations, the Rapid Fire.
The Rapid Fire is tailored for white water use. At only 9ft 9” in length it is very maneuverable in white water. There is a generous rocker on the board like you would expect a creek boat to have. It’s a very stable 36” wide and 6” deep. The blow molded HDPE plastic shape with it’s rounded buoyant sides, high volume center and wide foot dips makes it very stable, durable and forgiving. Being plastic it doesn’t need a lot of care and it can take a lot of impact.
It comes in cool colours, including bright orange and hot pink! which i think is great, i’d like one myself. It also has a hatch for storage at the front of the board. The hatch opens up into the hollow of the board so theres lots of room for extra split paddles, a first aid kit, group shelter and your lunch. A nylon pouch hangs at the mouth of the hatch for easy reach necessities like a drink or a removable fin. The hatch is not waterproof but it’s very handy all the same.
The great thing i’ve found about the Rapid Fire, compared with other boards that claim to run white water, is the lack of water build up on the boards surface. Inflatable boards, no matter how strong they are still catch a lot of water on top of the board which pulls the board down and creates less control. The Rapid Fire’s design fights this well. It’s so strong that any water that comes over the top in big waves, it just brushes it off like a fly.
The Rapid Fire Imagine Surf Stand up paddleboard
Like most of Imagine Surf’s boards, the Rapid Fire has a removable fin. This slots in the fin box and is held in place by small ball-bearings. It comes with the long 9” Flat water fin (as the board works pretty well on the flat too). A 5” rubber fin does the trick when using this board in white water, it makes a lot of difference on the flatter sections where you want to paddle straight and is fine when in deep water rapids. It’s recommended to remove it on shallower sections and big drops (over 6 ft).
Downside, it’s a heavy 22kg board to lift to the waters edge. Solution lift in two’s or use the Duellie (double wheeled attachment that slots in the fin box).
It’s not the fastest of boards because of it’s weight but on whitewater that’s a secondary priority. It seems good to have some weight behind you in the rapids as it gives you more presence in big water. You wouldn’t want a flimsy board that’s going to break on you when you go big. It’s pretty indestructible.
The Rapid Fire is also pretty handy in surf. Check out this clip of Anthony Ing surfing a wave.
All in all this board is THE white water board to have!
