How Honu achieves inflatable SUP thinness with a hard paddleboard feel

In the recent Honu board review, Mr TotalSUP Mathieu Astier was raving about the rigidity of the Bondi board and its “hardboard-like feel” despite being just 4 inches thick: “Constructed with HONU’s X-woven material and featuring exclusive welded carbon rails, the Bondi truly provides a hardboard-like feel despite being inflatable. This combination of materials and design ensures that the board is both durable and responsive, essential for handling diverse surf conditions.” 

Curious about this achievement, we spoke with Mark Travers, the brand’s Owner, to explore Honu’s innovative design approach to blending inflatable board rigidity with the feel of a hard paddleboard.

Photo by Laurie Montagner / LM Créations Numériques

Hi Mark, when we took a closer look at the HONU quiver, what stood out to us was the low thickness of the boards, which enables them to sit lower in the water. This could provide a significant advantage and impact performance, particularly in open water conditions. Is this a design feature?

Hello Anna. Right from the start, I was committed to making boards that looked and performed as close as possible to a fiberglass board. The further you sit above the water, the more amplified the movement of the water is on the paddler, thus amplifying the instability of the conditions. The closer you stand to the water surface, the more connected you feel to what’s going on under your feet. This translates to confidence and stability.

Photo by Laurie Montagner / LM Créations Numériques

We’ve reviewed several leading board models, and the majority have a thickness starting at 6 inches or more. While the Honu models measure up to 6 inches. How do you maintain this thickness while ensuring Honu boards remain rigid?

Thickness and rigidity are directly correlated with any material structure, including iSUPs. So the thicker the board, the more rigid it will be in the water. So you have a trade-off here to consider when designing boards. Added thickness increases board stiffness but reduces stability for the rider.
The third trade-off is weight. Heavier material also increases a boards stiffness but trade-offs here are obvious. Not only in the water, but transporting the board around.

Photo by Laurie Montagner / LM Créations Numériques

So the question around how we manage to make our boards light, thin and rigid is a good one and if it’s simple enough, why don’t all the brands do this?

The answer is material, construction, and cost. Our drop-stitch material is made specifically for us and takes nearly three months to be delivered once ordered. And it costs more than double what more standard materials costs, even the fabled MSL material.

Photo by Laurie Montagner / LM Créations Numériques

Once we have the material, we then have rail construction methods that are unique to us and again take longer than normal processes. Days longer. While a cheap and cheerful board start to finish spends 1 day in production, a Honu boards spends 5-6 days on the production line.

Honu dimension examples:

Sorrento 12’6 x 30″ x 5.9″
Byron 10’6 x 32″x 4.7″
Bondi 8’8 x 32″ x 4″ | 9’5 x 32.5″ x 4″
Fairlight 10’9 x 33″ x 4.7″
Kids Airlie 8’6 x 27″ x 4.7″

Photo by Laurie Montagner / LM Créations Numériques

In the recent board review, Mathieu was praising the rigidity of the Bondi board and its “hardboard-like feel” which is only 4 inches thick. How did you manage to achieve that?

This is another case of materials and construction. Every component added to the board, such as the top/bottom carbon stringers and the custom fin boxes are design to hold the boards rocker in place. Not try and flatten it out. This can be seen when deflating the Bondi.

Even without air the board wants to sit with nose and tail rocker. Meaning the nose and tail curls up into the air. I think this is quite unique.

What design features do you consider when deciding on a board thickness to balance weight, stability, and speed?

There are a lot of factors at play when designing a board and the resulting thickness. The material thickness falls out of a hierarchy features. Length, width, outline, intended use, intended paddler experience.

With these above dimensions in mind, we have some changes in store for 2025 that will see the material thickness used on a couple of our more popular boards change. One is being reduced by 1cm and another increased by 1cm. Watch this space!

Photo by Laurie Montagner / LM Créations Numériques

In your experience, what has been the most noticeable difference in performance between thicker and thinner boards?

Short answer is stability… The long answer though is it depends. It’s easy to make a light, thin board. It’s easy to make a thick stiff board. But it’s very hard to make a light, thin and stiff board…That is where the challenge lies.

Photo by Laurie Montagner / LM Créations Numériques

To find out more about HONU, visit honuboards.com

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Photos by Laurie Montagner / LM Créations Numériques