Review: Badfish River Surfer 6’11”

Summary: The Badfish River Surfer is probably the most popular river surf SUP on the market, and for good reason. I would be willing to bet that this board works on more waves and holes than any other board in history. Unfortunately, the construction quality leaves much to be desired. Continue reading for the full review…

The Badfish River Surfer has been around for about as long as the sport of SUP river surfing has existed. Heck, Badfish as a company practically defined the sport as we know it today. The 6’11” River Surfer has not seen many major changes to its shape during this time. Badfish found a shape that works well and they’ve stuck with it.

The 6’11” River Surfer shines on small holes and waves. These types of features typically require more volume and lots of rocker. These types of waves and holes are found literally all over the place, especially whitewater parks that were not specifically built for river surfing. These types of parks (which are most of them) are where the River Surfer shines.

River waves that have better shape, the River Surfer will still be able to surf, but won’t do it nearly as well as a board with a more traditional ocean shape. Big, glassy waves like Glenwood Springs, or waves built specifically for shortboard river surfing like Boise, Bend, or Denver’s River Run Park, do not work well for the River Surfer. The thing is, these waves are few and far between and because of this, a board like the River Surfer is great to keep in your quiver.

As far as skill levels go, the River Surfer is best suited for advanced, or almost advanced surfers. Due to its narrow usable deck, and catchy rails, this is a hard board to paddle up the eddy and across eddy lines with. Also, the more you weigh, the more pronounced this issue becomes.

On the flip side, I don’t feel like the River Surfer is a great expert level board either. It feels like it either has too much volume (even on slow waves where you can’t really plane out), or that the volume is stacked too much into the height of the board creating a corky feel. I weight 160lbs, a heavier surfer may feel differently.

The big issue with the River Surfer is the construction. For both 2016 and 2017 Boardworks produced the River Surfer using materials which do not stand up to the elements. It works well in the water, but while on shore the black carbon fiber combined with (what I assume is) cheap foam causes the board to melt from the inside. The first season I owned this board I took it on a summer river surfing road trip. By the end of 3 months, it had huge dents all over the bottom where the foam had melted. I did my best to keep it out of the sun and as cool as possible (I even had my girlfriend sew a custom board bag for it), but it still destroyed itself. None of my other 5 boards I took on the trip were damaged. My board was not the only one to do this, I know of three others that suffered a similar fate.

If you really want a River Surfer, what do you do? Here are the options as I see them:

1) Wait until the 2018 boards come out. Badfish boards are no longer constructed by Boardworks and the 2018 River Surfer is likely to be a higher quality.
2) Buy a pre 2016 River Surfer. These came in a variety of colors and did not have the same issues.
3) Buy a current River Surfer, spray paint it white, sew your own custom board bag, and transport it inside of your air conditioned vehicle.

The River Surfer is a good board, especially if you surf in less than ideal conditions. It’s a shame that the construction has been so poor. Hopefully this coming season will see a renewed River Surfer that will surf well and stand up to the elements.