Nomad 14′. Our first touring board

Building a touring class paddle board is a bit more complicated process than building all-round ZABAVA or flatwater cruiser ZANOZA. We knew that from the start so it took us as much as 2,5 years to acquire all the skills we needed to make sure our first wooden touring paddle board will be done right. The same with racing AYRTON board actually, but I guess that was a pain I had to go through. Learning might be tough, you know 🙂

Anyway, with all these in mind we started building our first NOMAD in May 2021. There was a guy from Saint-Petersburg who wanted a touring board and had no deadlines which is crucial when you approach something you’ve never done before. Our friends from Clearwood Paddleboards provided several designs, so we picked a 14-feet one. 12’6” was also an option, but that’d be our next board 🙂

It took us 7 months to complete our first NOMAD. But we’ve lost around 10 weeks due to some problems we couldn’t possibly expect. Well, now I know this type of s**t happens, but back then it was like a cold shower. The resin we always used started acting weird. Our supplier in Russia didn’t have anything else to offer, so we ordered some directly from the manufacturer. But when it rains, it pours. This order got stock at the customs for three weeks  – I made some mistakes filling out all those papers :-/

After we finally got the right resin, in October, the heating season came to the Urals (suddenly, as always!), but the thing is, the urban utilities did not start heating (this passage is so Russian I’m not sure you understand what I’m talking about. If not – just skip this part :-)) So for about three weeks the temperature in the workshop did not rise above 15 C, and the temperature is crucial for epoxy hardening. We simply could not coat the boards, and at that moment there were just two paddle boards that needed resin – AYRTON and NOMAD.

We did not dare to leave electric heaters unattended at night, and it was pointless to heat the room only during the day, because due to large daily temperature differences, the surfaces warm up and cool down unevenly and, accordingly, the hardening process also occurs unevenly. Another three weeks passed.

The board was ready in November so we first tested it in extreme conditions. Check the video below to see some snowing November in Russia 🙂