Loco 2017 SUP Surf & Kite Boards Have Landed

Loco 2017 SUP Surf & Kite Boards Have Landed - We’re stoked to announce that the first of our 2017 SUP Surf & Kite Boards have landed at Loco HQ. Unlike some brands we’ve not just changed the graphics and increased the price by £200-300, in fact last year’s branding overhaul was that popular that we’ve decided to keep the graphics the same for 2017 and spend time making subtle tweaks to the important stuff!

So what’s new?

One of the biggest developments has been stress testing our shapes to see exactly where our boards need to be reinforced so we can ultimately save weight without compromising strength. It doesn’t sound like much but on average each board is typically 0.2kg lighter than the 2016 stock. To be fair our standard construction this year has found favour with customers offering lightweight performance in a durable sandwich layup using as many responsibly sourced materials as possible.

One of our biggest tweaks has been to the original Aztec surf SUP as we decided the fins had a smidge too much cant and we also felt that it lacked a bit of glide paddling into the wave. The fin angle changes were pretty straight forward but we’ve also added a flat section under the feet for better glide and down the line speed. We’ve also moved the curve further back so it moves through the water better which has the added bonus of making the tails narrower so carving and grip have also seen some big gains. Responding to customer feedback we’ve played around with the volumes slightly and have added a couple of new sizes notably a 6’7” x 24″ 80L board for the groms and a 8’7” x 31” 150L board for the big guys or intermediates looking for change down from a 10-11′ plank.

Speaking of groms, Loco has always been supportive of junior riders and what started out as ‘an experiment’ seems to have attracted quite a lot of attention over in Europe. We’re of course talking about our 10’6” x 24” Kids Motion race board (pictured above powered by 9yr old Swedish grom Aina). If you’re looking for your child to get ahead this board is perfect for their induction into serious racing, narrow enough for them to paddle and light enough for them to carry even in our standard construction!

Similarly on the surf side, we’re always looking for talented multi-discipline young riders like Will Haslam we can develop (pictured above) as well as new groms with potential. With some of our international talent riding performance surf SUPs as small as 58L parents no longer have to shell out £1000 on a custom, we’ve got you! In fact if you buy a Loco SUP for yourself we’ll automatically give you a substantial discount on a kids El Diablo or 10’6” Motion pre-order. Our commitment to developing the sport at the grass roots is second to none!

Clubs, Schools and Retailers

Until now Loco has been solely sold direct saving our customers hundreds of pounds. Due to some interesting international developments we’re now able to offer clubs, schools, hire centres and a few select retailers the opportunity to use and carry our much sought after equipment. We will also have a range of premium double skin and MSL tech iSUPs in key sizes for 2017 which will find favour with SUP schools and hire centres both in the UK and abroad.  We’re just finalising the aesthetic further to a recent focus group but news on i-Loco will be imminent! We’re currently taking pre-orders for later in the year so if you’d like some hard of soft Loco in your lives please get in touch to find out more before 9th September to avoid disappointment.

Direct Sales to Europe

Following Brexit the GBP has taken a big hit so our current UK stock boards are now cheaper than ever before if you get paid in Euros. We know a lot of potential customers are often scared that boards will be damaged in transit and they’ll have issues returning them for a refund or getting them fixed locally for very minor dings. We’re pleased to announce that we have now partnered up with a reliable specialist courier for all European sales so your new Loco has the very best chance of landing at your door as we intended and with prices starting from just £25 insured you’d have to be mad not to! We’ll also be introducing a multi-currency payment gateway over the next couple of weeks so customers can buy in Euros or USD to make life super easy for foreign customers.

Clearance Stock

After another fantastic season we by no means have an exhaustive list of clearance boards and with the graphics staying the same on 90% of all models we were in two minds whether to discount any of this year’s boards at all. Loco 2017 SUP Surf & Kite Boards Have Landed - That said our storage unit is currently brimming with 2017 so we’ll be letting some of what we have left from this season go at a reasonable discount. If you want a board/package delivering to the National Watersports Festival in Hayling Island in a couple of weeks time this won’t be a problem, simply get in touch to arrange payment and Joe will bring it down for you.

2017 Ambassadors & Team Riders

Looking forwards to 2017 we’re keen to increase our numbers of international riders and ambassadors so anyone interested should get in touch ASAP as we’d like to get the latest kit to you as early as possible. If you can send us some bio, photos and video clips to info@loco-sup.com we’ll have the team look at them and respond to anyone who matches what we’re looking for. As ever groms, racers and surf athletes for SUP but we’re also keen to build our surf and kite board business so if you’re competing or simply shred hit us up!

Distribution

If you’ve been keeping an eye on all things Loco over the last 12 months you’ll see we’ve been sending out sample boards to Scandinavia, USA and even Israel as more and more people discover just how good Loco boards are. Admittedly not all of these enquiries have been ‘serious’ as far as we’re concerned but we are now ready to talk to potential distributors, hotel chains, active holiday brands and large retail chains the world over. Our prices and constructions are some of the best on the market and we can even supply UK / European built boards to markets who specifically don’t want Chinese made product!