Tips for Transporting Your Paddle Board on Your Car

Written by: James | Last update: 7 november 2022

When you want to transport your inflatable paddle board or hardboard on top of your roof racks, you ofcourse want to ride as comfortably as possible without damaging your board. With these tips for transporting your SUP (Stand Up Paddle) board on your car, you will keep your board undamaged and you can drive comfortably without noises.

1. Long or short route

When you are going to transport your paddle board, you of course want to do it undamaged. You can avoid unnecessary damage with these simple steps. Think about how far you will go with your SUPs. Is your destination nearby on a road you know? Or are you going a bit further than usual? If your destination is nearby, you don’t have to do anything special. But if your stand up paddling location is a bit further away, it is wise to provide extra protection for your SUP.

To provide extra protection for your SUP, you can put a cloth or something else on your roof bars. It is no fun arriving at your SUP location only to find that your SUP is damaged. Just make sure that when you add something like a cloth that the board will still lay sturdy on your roof.

2. Place your paddle board safely on your car

Lift your board over your head with the fin at the top and with the deck at the bottom, this reduces resistance to the wind. Then stand next to your car at the height of the roof racks. Make sure the fin of your SUP is on the back of your car. Carefully slide your board to the center of your roof racks. Are you going to transport multiple paddle boards? Then put the largest SUP Board first and build up to the smallest SUP Board.

3. Prepare your board for transport

It is important to fasten your board well, but also not to fasten it too tight. Run your tension straps on either side of the board and pull it through at the attachment point of your roof rack. By making a twist in the tension strap in front of the attachment point of the roof rack, you prevent vibrations and noise. Fixed is fixed, make sure that you do not tighten the straps too hard, especially with a hardboard. Otherwise you can pull the straps through the board and damage it, of course we want to prevent this.

We recommend using ION board straps. Because these are specially designed for transporting inflatable boards, hardboards and surf boards. The tension straps provide extra protection to your board.

Bonus tip: you can also easily transport your SUP from your car to the waterfront with a SUP Trolley or a Board Bag.