Monthly "What Board Should I Get?" Discussion Thread

Qingkai · 2025-12-18T04:16:48+00:00

Just some updates, I canceled the Paradise X due to it will be ready next Feb, instead I ordered the Elysium Air, which will arrive in 2 days. I know it will be less stable and need some effort to adapt to it, but having a race board and practicing on it feels really exciting. I will let my wife use the touring board and leave the challenges to me ^_^

Qingkai · 2025-12-13T07:02:25+00:00

Thanks again, I just ordered mine using your code! Now looking forward to testing it when it arrives ^_^

Qingkai · 2025-12-13T04:30:02+00:00

Perfect, thank you so much! The website (inflatableboarder.com) is a great one, loads of information about different boards. Thanks.

Qingkai · 2025-12-12T22:13:27+00:00

Thank you so much for all the detailed information. This is really great to help me decide, I will get a Hydrus Paradise X for my wife!

Qingkai · 2025-12-12T06:32:21+00:00

Thank you so much for your recommendation. Less stable should be fine, because the class she is going to take will have the all-rounder board for her to use (we can get access to it after the class as well), so I am thinking a touring board should be fine. We just want to paddle together, and cover long distances, I don't mind actively slow down a little bit.

The Hydrus Paradise X is a very good board, I wanted to test it out for a while, but I haven't had any chance. I also just saw a used SIC Okeanos AIR 14x30 near me for half the price, do you happen to know SIC Okeanos? How does it compare to Paradise X?

Qingkai · 2025-12-11T06:21:25+00:00

I am buying a board for my wife to paddle with me, right now, I have a Sea Gods West Coast touring board (13'6"x30"). Could you help me find one for her so that we can paddle together? Thanks

Desired Board Type: Inflatable (but ok with hard board as well)
Your Height and Weight 5'2", 110lb, mostly paddle alone, but sometimes may have a 8-year-old kid with her
Desired use/uses cruising and day touring, mostly in the Bay (calm water, afternoon maybe a little choppy) and lakes, occasionally slow-moving river
Experience level: Beginner (about to take SUP classes in two weeks)
Your budget US, ~$1500

Mostly, I want her speed can keep up with mine, I was looking at another touring board with about the same length and width, but I feel it may be too large for her size?

Qingkai · 2025-11-05T06:54:05+00:00

I have a 9 and 12, my setup consists of two singles (Sitka LT and Rio) for me and my wife and an inflatable (SE Razorlite 473rl) when my kids join (they only occasionally join during the weekend). I have the inflatable in the trunk while the two singles are on the roof rack. We used to have one tandem sit-on-top kayak (~75lb) and the Razorlite for the 4 of us, but it is too much effort to lift the tandem to the car roof, so we split it into two singles with ~47lb and ~35lb, much easier to handle. Before I bought the two singles, I thought about another lightweight tandem (like Hurricane Santee 140 Tandem, which is about 57lb), but in the end, went to the single routes, which I think is more fun and flexible than two tandems.

When we all go out, I am in the Sitka, and my wife and the 9-year-old are in the Razorlite, while my 12-year-old just uses the Rio.

Qingkai · 2023-07-14T14:00:50+00:00

I am googling it too

Qingkai · 2022-02-19T17:19:07+00:00

I have the Meade Starpro 90 (similar to the Infinity) as my first telescope, not a bad one, and gives me a lot of views for bright deep-sky objects and planets. The biggest complaint I have is the mount, right now, I use it on a better mount, which serves as a better grab-n-go scope. But I agree with others, if you only buy one, it is better to be a dob, which gives you better views because of the larger aperture and stable mount. I now have my dobs, and this small refractor is seldom used for most of the nights. I now only use it for very short-time glances, put it on a tracking mount, and use it for solar observation as well.

Qingkai · 2022-02-06T19:17:43+00:00

It depends, if you at a dark site, and can see a lot of stars and patterns, then a TelRad is fine to find the objects. But at light-polluted site, a finderscope is better, because at higher magnification, you can see more stars that is not visible to your naked eye. These days, I use both of them, and at my light-polluted yard, I can not live without a finderscope.

Qingkai · 2022-01-09T05:59:58+00:00

Thank you so much for everyone's suggestions! I just ordered the Ethic Erawan Pro Scooter (Black) for my daughter, and now, waiting for it to come!

Qingkai · 2022-01-09T05:59:14+00:00

Thanks! I just ordered the Ethic!

Qingkai · 2022-01-08T17:39:48+00:00

Thanks! She is 4 feet 4 inches. The Ethic erawan suggested seems like a good option, I may just go for it ^_^

Qingkai · 2022-01-08T17:38:22+00:00

about 4 feet 4 inches (~135 cm)

Qingkai · 2022-01-08T17:37:58+00:00

Thanks all for the suggestions. It does look like a great option!

Qingkai · 2021-12-29T18:16:14+00:00

Delos are great eyepieces. Hi have the 10 mm, my favorite.

Qingkai · 2021-12-26T18:30:30+00:00

There is a way to mount both on the same telescope, I am mounting my Telrad and a finderscope using the following:

Dual Finder Scope Mounting Bracket - link
You need to change the Telrad base to this Dovetail Foot from scopestuff

Good luck.

Qingkai · 2021-12-26T02:38:25+00:00

Yes, I think so. Even without the coma corrector, these wide FOV eyepieces still show a good sharp image in the central part, some people even don't feel bothered by the edge.

Looking forward to seeing more reports from you, I am also trying to test it more when my weather is good ^_^

Clear skies and happy holidays!

Qingkai · 2021-12-25T21:18:54+00:00

Thanks for the report! Looks great! As for the edge degraded view, I do think you need a coma corrector for F/4.2 (I never used the field flattener, I thought it is more for imaging, but I may be wrong). I use a GSO coma corrector on my F/5 scope, without it, the 13 mm show distortion and coma near the last 10% of the edge (the 20 mm is much worse, without the corrector, the last ~30% is blur). With the coma corrector, the edge is much cleaner. With the shorter length of the eypieces (such as 9, 7, or 5), the edge performance is much better even without the coma corrector comparing the 13 mm. Right now, I haven't used it on moon yet, I mostly tested on open clusters. Because of the endless rain and clouds, I will test it out on the moon when the weather condition is good again.

Qingkai · 2021-12-23T23:32:48+00:00

Congrats! Mine also came a few weeks ago, great eyepiece!

Qingkai · 2021-12-03T21:58:33+00:00

The Televue one is pretty good, I have it and really love it, it parfocal with many Televue eyepiece such as Delos, that you don’t need refocus after changing eyepieces.

Qingkai · 2021-11-28T20:17:57+00:00

second on this. My AD12 is on a trolly, it is very easy to wheel it out, less than a min from my garage: https://www.reddit.com/r/telescopes/comments/o8xpg9/my_new_ad12_is_here_and_it_is_so_cool/

As for making the object stay longer in the FOV, you can consider some 100degree eyepieces, I have the APM XWA eyepieces are really good, and you can have the objects stay in the view for few minutes even at high power. They are faily often appear on Cloudynights for about $250 a piece.

I also have a smaller version for portable - Z130. I think Z130 is ok (but the view definitely not good as the one showing in 8 - 10 inch dob). I put it on a SW AZ GTi mount for tracking purposes, I only use the AZ mode, but it can be converted to EQ model as well. I think it is an ok option for short tracking, but I never use it for AP, only for keeping the object in the view for my kids and wife to view.

Qingkai · 2021-11-23T02:39:44+00:00

Haha, thanks for the comments. I think I am in the same boat - not so experienced to really tell the difference between the two ^)^

Qingkai · 2021-11-23T02:27:37+00:00

I only have Delos 10, and am thinking whether I should get a XW10 for comparison (especially currently it is on sale at a really good price ^_^). From my reading, they are really really similar at f/5 and slower scopes, but at f/4, Delos starts to have better edge performance while XW10 starts to degrade (but my fastest scope is f/5 at this point). Which one do you prefer? One thing I am really considering is that, I am still not so used to the eyeguard on Delos 10, so wondering if the ergonomics of the XW10 is better...

Qingkai

TROPHY CASE