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Standup Paddleboard Review: BOTE HD Gatorshell

Buyer’s Guide | Kayak Angler

By Ric Burnley

There was a time when I wrote off standup paddleboards as inefficient platforms best only for skinny, sheltered waters and quick trips on calm days. After an afternoon paddling BOTE’s new HD board with Gatorshell my opinion has changed. BOTE’s boards are more than just pretty, they’re pretty fast.

Photo: Ric Burnley Inflatable Paddleboard Review: BOTE Rackham AERO

BOTE’s HD Gatorshell Will Standup to Abuse

BOTE HD Gatorshell Specs
Length: 12’
Width: 32”
Depth: 5”
Weight: 45 lbs
Capacity: 400 lbs
Price: $1,749 USD
boteboard.com

Design & Outfitting

The problem with SUP fishing is most boards trade speed for stability; they are easy to stand and fish, but hard to paddle into a headwind and choppy seas.

BOTE’s line of boards are designed with speed and efficiency at the forefront. While the inlaid wood and deep gloss finish are mesmerizing the real beauty of BOTE’ board lies beneath the waterline. BOTE gave the HD a hybrid hull halfway between a recreational board and a touring board. This all-round design is wide enough to provide confident stability regardless of sea conditions.

It’s the touring side of the design that makes the boat handle like a dream. A V-nose entry fades into a slightly keeled hull that ends in a single skeg to keep the board tracking straight even in a quartering or side-to sea. As I paddled faster, I could feel the board planing over the water making it even easier to go the distance.

Once I was on the water paddling, my buddy had a hard time keeping up with me in his kayak. Expecting a short trip, I packed light with a gear bag and a couple of fishing rods. However, the full array of leaning post and cooler wouldn’t take much away from the board’s performance. The HD is pre-rigged with ports that hold the leaning post and tie-downs for other accessories. Bungees in the bow and stern made it easy to rig for a quick trip. Foam deck padding is comfortable to stand and fish on all day. The traction is channeled and siped to manage water and improve traction.

For 2017, BOTE is building boards with a new material and manufacturing process called Gatorshell. The foam core is sandwiched between a ballistic plastic material that is six-times tougher than their hand-laid epoxy construction. This construction method usually leaves a seam between the top and bottom layers of plastic, but somehow BOTE figured out how to join the two sections without interruption. The board is tough and looks clean.

Performance

The board may be a little heavier than previous models, but that pays off in a surface that is practically ding and dent-proof. I did encounter some oyster shells that left a few light scratches in the plastic that I was able to buff out at home.

We said it was heavy-duty, but we never said it was slow. | Feature photo: Roberto Westbrook

The new material gave me the confidence to take the board into tight places and handle it with reasonable care without worrying about doing serious damage. This was particularly helpful when I hooked a fish. Instead of worrying about striking the board with the jig head or drifting into shallow water, I was able to concentrate on landing my catch and smiling for photos.

BOTE has changed standup paddleboard fishing with the new HD board. And it has certainly changed my opinion of the sport.

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Cover of Kayak Angler Magazine Issue 49, Early Summer 2017This article was first published in the Early Summer 2017 issue of Kayak Angler Magazine. Subscribe to Kayak Angler Magazine’s print and digital editions, or browse the archives.

We said it was heavy-duty, but we never said it was slow. | Feature photo: Roberto Westbrook

 

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Ric Burnley
Ric Burnley
Kayak Angler editor Ric Burnley has been kayak fishing since the dawn of the sport. In 2007, Burnley wrote The Complete Kayak Fisherman, with chapters on how-to make a PVC rod holder and glue a fish finder transducer to the hull. In 2013, he landed his dream job as editor of Kayak Angler magazine. Burnley is a regular contributor to Salt Water Sportsman, Sport Fishing, Outdoor Life, In the Bite and other print and online publications. Burnley lives in Virginia Beach with his wife, adult daughter, daughter’s boyfriend and daughter’s two cats. Experience In 2004, Ric Burnley stole his first milk crate from behind a 7-Eleven and fashioned it into a gear crate for his Ocean Kayak Prowler 15. Many years and many milk crates later, Burnley has witnessed the rise of kayak fishing from a bastardized fringe element to a legitimate industry with millions of devotees. The journey to becoming an angler started early in Burnley’s life. His father, Eric Burnley, is a renowned outdoor writer and former fishing guide, so the boy grew up in the cockpit of a charter boat and in the pages of national magazines. After college, Burnley lost easy access to his father’s boat, but not his passion for fishing. Once he had exhausted the limits of land-based angling, Burnley decided to try out a new thing called kayak fishing. About the same time, Burnley was looking for extra work to pay for his expensive addiction. His father, editor of the Mid-Atlantic Fisherman Magazine, offered him freelance assignments for the weekly publication. That led to a position as regional editor at Salt Water Sportsman, publication of The Complete Kayak Fisherman and editorship of Kayak Angler. Meanwhile, Burnley and his partner-in-crime, “Kayak Kevin” Whitley were exploring the boundaries of kayak fishing. With the bountiful Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean as their playground, the two anglers were the first to target big red drum, cobia, trophy striped bass, monster black drum, sheepshead and many other species. Once inshore species were exhausted, Burnley loaded his kayak onto motorboats and fished for bluefin tuna, blackfin tuna, king mackerel and amberjack. All the while, Burnley shared his experiences and knowledge with anglers through print, photos, video, radio, seminars and online. Almost 20 years later, Burnley continues to fish obsessively and share the stories. His recent projects for Kayak Angler cover the latest trends in forward-facing sonar and remote-controlled electric motors. Over the past two decades, kayak fishing and Ric Burnley have come a long way from PVC rod holders and stolen milkcrates. Education ● Radford University: BA English; Virginia Teacher’s License. Highlights ● Other Interests: Mountain biking, traveling, hiking, surfing and skateboarding ● Day Job: High School English teacher at an alternative school for at-risk students Fun Fact Ric’s name is a contraction of Eric. Ric is named after his father, Eric Sr. To differentiate between the two Erics, Mrs. Burnley removed her son’s E. To this day, she writes the boy’s name ‘Ric, with an apostrophe replacing the E.

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