The Staircase Wave in Buena Vista is the go-to SUP wave in the whitewater park. Erin and I made an early season trip out to BV to check it out. It turned out that the eddy had filled in with rocks and sand making it quite different than the end of the previous season.

The wave turned out to be very green, with almost no whitewater across the entire width. It also had a very short and steep drop in front of the wave, making it difficult to surf longer boards.

I started out on my trusty Starboard Impossible. I struggled on the board for over an hour before getting it dialed in. The wave was slow enough that it required I keep the nose super close to the water, but the minimal rocker on the board made it difficult to avoid pearling.

The Badfish IRS was easier to surf; the nose rocker kept the board from pearling. Unfortunately the tri-fin setup kept the board from being as fun and playful as I would have liked. It was a good board to learn the wave on, but became a little boring after a couple surfs.

The best board of the day ended up being a friend’s Badfish Custom River Surfer. The board was very similar to a standard 6’11” River Surfer, but had a bit of volume removed to make the board more performance oriented. The rocker in the board made it easy to surf, while the lower volume and twin fin setup allowed it to be fun on the wave.

Written by | Benjamin

Benjamin Smith is a land locked surfer living in Colorado. He gets his surfing fix on the local rivers, where he SUP surfs standing waves.