The Hala Hoss is a large-size cruiser iSUP built specifically for the river.
Hala Hoss iSUP Review – Overview
Hala Gear is known best for their whitewater SUPs, but they also make a “Cruise” line of paddle boards that aren’t necessarily intended for the rough stuff – but are still capable of handling quite a few river features.
The Hala Hoss is aptly named as a massively wide board that will keep you feeling confident on flowing water, but may not be the best choice if you mostly paddle on the flats.
Save $50 with code: INFLATABLEBOARD— Hala Hoss iSUP Review Ratings and Summary —
Hala Hoss
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Construction & Durability
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Features and Versatility
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Stability
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Speed
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Maneuverability
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Tracking
Overall Score
The Hala Hoss is a large cruiser-style board with heavy rocker intended for cruising on rivers.
Pros
- Lightweight woven drop sitch core and fusion PVC shell makes this beast feel like a bean when carrying it
- Welded seams improve board longevity and durability
- Heavy kick rocker on the tail and nose help the Hoss navigate the occasional class II+ rapid
- Highly maneuverable design
- High quality accessories
- 5-year warranty
Cons
- Heavy rocker design reduces tracking and flatwater stability, but is great for moving water
- Reduced deck pad size compared to other wide cruiser iSUPs
Hala Hoss iSUP Review – Construction and Durability
Hala’s complete product refresh this year includes new materials and construction for the Hoss, making it lighter than ever.
The Hoss has welded internal seams and an outer protective layer of PVC..
The Hoss and its smaller sibling the Straight Up use a different, lighter weight construction from the boards you’ll find in the Hala Charge and Adventure series.
Inside the Hoss is a lightweight cross-woven drop stitch core. The deck and hull layers start with a woven fabric base layer (which is both more rigid and lighter than a standard knitted fabric). These two layers are sewn together with thousands of 6” long yarns “drop-stitched” in an X-pattern to keep the board flat when inflated and provide additional rigidity and less weight compared to a standard V-pattern.
The outer layer of reinforced PVC material that makes up the main shell of the board is then machine-laminated onto the woven fabric base layers. By using heat and pressure to mechanically bond the PVC to the fabric, Fusion PVC eliminates excess glue, weight, and potential for cosmetic or structural errors when glues off-gas while curing.
The top and bottom of the board are brought together and joined with a heat-welded layer of PVC around the rail of the board to complete the air tight chamber, reduce the possibility of leaks, reduce the use of volatile chemicals, and create a longer-lasting mechanical bond compared to glued rails.
Finally an outer layer of PVC is applied to the rail of the board along with the deck pad, fin box, and other built-in features. The final outcome is the Hala Hoss with a maximum recommended pressure of 18 PSI, and a board-only weight of just 21.4 pounds.
The Hala Hoss does not have any noticeable bend or flex during normal use.
The Hoss did fairly well in our standardized bend test. With 170 pounds of weight in the standing area, it deflected just 1.46” compared to our total running average of 1.6”. But one thing I did notice while the Hoss was in the lab was its width. It measured over 36.5” wide – more than 1.5” wider than specified. Wider boards typically do better in our bend test, so I do feel like there’s some room for improvement here.
The Hoss has a medium amount of flex with a strong, but short-lived rebound.
On the water, the Hala Hoss felt very rigid under foot while standing, paddling normally, walking on the board, and while sprinting. However, when the board does flex, it has a peculiar behavior I haven’t seen before.
When testing the rigidity by bouncing on the Hoss it had a medium amount of flex, but when I stopped it would reverberate once very strongly, but then be done. Normally you’d see a gradual reduction in rebound. I can’t say for sure, but I do believe this is somehow tied to the fairly unique rocker profile of the board. As a river cruiser, Hala has built the Hoss with a significant amount of kick rocker in both the nose and tail. I’ll get more into what that means for board performance in those sections below.
Overall I think Hala has done a great job building the Hoss. The board is impressively lightweight and remains pleasantly rigid while paddling in most conditions.
Save $50 with code: INFLATABLEBOARDSpecifications
| Dimensions | |
| Length | 10’ 10” |
| Width | 36.5“ |
| Thickness | 6“ |
| Weight | |
| Max Capacity | 280 pounds |
| Board Weight | 21.4 pounds |
| Kit Weight (SUP & accessories) | 30 pounds |
| Buying Info | |
| List Price | $999 |
| Warranty | 5 years |
| Returns period | 30 days |
Hala Hoss iSUP Review – Features, Accessories and Versatility
The Hala Hoss is a river cruiser, but not an expedition board like the Hala Rado. There are just enough features on the board to carry what you need for an afternoon, but not much else.
The Hala Hoss is 10’10” long, measured 36.5” wide, and is 6” thick. It has a maximum recommended rider weight of 280 pounds. The Hoss has a significant amount of kick rocker in both the nose and tail to help navigate river features like wave trains, but at the detriment of flatwater cruise-ability.
The nose has a wide, triangular shape, but is heavily rockered. This means that the water doesn’t really touch the nose of the board at all, but really makes contact closer back toward the start of the front cargo area.
The valve is located at the nose of the board to easily remove the air while folding the board when you are finished paddling.
The front cargo area is fairly small for a board this size with just a single bungee cord threaded between four soft tie down points.
There are four more soft tie down points around the back of the main standing area. You can use these to attach a cooler, kayak seat, or tie down other large items.
The deck pad is made with a diamond-groove EVA foam for maximum traction. The center carry handle is padded, but the nose and tail handles are not.
There is an indexing bump under the rear of the deck pad to let you know where your feet are on the board when stepping back to the tail.
There is a raised kick pad at the end of the deck pad for improved traction and support when standing on the tail.
The Hoss’s tail is broad and squared, but also features a large amount of kick rocker. While standing normally on the board the entire area from the kick pad to the end is out of the water, but when on the kick pad, this section flattens out under the water to provide additional stability.
There is a single Universal Standard (US) fin box under the tail of the board.
The Hala Hoss comes with a mostly complete kit of accessories, including a paddle.
While the Hoss isn’t one of the most decked-out iSUPs we’ve reviewed, it does have enough built-in features to hold everything you need for a day cruising on the river.
Hala includes a mostly complete kit of accessories with the Hoss including:
- Hala Hoss iSUP
- Hala B-Line 3-piece paddle
- Double-action hand pump
- 9” touring-style flex fin
- Repair kit
- Wheeled SUP duffle-style backpack
What is not included in the Hoss kit is a leash. I do understand why Hala does not include a leash with the Hoss as it is intended for rivers (read more about leashes here), but as one of their most “all-around” style boards it would be nice to see a leash included with this kit for use on flatwater.
Save $50 with code: INFLATABLEBOARDHala Hoss iSUP Review – Paddle
Hala’s B-line paddle is designed to be durable and easy to use, and it hits both of those marks.
The B-Line paddle has a reinforced nylon blade, carbon fiber shaft, and lever-lock grip.
The 3-piece paddle has a fiber-reinforced nylon blade that offers a surprising amount of rigidity to take powerful strokes when needed, but enough give that it can glance off of rocks without breaking.
While the carbon fiber shaft does help keep weight down and adds a good amount of stiffness in the paddle without making it uncomfortable to use, The blade is fairly large, and the heavy-duty construction does come with a bit of a weight penalty.
The handle section is made with an aluminum tube and plastic handle, and it uses a lever-lock adjustment system. Rather than a compression clamp that goes around the paddle shaft, the lever lock system uses a rubber stopper at the bottom of the handle insert that compresses and squeezes against the inside of the paddle shaft when the lever in the grip is closed. The cable system connecting the two does allow you to adjust the tension by adjusting a nut on the stopper if you need to tighten or loosen the system.
There is a handle length scale (not overall length or height) printed on the handle section, though you’ll need to make sure the T-grip is properly aligned with the blade after every adjustment.
The B-line is built for durability and weighs 35.7 ounces. That’s quite a bit more than the listed 30.4 ounces on Hala’s website (which may be a typo as that is almost exactly the weight of their Lock & Load Grafik paddle).
Overall this is a great paddle for the rough and tumble environment of a mountain river, but may be over-built for you if the only rocks you’ll encounter are on the shore of a lake.
Save $50 with code: INFLATABLEBOARDHala Hoss iSUP Review – Stability
At over 36” wide, the Hala Hoss is a big board. It offers great stability, but not quite what you would expect from a board this size.
The Hoss feels comfortable under foot when flat and is easy to hold on its edge.
Stepping onto the Hoss, the first thing I noticed is that it is quite stable. But, it wasn’t what I expected. Specified at 35” wide and measured at 36.5”, I was expecting the Hoss to feel like standing on the sidewalk. While it was very stable, it felt much more like a 33-34” wide board to me. It’s a bit hard to explain, but while it didn’t twitch or roll underfoot, it just didn’t feel as solid as its size would imply.
I did find it easy to move around on the Hoss and the deck pad provides excellent traction. Holding the hoss on its edge was also very easy, but I did feel a bit of a “catching” sensation when rocking the board from edge to edge.
So why doesn’t the Hoss feel as big as it is?
There is some slight catching when rocking the Hoss side to side.
The rocker profile is the main cause here. When a SUP has so much rocker, there’s physically less surface area in contact with the water – which is a big component of stability. So while the Hoss is extra wide, the rocker means that the front ~24” and rear ~12” aren’t in contact with the water at all, giving it an effective length of just about 8’.
With some napkin-math compared to an 11’ x 34” board, the effective surface area of the Hoss is almost 15% lower than the effective surface area of an 11’ x 34” board with 12” of length loss from a more standard rocker profile.
The bigger question is, though, does this really matter? Well, if you are looking for maximum stability in any conditions, it does. However, if you are looking for maximum stability in a board designed to handle occasional whitewater rivers, then we see why Hala chose this design tradeoff.
When paddling through Class II or harder whitewater, you need to be able to effectively ride through larger elevation changes in wave trains, holes, and other features, and control the board trim as you do so. This is where the rocker profile comes in. When paddling through these features, the Hoss is a more stable and more controllable design than a flatter board built just for flatwater.
Save $50 with code: INFLATABLEBOARDHala Hoss iSUP Review – Speed
The Hoss is part of Hala’s Cruise line of paddle boards and is made for good times on the river. It’s a fun cruiser board, but isn’t a great option if you want a truly fast paddle board.
It takes a lot of effort to paddle the Hoss at high speeds.
The Hoss is a big board, and the rocker profile not only effectively shortens it, but also gives it a very broad cross-section where it interacts with the water. So it wasn’t a surprise for me that it didn’t hit high marks in our sprint speed test.
At a sustained sprinting pace of 75 strokes per minute, I was able to hold the Hoss at a consistent 4.7 MPH. At its fastest I was able to hit 5.3 MPH. Considering the board size and shape that is actually kind of impressive, but with two caveats. First, it takes a lot of energy to paddle the Hoss at higher speeds. Besides pushing a large board through the water, the B-Line paddle is also pretty heavy, so paddling at a higher cadence becomes harder. Second, the rocker profile also reduces the Hoss’s tracking especially during a sprint.
But, the Hoss does cruise along at a respectable speed. At 25 strokes per minute, you can mosey along at around 3.4 MPH with very little effort. And at that speed a single paddle stroke will take you around 20 feet before slowing down – or 1.8 board lengths per stroke. I was really surprised by the gliding efficiency of this board. I feel a good deal of this is due to the relatively stiff and medium-large B-Line paddle that can put out a lot of power in a single stroke.
Overall, the Hala Hoss is about as fast as I expected it to be. It’s built for good times cruising on your local river, and that’s exactly what it does.
Save $50 with code: INFLATABLEBOARDHala Hoss iSUP Review – Maneuverability and Tracking
As a board intended for rivers, the Hala Hoss is built for maneuverability over long-distance tracking.
Turning the Hoss takes very little effort, even with basic turning strokes.
When I operated a river SUP guide service, the first paddle stroke I would teach clients was the forward sweep. Paddle in an arc from the nose to the tail to turn the board. It’s important both from a paddling standpoint and a safety standpoint to be able to control the direction your board is pointing, especially on the river. The Hala Hoss is extremely easy to turn, even with these basic paddle strokes.
In our maneuverability stress test, the Hoss turned a full 360° from a standstill in just over 4 paddle strokes on average. Using a reverse sweep stroke was a little faster, but not much, at 3.5 strokes on average to make the same turn. A more typical result for an 11×34-35” board would be in the 7-8 paddle stroke range, so it’s safe to say the Hoss is extremely fast to turn.
Stepping back onto the tail of the board for a pivot turn is a different feeling on the Hoss than on other iSUPs. The notable kick rocker in the tail keeps the board mostly flat to the water until you reach the kick pad on the tail. Now you can very quickly add just a small amount of pressure to the tail and bring the nose way out of the water. This also flattens out the tail of the board. So you get extra stability from the tail volume, but a very fast and smooth turn as most of the board is now out of the water. And once you put a bit of pressure back on your front foot, the Hoss comes smoothly back down to the water and is ready to go.
Tracking straight with the Hoss is much more difficult.
On the flip side of maneuverability is straight-line tracking. Hala includes a 9” touring-style fin with the Hoss to help keep it moving straight, but the rocker profile and shorter water line do make this a little complicated.
In our 10-stroke tracking test, the Hoss did pretty well. After 10 strokes on a single side it was only off course by an average of about 18°. That’s a reasonable result for a wide cruiser like the Hoss. But outside of the tracking testing I didn’t find it to be as effective.
While paddling around outside of testing, I found the Hoss to wander a fair amount and I needed to change sides or make corrective strokes about every three or four paddle strokes to keep going straight. The faster/harder I paddled the quicker it went off course. During sprint testing I would often be almost 90° off course after just 20 to 30 seconds.
But, for a river board, that maneuverability is far more desirable than long-distance straight line tracking.
The Hoss as a single US fin box on the tail behind the start of the kick rocker.
Hala includes a 9” touring-style flex fin with the Hoss to help mediate that balance of maneuverability and tracking. The Universal Standard (US) fin box is placed about halfway between the start of the kick rocker and the very end of the board. This does have the effect of changing how a fin like this behaves. It tilts the fin back a bit more and keeps it higher in the water column. Again, that’s a good set of characteristics when paddling on the river where you may encounter rocks or other submerged objects.
Save $50 with code: INFLATABLEBOARDHala Hoss iSUP Review – Warranty and Customer Support
Hala Gear offers a 5-year warranty for their inflatable paddle boards. If you have any issues with your Atcha 96, call up the customer care team in Steamboat, CO (or drop by if you are in the neighborhood) and they’ll take care of you. Paddles and other accessories are warrantied for one year from the date of purchase. Hala does have a 30-day return period, however it is for new, unused, products only. If you have any questions about Hala, their boards, or a warranty issue, you can contact them via website chat, email, phone, at their HQ, or through social media.
Save $50 with code: INFLATABLEBOARDHala Hoss iSUP Review – Final Thoughts
The Hala Hoss is a stable, but playful cruiser designed for river paddlers.
If rivers are your playground, the Hala Hoss is a wonderful choice for a stable cruiser iSUP. It’s built well, agile on the water, easy to paddle and maneuver, and can handle those stretches of “Class Fun” and up to Class II whitewater with ease. With Hala’s years of river board design experience, high quality materials, and 5-year warranty, the Hoss will keep you cruising in style for years to come.
Save $50 with code: INFLATABLEBOARD
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