The Hala Straight Up is a cruiser style paddle board perfectly at home on the river.
Hala Straight Up iSUP Review – Overview
The Hala Gear Straight Up is this river-centric brand’s take on an all-around paddleboard that is still meant for swift water fun. The Straight Up is a lighterweight board that is ideal for river cruising with a mix of occasional flatwater and light whitewater (class II or less) use. It’s highly maneuverable and offers good stability for beginner river paddlers.
Save $50 with code: INFLATABLEBOARD— Hala Straight Up iSUP Review Ratings and Summary —
Hala Straight Up
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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
Pros
- Woven drop stitch core and fusion PVC shell keep the board both light and rigid
- Welded seams improve board longevity and durability
- Heavy kick rocker on the tail and nose for occasional class II river features
- Highly maneuverable design
- High quality accessories
- 5-year warranty
Cons
- Heavy rocker design reduces tracking, but is great for moving water
- Does not include a leash for flatwater use
Hala Straight Up iSUP Review – Construction and Durability
Hala’s fresh line up of iSUPs uses new construction and materials for a lightweight and duable build.
The Straight Up has welded internal seams and an outer protective layer of PVC..
The Hala Straight Up features a lighter-weight construction compared to the heavy-duty Hala Charge and Adventure series boards which are designed for maximum whitewater performance.
At its core is a cross-woven drop stitch design, with the deck and hull built on a rigid, lightweight woven fabric base (stronger and lighter than standard knitted fabric). Thousands of 6″ yarns are drop-stitched in an X-pattern, helping the board stay flat under pressure and adding stiffness with less weight compared to the common V-pattern.
The outer shell is made from reinforced Fusion PVC, machine-laminated directly to the woven fabric using heat and pressure. This process eliminates excess glue, reduces weight, and avoids cosmetic or structural flaws caused by glue off-gassing.
The board’s top and bottom are joined with heat-welded PVC rails, creating an airtight chamber, minimizing leak risk, reducing glue use, and forming a stronger bond than glued rails. An additional PVC layer is applied to the outside of the rails for further protection and stiffening.
The result is a durable iSUP with a max pressure of 18 PSI weighing just 19.3 lbs.
The Hala Straight Up does not have any noticeable bend or flex during normal use.
The Straight Up did very well in our bend test with a total deflection of just 1.34” with 170 pounds of weight. That is notably better than our running average of 1.6”, but there was a little hiccup when measuring the board. Like when we checked the Hoss, the Straight Up measured 1.5” wider than its specified size – a whopping 34.5” instead of the advertised 33”. That’s a huge difference and is more than simple construction variation.
The Straight Up doesn’t flex much on the water, but when it does it has a springy rebound.
On the water, the Hala Straight Up feels pleasantly rigid during normal use, and just a small amount of flex when paddling hard for a quick sprint.
If you bounce on the board or paddle hard enough to flex the board, it has a short-lived but very springy feeling rebound which can be a little jarring at times. But, it does take a significant amount of effort to flex this board to the point where you will feel that at all.
Overall, Hala has done a great job with the construction of the Straight Up. It’s not only very rigid on the water at just 18 PSI, but impressively light weight at just over 19 pounds.
Save $50 with code: INFLATABLEBOARDHala Straight Up iSUP Review – Specifications
Specifications
| Dimensions | |
| Length | 10’ 0” |
| Width | 34.5“ |
| Thickness | 6“ |
| Weight | |
| Max Capacity | 250 pounds |
| Board Weight | 19.3 pounds |
| Kit Weight (SUP & accessories) | 29 pounds |
| Buying Info | |
| List Price | $999 |
| Warranty | 5 years |
| Returns period | 30 days |
Hala Straight Up iSUP Review – Features, Accessories and Versatility
The Hala Straight Up is designed for casual cruises on the river or short trips on flat water, and it’s got just enough features to meet your needs.
The Hala Straight Up is 10’0” long, measured 34.5” wide, and is 6” thick. It has a maximum recommended rider weight of 250 pounds. The Straight Up has a significant amount of kick rocker in both the nose and tail to help navigate occasional river features like wave trains, but at the detriment of flatwater tracking performance.
The nose has a medium size, triangular shape, but it is heavily rockered. This means that the water doesn’t really touch the nose of the board at all, and instead makes contact closer back toward the start of the front cargo area, presenting a rather wide cross-section at the front of the board.
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, but can still hold small and medium size dry bags.
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 Straight Up has a medium-size square tail, but, like the front, it 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 compared to straighter tail designs.
There is a single Universal Standard (US) fin box under the tail of the board.
The Hala Straight Up comes with a mostly complete kit of accessories, including a paddle.
The Straight Up isn’t decked out with every accessory attachment system under the sun, but it has just enough on-board features to carry your daily essentials plus a few extra items if you wish.
Hala includes a mostly complete kit of accessories with the Straight Up including:
- Hala Straight Up 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 Straight Up kit is a leash. I do understand why Hala does not include a leash with the Straight Up as it is intended for rivers (read more about leashes here), but as their most typical “all-around” style board it would be nice to see a leash included with this kit for use on flatwater.
Save $50 with code: INFLATABLEBOARDHala Straight Up 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.
This 3-piece paddle features a fiber-reinforced nylon blade that balances stiffness for powerful strokes with enough flex to deflect off rocks without damage. The carbon fiber shaft keeps weight lower and adds stiffness for efficient paddling, though the large blade and rugged build make it slightly heavier overall.
The handle section combines an aluminum tube with a plastic T-grip and uses a lever-lock adjustment system. Instead of an external compression clamp, this design employs a rubber stopper inside the shaft that tightens when the lever is closed. A cable connects the lever to the stopper, and tension can be fine-tuned by adjusting a nut on the stopper.
Hala puts a printed handle length scale to aid setup, but it measures only the handle section length, not total paddle length. The printed scale lines up with the adjustment indicator on the shaft to help align the handle and blade, but you’ll need to make sure those match up every time you adjust the paddle length.
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 Straight Up iSUP Review – Stability
The Hala Straight Up is over 34” wide, which puts it into the same size range as some of the most stable boards we’ve tested, but it has a few shaping elements that prevent it from feeling like a super-stable SUP on the water.
The Straight Up has good stability when flat on the water, but struggles on its edge.
The Hala Straight Up is a stable paddle board, but it’s not as stable as its size would imply. At over 34.5” wide, I’d expect it to feel rock solid under most circumstances, but rather I felt that it compares more closely to the stability of a 32-33” board instead.
When the Straight up is flat on the water it feels great. No issues with tipping or rocking, but it does feel a little twitchy as you shift your weight on the board. I’ve found this to be the case fairly frequently with large, lightweight iSUPs as they lack the inertial dampening (no, that’s not just a Star Trek thing) of a heavier board and react faster to shifting weight or water surface.
A big reason for this is the rocker profile of the board. At just 10’ long – which is relatively short for an all-around paddle board – the rocker profile on the nose and the tail reduce the length of the board actually touching the water by around 25%.
The rails have a tendency to catch when rocking side to side.
Once you factor in the reduced surface area on the water, it makes more sense that the Straight Up feels less stable than you might expect. That same rocker design also leads to the Straight Up feeling like it “catches” the rails under the surface of the water when rocking the board side to side (either on purpose or while bobbing through turbulent water).
But, this is the design tradeoff that makes the Straight Up a better board for river cruising where you may encounter features like small wave trains, holes, eddies, and more. While it may sound like a flatter, more stable feeling board will do better in that turbulent water, it’s actually the opposite. The rocker profile helps the Straight Up smoothly navigate over and through these features and gives you a more secure and stable feeling than a flatter board that will drive right into them. The rail catching can also help you maneuver more tightly when carving turns through these features as well.
So while the Straight Up’s design makes it less stable on flat water than you’d expect for its size, it actually helps improve your stability in faster-flowing and turbulent waters.
Save $50 with code: INFLATABLEBOARDHala Straight Up iSUP Review – Speed
The Hala Straight Up is part of Hala’s Cruise series of iSUPs, and the board definitely paddles with that moniker in mind. It’s not an incredibly fast SUP, but it does paddle efficiently at lower speeds.
Sprinting on the Hala Straight Up takes significant effort, but it paddles smoothly at lower speeds.
The Straight Up’s width and rockered design aren’t doing it any favors in our sprinting speed test, but the rigid construction helps it glide smoothly at slower speeds.
At a sustained sprinting pace of 75 strokes per minute, I was able to hold the Straight Up at a steady 4.9 MPH. At its fastest I was able to hit 5.3 MPH. That’s actually pretty good when you consider the width and rocker profile, but it takes a lot of energy to paddle at these speeds. Besides pushing a large board through the water, the B-Line paddle is also quite heavy, so paddling at a higher cadence becomes harder.
But, the Straight Up moves along at a pleasant speed when cruising at 25 strokes per minute. Thanks to the rigid construction of the board and power output of the B-line paddle, you can easily cruise along at around 3.5 MPH. And at that speed a single paddle stroke will take you around 19 feet before slowing down – or 1.9 board lengths per stroke. I was really surprised by the gliding efficiency of the Straight Up.
Overall, the Hala Straight Up cruises along easily and efficiently, it’s just not designed for top-speed paddling – and that’s totally fine in my book.
Save $50 with code: INFLATABLEBOARDHala Straight Up iSUP Review – Maneuverability and Tracking
The Hala Straight Up is incredibly maneuverable on the water – which is great for a river-focused paddle board, but it does take a step back in tracking performance to do so.
Even basic forward sweep strokes will turn the Straight Up more than 90° at a time.
In our maneuverability stress test, the Straight UP turned a full 360° from a standstill in under 4 paddle strokes on average. That’s more than 90° per stroke! Generally, using a reverse sweep stroke is faster, but the Straight Up is so agile that there’s hardly any difference whether you turn with a forward or reverse sweep stroke. For comparison, a typical all-around iSUP will take an average of 6-7 forward sweep strokes to turn in a full circle.
If you do want to turn even faster, you can step back on the tail of the Straight Up for a quick pivot turn – and I do mean quick. It’s fairly easy to step back to the tail on the Straight Up, but the kick rocker in the tail can take some getting used to once you put your weight back. Rather than having a consistent transition as the nose lifts, the kick rocker hinges quickly back onto the last section of the tail. Once you are there, the tail does a good job of supporting you as you turn (it only takes me about one and a half strokes to turn a full circle in this position).
The high maneuverability of the Straight Up also means that it’s difficult to track straight.
On the flip side of maneuverability is straight-line tracking. Hala includes a 9” touring-style fin with the Straight Up to help keep it moving straight, but between the rocker profile, short water line, and wide shape, it is no easy task to paddle this board in a straight line.
In our 10-stroke tracking test, the Straight Up found itself an average of 30° off course after the 10th stroke on a single side of the board. That is a very large course deviation, even for shorter/wider boards.
During normal paddling the Straight Up did tend to wander after just a couple of paddle strokes. Around every third stroke I found myself either switching sides or taking a corrective steering stroke.
The Straight Up has a single US fin box on the tail behind the start of the kick rocker.
Hala includes a 9” touring-style flex fin to give the Straight Up the best tracking performance they can. The design of the board and the location of the fin box – on the upturn of the tail rocker, making it effectively shorter – just isn’t quite enough for flatwater paddling.
But, as a river-focused SUP, maneuverability is key. It’s critical to be able to steer quickly to avoid hazards or maneuver into the appropriate position to paddle safely through waves, holes, and other features.
Save $50 with code: INFLATABLEBOARDHala Straight Up 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 Straight Up, 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 Straight Up iSUP Review – Final Thoughts
The Hala Straight Up is a stable and agile paddle board designed for river paddlers.
If you prefer the ever changing scenery and experience offered by a river, then the Straight Up is a great choice for a cruiser-style paddle board. It’s stable, agile, and durable. The included paddle and kit make a great match for the river, though you may want to pick up a shorter fin if your local rivers get a bit shallow.
Save $50 with code: INFLATABLEBOARD
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