Retrospec Weekender Yogi Inflatable SUP Review – Is It Too Good To Be True? | 2024

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Retrospec Weekender Yogi iSUP Review – Overview

Paddle boarding is often considered a quiver sport. You can get an all-around board, but if you want to do something well, then you typically need a specialized paddle board (another arrow in your quiver, if you will).

The problem with this is it can get expensive, fast, if you like to do lots of different things. Everyone should have an all-around board, and many folks like to get a touring board for distance paddling. Then maybe a wider board with lots of accessories for fishing, maybe a whitewater or surf SUP, and of course a board for SUP Yoga.

However, Retrospec has bucked the trend of charging more for speciality paddle boards with the Weekender Yogi. This yoga-specialist has all the hallmarks of a purpose-shaped yoga board, but at a fraction of the price.

But how well does it work? Does this arrow fly true, or does it miss the mark?

While there are some tradeoffs made to keep the price low, for most yoga enthusiasts, the Weekender Yogi is a great entry into not just standing on the water, but head-standing on the water, too.

— Retrospec Weekender Yogi iSUP Review Summary and Ratings —

Retrospec Weekender Yogi iSUP Review – Construction and Durability

Retrospec’s AerGlide-Lite technology uses single-layer PVC to keep the Weekender Yogi lightweight and low cost, but durable and reliable for regular use.

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Inside the Weekender Yogi, Retrospec uses a standard knitted drop stitch core. Two layers of knitted polyester fabric are joined together with thousands of 6” long polyester yarns to set the board’s thickness, keep it flat when inflated, and improve its rigidity.

The knitted fabric layers are then coated in a PVC material to make the waterproof and airtight shell of the board for the deck and hull. The edges of the board are then joined together by gluing a layer of reinforced PVC fabric around the enter perimeter of the board.

This technically completes the air chamber for the Weekender Yogi, but Retrospec adds another, larger, layer of reinforced PVC fabric around the edge of the board again to increase the board’s rigidity and durability.

Once the board is complete, the inflation valve and other built-in features are added to the board for a total weight of just 19.6 pounds on our scale. The Weekender Yogi has a maximum internal pressure rating of 15 PSI.

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While there are some incredibly stiff single-layer PVC construction iSUPs available today like the Isle Switch Pro, these boards use advanced, custom-made, materials and unique additional elements to stiffen the boards. All of that drives the cost over 400% higher than the Weekender Yogi. The tradeoff is the rigidity. While the Switch Pro is the stiffest iSUP we’ve tested, the Weekender Yogi did not do as well in our static bend test.

With 170 pounds of weight in the standing area of the board, the Weekender Yogi bent 2.84” in our bend test. While that is not the most bend we’ve recorded in our list, it does put the Weekender Yogi in the bottom 10%.

Our bend test allows us to directly compare paddle boards of different sizes, shapes, and constructions. For example, the Retrospec Weekender Plus is nearly the same size and shape as the Yogi, but is made with Retrospec’s dual-lay AerGlide-Fusion construction. It performed significantly better in our bend test (just 1.8” of bend), but it does weigh more and also comes with an increased cost.

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On the water I did notice some bend and flex in the Weekender Yogi while paddling normally. While I was actually paddling, it didn’t bother me too much, but I could tell it was impacting the performance of the board. When I pick up speed, the flex increases to a much more noticeable level, and walking on the board does produce a good amount of flex and bend.

Overall I think the Weekender Yogi’s flex is its biggest downside and is something to consider for some paddlers. The amount of flex you experience will depend heavily on the paddler size. While testing the board and in these photos I weighed around 220 pounds. That is a significant portion of the Yogi’s maximum weight capacity of 300 pounds. So while the Yogi may not be the best option for larger paddlers like myself, our 160 and 170 pound testers found the Yogi to have less flex overall during regular use.

Specifications

Retrospec Weekender Yogi iSUP Review – Features, Accessories and Versatility

The Weekender Yogi is a special-purpose iSUP. It’s designed and outfitted for SUP yoga first, and everything else second. But, it does have enough fittings and a robust accessory kit for a casual day on the water.

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With a modest cargo bungee cord and threaded accessory mount, the Weekender Yogi is plenty capable of carrying everything you need for a day on the water.

I would like to see the deck pad improved with more deeply embossed textures and/or a brushed finish to improve the overall grip on the board. While testing the Yogi I did have two instances where the deck pad did not provide enough traction. The first was during a sprint test when my foot slid across the deck pad during a paddle stroke. I feel this was from a combination of both the flex in the board and the deck pad texture. The second, however, was during a downward facing dog pose when one of my hands slipped across the deck pad. Once I realized what was happening, I was able to adjust for the lower traction and continue testing and practicing various yoga poses and flows without further incident.

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Retrospec includes a full accessory kit with the Weekender Yogi (and all of their other iSUPs). When the box arrives at your door you’ll find the following inside:

• Weekender Yogi iSUP
• Custom-sized nylon backpack style bag
• Single-chamber/double-action hand pump
• 3-piece aluminum paddle
• 3 slide-in fins
• Coiled ankle leash
• Waterproof phone bag
• Maintenance and repair kit

All in all, the Weekender Yogi comes with a great set of accessories for the price of this kit. The fins are easy to install and remove (which can’t be said for all brands that use slide-in fin boxes), the leash is comfortable and can easily be worn on the ankle or calf, and you also get a waterproof bag for your phone. The only thing you’ll need to add is a life jacket.

Retrospec Weekender Yogi iSUP Review – Paddle

The Retrospec Weekender Yogi comes with a 3-piece aluminum and ABS plastic paddle. While many iSUPs at this pricepoint come with an aluminum paddle, I’ve not seen one as thoughtfully designed as the Retrospec paddle.

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Retrospec’s 3-piece paddle is a show-piece for lower cost paddles that everyone should be emulating.

The aluminum shaft and handle section are powder-coated gray. This lighter color helps prevent the paddle from becoming dangerously hot when in the sun, but it also provides a small amount of texturing on the shaft for a little extra grip.

The handle section has a few tricks up its sleeve as well. The handle does have length markings to easily adjust the paddle for your height, but it also has an indexing groove on the back. The groove slides along a small bump at the top of the main shaft section and prevents the handle from twisting around. This ensures that the handle always stays properly aligned with the paddle blade when you put it together or adjust the height.

The plastic palm grip has molded texturing on the back and the front, but not the top. This gives you just a little bit of extra traction on the handle, but prevents it from chaffing the palm of your hand while paddling.

The compression collar is simple to use and adjust. If the handle section is sliding when clamped, simply unclamp the collar, and turn the lever clockwise a few times to tighten the mechanism.

Lastly, the ABS plastic blade is impact resistant and has a medium size with a traditional teardrop shape and a light scoop from top to bottom. Along with both color-coded and printed reminders for which side is the front and the back, this paddle blade is very easy for new paddlers to learn how to properly use.

While there are a few drawbacks with this paddle – mostly its weight – it is the best implementation of an entry level aluminum paddle I’ve seen.

Retrospec Weekender Yogi iSUP Review – Stability

As a yoga-specific board, it’s important that the Weekender Yogi have excellent stability for support during your yoga practice. The large size and shape of the board give it great primary stability, but it does have one caveat.

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At just under 11’ long and just a hair over 33” wide, the Weekender Yogi is larger than most standard all-around iSUPs, but is also slightly smaller than many dedicated yoga boards (typically 34-36” wide).

The broad, round nose and the wide, square tail allow the Yogi to hold onto a great deal of its width throughout the length of the board. I did notice that in a side-by-side comparison, the Weekender Yogi did have better initial stability on the water than the Weekender Plus – which is nearly the same size, but a slightly different shape.

However, it does have one drawback compared to the Weekender Plus. The Yogi has much more flex in the board. This additional flex is noticeable on the water, and it does detract from the overall stability of the board. With more flex you have a less solid surface under your feet (or hands) and it moves and reacts more while on the water.

So while the initial stability of the Yogi is better than the initial stability of the Plus, the difference in rigidity ultimately brings these boards to about the same feeling of stability on the water.

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Where the Yogi does perform better than the Weekender Plus is in its secondary stability. When the boards are rocking side-to-side or tilted onto their edges, the Yogi’s wider shape gives it more stability on the water.

As mentioned in the construction section above, the paddler weight will also play heavily into how much flex is noticed on the Weekender Yogi. Paddlers under 180 pounds will not be as affected by the flex as larger paddlers.

If you are over 180 pounds and looking for a paddle board for yoga, I would recommend checking out a few other options like the Glide O2 Lotus or the Gili Komodo 10’6. While these are a bit more expensive, their rigidity makes them a much better option for larger SUP yoga enthusiasts.

Retrospec Weekender Yogi iSUP Review – Speed

The Weekender Yogi is designed for stability first. While it doesn’t have a jaw-dropping top speed, it does still paddle effectively at a casual cruising pace – perfect for a warm up and cool down session around your yoga practice.

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Speed Review Text 5.0 5.2 3.4 1.7

In our sprinting speed test, the Weekender Yogi had an average sprinting speed of 5.0 MPH at 75 strokes per minute, and I was only able to reach a maximum top speed of 5.2 MPH. There are several things affecting the overall top speed here including the shorter length and larger width of the board, but primarily I felt that the Yogi’s flex was making it very difficult to paddle at a higher speed. With more effort the board simply flexed more in the water causing it to slow down and become difficult to maintain a straight course.

Once we slowed things down to a casual cruising pace of around 25 strokes per minute, though, the Yogi performed very well. At this slower pace I was able to maintain an average speed of 3.4 MPH. That’s a very respectable pace for a board of this size and shape.

At that cruising pace, the Weekender Yogi traveled just over 18 feet with a single stroke before slowing down. That gives it a gliding ratio of about 1.7 board lengths. Again, this is actually a little above average for a board this size.

So while I won’t be entering into any races on the Weekender Yogi, I do feel that it has a great cruising speed for paddling shorter distances before, after, or instead of your yoga sessions.

Retrospec Weekender Yogi iSUP Review – Maneuverability and Tracking

The Weekender Yogi does a good job of balancing its maneuverability and tracking performance while using all three of the included fins.

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In our maneuverability stress test, we set up the board with all of the included fins and use basic turning strokes to see how easy or difficult it is to turn in a complete 360° circle.

The Weekender Yogi needed an average of 6 forward sweep strokes (paddling in an arc from nose to tail) to make the full circle turn. That is just about spot-on average for paddle boards of this length.

Using a reverse sweep stroke (tail to nose) turns the board faster – just 3.5 strokes on average for the full circle), but this type of turn does stop any forward momentum you may have while paddling. I also noticed that the Retrospec paddle tends to have quite a bit of fluttering and wandering when using the back side of the blade in the reverse sweep stroke.

Of course, the fastest way to turn the board is with a step-back or pivot turn. The wide outline and tail of the Weekender Yogi do provide good stability while standing on the tail of the board for this maneuver, but walking to the back of the board can be challenging as there is a noticeable amount of flex and bounce while walking.

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With all three fins installed on the Yogi, it once again has just about perfectly average straight line tracking performance as well.

After 10 paddle strokes on a single side of the board, I found the Yogi deviated off course by an average of around 18°. Compared to other yoga-specific boards, this is actually a very good result, but is typical for other all-around boards of the same length.

While paddling normally I found it quite easy to stay on course with the occasional steering stroke. And when paddling five or six strokes on a side before switching, the Yogi had less drift to begin with.

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Under the board there are three slide-in fin boxes. If you read our reviews about other brands that use slide-in fin boxes you’ll find a common theme – they are actually really hard to use most of the time. More often than not, I need to use a mallet to actually get the fins into or out of the fin boxes on those boards.

But thankfully Retrospec has got it figured out! Out of the dozen Retrospec boards I’ve tested now, I didn’t have a single problem with any of the fins fitting easily into the fin boxes, nor with the keys fitting into the locking slots to hold the fins in place.

With the 2+1 fin setup on the Yogi, you can install all 3 fins for the best tracking performance, but slower turning; use just the center fin for improved turning; or use just the two side fins for maximum agility and shallow water paddling at the cost of tracking performance. Overall, this fin setup offers a great amount of versatility for the paddler.

Retrospec Weekender Yogi iSUP Review – Warranty and Customer Support

Retrospec warranties all of their inflatable SUPs for 2 years from the date of purchase. This is a fairly typical warranty length and is actually more than most iSUPs in this price range. Additionally, they offer a 50-day return period, however, all returns are subject to shipping fees. There is no explicit warranty period for the included accessories. If you have any questions or concerns, you can reach the Retrospec customer service team via telephone, website form, website chat, and social media.

Retrospec Weekender Yogi iSUP Review – Overall Impressions/Review Summary

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Is the Retrospec Weekender Yogi too good to be true? I think the real answer is going to come down to the paddler size and desired use. If you are under 180 pounds and are looking for a yoga-specific board on a budget, then I would absolutely recommend the Weekender Yogi. It offers everything you need in a Yoga SUP, a robust accessory kit, and a well-balanced paddling performance on the water. However, if you are only wanting to do yoga occasionally, then I would recommend the Weekender Plus. It’s got nearly the same level of stability, with a more rigid construction and several other extras for not a whole lot more. The same goes for larger paddlers – the extra rigidity and accessories of the Weekender Plus makes it a fantastic value.

Retrospec Weekender Yogi iSUP – FAQ