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Bic Breeze Air

Bic Breeze Air

Summary

Something that’s interesting about this model, the Breeze Air, is that refer to it in their marketing as a board that bridges beginners with more advanced board — a trainer, if you will. With that in mind, does the Bic Breeze Air live up to what it promises or is this inflatable just full of hot air?

Overall
4
  • DURABILITY
  • SPEED
  • VERSATILITY
  • CONSTRUCTION
  • STABILITY
  • APPEARANCE
  • PERFORMANCE

Pros

  • Stable considering its width
  • Excellent tracking
  • Everything needed to get started comes in the box
  • Relatively inexpensive

Cons

  • Not that fast considering how thin it is
  • Low weight capacity
  • No choice in color
  • Only one grab handle
Bic produces a lot of products, mostly plastics and famously their office supplies. That’s why it comes a surprise to a lot of people, especially outside their native France, that they have an entire division dedicated to water Sports.
If you’ve seen our other reviews on Bic boards, you’ll know that they’re fine boards, but as a whole, nothing to write home about. Keeping in mind that these are not overly expensive boards by any means, they seem to be in a respectable place in the market.

LengthWidthThicknessWeightWeight Capacity
11'0"29.5''6"23 lbs180 lbs

Bic Breeze Air Performance

There are 2 versions of this board, the 10’6” and 11’ versions. But for the sake of simplicity, we’ll be referring to the 11’ version unless otherwise noted.
In the SUP world, a general rule is that the thinner the board, the faster it goes since it has less drag. This is true to an extent but this iSUP isn’t as fast as we would have imagined, probably due to the single fin setup. We wouldn’t call it slow but considering that we have to sacrifice a bit of stability and comfort to accommodate a thinner board, we wouldn’t hope for more in return.
On a positive note, we’ll say that it remarkably well. But the tradeoff here is with its maneuverability. This board is designed to go straight and making turns can be challenging, especially when you’re up to speed.

Features Of Bic Breeze Air

The Breeze Air doesn’t have a lot of features to mention, but that’s not its fault since it seems that Bic has more of a minimalistic approach to their iSUPs. Since this isn’t a touring board, the amount of storage it has is perfect for its needs. It consists of a 4-point bungee system upfront with corresponding D-rings plus a single D-ring toward the tail for the included ankle leash.


Something that surprised us (and not in a good way) was the lack of grab handles. Well, we can’t say pure lack of handles since it does have a central grab handle in the center as do almost all iSUPs on the market. Ironically, one of the only iSUPS out there without a central grab handle are some of Bic’s own Oxbow boards, but their excuse is that they have at least 4 other handles a piece. Having one a single grab handle on this board makes for a more difficult time moving the board in and out of the water or getting back on if you fall off.

Design

Despite having 2 choices in boards, you have no choice in the color. It’s not a bad design but we’ve become more and more accustomed to other companies offering at least 2 options for colors. Plus, if we’re being perfectly honest, it looks like the sort of color scheme you’d expect from a rental.The nose of the board has what we call a low rocker, which is a term we use for when the front comes at only a slight angle. This means it moves better through flat water and doesn’t handle choppy water or strong turns all that well.

For whatever reason, this board comes with a single fin setup. On the one hand it makes storage and transport a lot easier if you keep the board inflated and it can even be stacked with multiple boards. But on the other hand, this is the sole reason that this board isn’t as fast or maneuverable as it could have been.

Construction

Bic uses their own unique construction process for their iSUPs called SUP AIR Construction. This involves using a single layer of PVC material that is reinforced both internally and externally. The internal side of the reinforcement involved high density drop stitch construction inside while using stringer on the outside. Essentially, this involves a belt being wrapped around the board from nose to tail to make the board feel as solid as possible. In addition, they use double layer PVC on the rails since that is the most vulnerable part of the board.

Included Accessories

Out of the box you can expect an oversized backpack, dual action air pump, repair kit, leash, fiberglass paddle, 8” Dolphin fin and 2 side fins. We like the backpack since it has extra room for more than just the board and iSUP gear, so you can bring your own personal gear without having a separate bag.


However, the air pump and the paddle are bit underwhelming. One of the most laborious parts of going on the water is inflating the board and the last thing you want is a pump that isn’t going to inflate well. While not a bad air pump, we wouldn’t show if off to our friends, either. You may want to consider purchasing another model separately or even an electric pump, for that matter.

Our Verdict

Is the Bic Breeze Air going to the iSUP hall of fame? Hardly. That being said, he need to give credit where credit is due. Bic explicitly states that this is a board that can be used as a transition from basic boards to more advanced ones and when you look at it that way, it lives up to the promise.
The performance on this board is slightly better than you would expect of a comparable 11’ or 10’6’ board as the board has less drag from being thin. However, it forces the paddler to focus more on balancing the board which is a skill that comes in handy when using more advanced boards, especially racing boards.
The bottom line is that just like with a number of other Bic iSUPs, the Breeze Air would make an excellent choice for a rental company, though we wouldn’t put this on our personal wish list any time soon.

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR VERY OWN BIC BREEZE AIR iSUP

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