We get a lot of questions about transporting paddleboards you rent on St. John, so we have put together this article with a bit of information.

The most important information upfront. You can easily mount 2 paddleboards on any car, even small sedans. We will provide you with roof straps or soft racks for transport and we will show you how to mount them upon delivery. The roof of your rental car will not get damaged or scratched if you follow our instructions, the roof racks will cover the roof.

Key thing is when you are done paddling, carry the wet board right to the car or lean it against at tree, don’t throw the wet board in the sand as the sand will stick to it.

It is really easy on the Wrangler Jeeps, even the 2 door ones. We just put the second strap in the back around the spare tire. For some models you will have to screw the antenna off the roof but that is about as complicated as it gets. 

softracks-easy-transport

If you transport only 2 boards, you can usually leave the fins on. If you want to transport more than 2 boards, that is easily possible on any car with 4 doors, cars with a flat roof (Wrangler Jeep) or cars with a roof rack. 

Lastly, should you wish to transport more than 4 boards or have  a 2 seat convertible with no roof, or would like to take boards on the bus or a hike, we also have inflatable paddleboards for rent (Fly Air Touring 12’x34′, Fly Air Fit 11’x35′, Falcon Air 12’6 and 14′)

transport-paddleboards-stjohn-usvi-rental-car

Some tips on transporting paddleboards

  • If your car has a roof antenna, you need to screw it off
  • Put one strap through front doors and one strap through back doors. For Jeeps with 2 doors mount the second strap around the spare tire in the back. You have to open the door before wrapping the straps around the roof (if you put them through window, you cannot open doors 🙂
  • Put the end of the strap through the buckle from below in a 90 degree angle (on the flat side)
  • After it has rained, the straps can expand a little, so make sure to tighten again (e.g. in the morning)
  • After you are done paddling, take the boards right to the car/parking lot or place them on grass. If you put the wet boards onto the sand, the sand will stick to them and scratch the roof and the boards. If you have thrown them in the sand, take them back to the water, put them in and flip them to wash sand off.
  • Paddleboards are fragile, don’t let them bounce onto concrete when you take them down.
transport-paddleboards-stjohn-rental-car-allowed

3300$ Carbon Raceboard on our 850$ Jeep, we got our priorities straight.

Can I put Paddleboards on my rental Jeep?

  • With our soft racks system there will be absolutely not damages to the roof. Many Jeeps already have scratched up roofs (e.g. from driving under low branches or transporting Kayaks with no cushioning) so you want to check the roof and take photos of damages before loading the boards.
  • There are 2 rental companies who say you are not allowed to transport paddleboards (Aqua Blue and Conrad Sutton) but so far non of our customers ever ran into trouble or had to pay for damages.
  • Sunshine Jeep Rentals is Paddleboard friendly and officially allow paddleboard transport. Put SUP ST. JOHN in the comments field and you will not have any trouble. You can also try Mr. Piper’s Jeeps