REASONS TO BUY
Glides well
Stable
REASONS TO AVOID
Humongus
Not easy to transport or inflate
Tower Xplorer Review
Excellent stability and respectable glide performance stand out for this jumbo paddle board
TOWER Xplorer
Credit: TOWER
Our Verdict
The Tower Xplorer is one of the biggest inflatable paddle boards on the market, measuring a whopping 14' x 32" x 8". It's a big, heavy, awesome board that will definitely make you reconsider your ultralight addiction. It glides nicely and solidly cuts through rough choppy water or boat wake with ease. The Xplorer also offers good tracking and maneuverability for such a big and bulky footprint. It is the least convenient board we've tested to transport, but once on the water, it is well worth the trouble. Its best use would be for users who live near a lake and don't need to regularly inflate, deflate, and transport it.
Our Analysis and Test Results
With a huge footprint and overall volume, the Tower Xplorer is the largest board in our lineup. It provides great stability and respectable performance but is relatively difficult to transport and inflate.
Performance Comparison
The whopping 8" thick, Xplorer stand up inflatable paddle board.
Credit: Valentine Cullen
Stability
The Xplorer is a very stable board with its large footprint and volume, but it stands very tall on the water. It measures 8" thick, which is the thickest board that we've tested. The one thing that is great about it being so thick is that it actually maneuvers more easily than most other boards we tested, especially if you lean into the turn.
The Xplorer (8" thick) and the Wakooda (6" thick), note the increased thickness and length of the Xplorer.
Credit: Valentine Cullen
Glide Performance
Most of the other boards tested seem to take a bit more paddle action to get moving through a turn. The Xplorer easily glides through turns with a lot less effort. It is extra responsive to maneuvering via leg movements and leaning, and requires less paddling than other boards that we tested. It is a delightful board to paddle on and glides well through the water despite its seemingly humungous footprint.
Maneuverability
With its 36-pound weight, 14-foot length, and 8-inch height, the Xplorer is definitely not the most maneuverable board that we tested. Its humongous size makes it difficult to paddle into tighter spaces and makes it more difficult to turn on a dime. While its glide performance and maneuvering are responsive to leaning and leg movements, its overall size makes it less responsive to technical paddle movements.
Ease of Transport
The Xplorer doesn't score very well in this metric because at 36 pounds it is the heaviest board that we've ever tested. Forget about transporting it fully inflated. It's way too big. It takes a bit longer to deflate and roll up than other boards, and doesn't come with a convenient custom carrying backpack like most other models in our lineup. The combination of its size and lack of carrying system makes it very inconvenient to haul around.
Ease of Inflation
The Xplorer loses some points in the category because it's so huge that it takes a very long time to pump up by hand. It does earn extra points for having an inflation valve and pump hose ends that are the same as most other boards tested. This is nice to have just in case you want to use an electric pump or need to switch out some hardware with another pump.
Not the best idea for sure! This is the Xplorer after getting pumped up in the boat trailer parking lot on a day when a small boat launch ramp was very busy. Too busy to take up space pumping up a paddle board. We pumped it up up the hill and drove it down for a launch. Note that the nose is touching the front windshield. This gives you an idea of how massively huge this board is.
Credit: Valentine Cullen
Value
This board has one D ring on both the nose and the tail and doesn't come with a cargo system or extra D rings to install a cargo system on your own. The Xplorer does come with a high-quality paddle though. It has a twist to tighten adjustment/attachment system like most of the other paddles that come with boards, but this paddle has a 13.5" long padded foam grip added which is awesome and instantaneously became a favorite. We would like to see at least a small cargo system and perhaps a handle or two. It is made with the same durable material as the other boards made by Tower.
The awesome foam grip that comes on the paddle that came with the Xplorer.
Credit: Valentine Cullen
Conclusion
This massive no-frills board is great to paddle on busy lakes with lots of boat traffic because it cuts through waves easily. It's heavy and huge, but it is surprisingly easy to maneuver if you lean into the turns. It sits tall in the water with its massive eight-inch thickness. The Xplorer is rated to hold a whopping 800 lbs.
—
Leslie Yedor & Shey Kiester
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