Hello, I really like the look of this board but don't know if I'm biting off more than I can chew with the smaller size. I currently ride a 10'6 Nalu, which I will never sell, and am looking for another board to compliment it. I've watched SUPthecreek's vids, which are ace by the way, and love the timber look of the sunova. How difficult will it be to balance on this board?
Very difficult if you ask me. Given the weight of the board, plus your weight, that board will barely float. If you are a young Cirque du Soleil performer then you might be OK. But it coming from a 10'6 Nalu it will be chalk and cheese.
You would be going from 160L to 80L, and dropping 3 feet off of your board, as well as 4.5 inches of width. I find the speeed stable for it's size, but the size difference here is huge. Its not impossible, but you are potentially looking a lot of work. The Speeed comes in so many sizes, why not just bump up to a 7'8 or 7'11? I've found that stability starts to decrease exponentially as you get close to neutral buoyancy with your board, so adding just a few more liters will make things a while lot easier.
Well from the looks of things I will be better suited to a gradual drop in length. I might look for something around the 9' range. Cheers to all for your great responses.
Portstretch
colas is exactly right, you would be at 1 to 1 in "weight to volume"
ha ha... just for giggles, I jumped on an 8'5 Speeed the other day in glassy, flat water.
It is just under 1 to 1 at my weight + board
No way I could have gotten up, from the board.... I just stepped on from shallow water.
Surprisingly, after paddling it a few hundred yards, I could stand on it when still.... but it totally sank
I was pretty stoked to be on a board that narrow!
Pics, or it didn't happen....
Hi Portstrech. I'm exactly the same weight as you and have had a Sunova acid 7'10" 81 ltr board for about 3 months. I am an advanced rider and was coming down from a 105 litre Gulliver Vbox. When I first got it, it was realllly hard to balance on. I'm ok now but at first I thought I had bitten off more than I could chew but perseverance has paid off and the board is amazing to surf. But Colas is on the money with his comments. If you try and go too small to quickly you will regret it. Personally (and I say this without knowing your abilities) I think your wave count will drop to zero because you wont be able to stand on it to paddle. If your really keen to go small on the speeed I wouldn't go less than the 7'11". Good luck!!
Some more food for thought:
At 97kg I am able to surf a 84 liters board ( a 7'10" x 27.5" Imagine Impact I tried once in June), I could only stand up and take off in the following 10 seconds, otherwise I would fall as the needed concentration was too intense. And I was doing nothing special on the wave, as I was to mentally exhausted after managing the take off. And it was glassy.
Although I SUP often on a 105 liters "Tomo" shape (wide everywhere, 5th from left below), I got a traditional performance shape in 115 liters 7'4"x28" (4th from left below) was hell for me. So after 3 sessions with it, I was not really enjoying missing waves by falling on takeoff (although performance on hollow waves was stellar), and was feeling that I was not progressing enough in the result, so I surfed my other SUPs for 2 months, all 125 liters except for the Tomo. And I am sure the difficulty was more in the 28" width than the volume.
I was then totally surprised when re-trying the 115 liters to find it "easy"! the sessions (3 per week) on my other ~125 SUPs have made me progress enough to train me efficiently for the 115 liters! So going down progressively in size is VERY productive, by being confortable on a board size you actually train a lot for the smaller size... you are definitely not "wasting your time"! On the opposite, would I have had only the 115l in my quiver, I would have been less eager to get out with it in imperfect conditions, surfed less, and progress slower.
Quiver for reference: