I'm looking at getting a Sunova skate at a good price and unable to demo and bit worried about tail does anyone have any info on these boards , any info would be much appreciated. I was originally looking at 8'5 Ltd allwave ,cheers

What are the general conditions you like to surf in

1to 5 ft beach and reef breaks

Actually cjf17 what am i thinking.You must go direct to sup the creek.No human has done more research on all that is Sunover.damned if i know how he lays his hands on everything they release but he gives good sun over i tell ya.Reviews i mean.Im sure if you look back through his model posts you will find the info you require.

Have u surfed one of these?

Ha ha.. true true Lucyloo.... I am fortunate in that regard.
Sunova appreciated my stoke about their boards.
One thing led to another, now I am a fully connected Sunova Pimp and roving street walker.

cjf17
I have ridden the Skate in gentle waves, from 1' to OH.
Then I experimented on hollower days from 2' to OH.

In the right waves, the Skate is magic.
It is a wide tail board with little rocker and not much nose kick, so it works amazingly well in softer waves with sloping faces.
Important to remember: what makes it so good in softer waves, becomes a liability in hollow waves.

Super stable, picks up waves with ease...very fast, as you would expect with the wide outline and low rocker.
It is very responsive for a wide tail board, and easy to turn in small waves.
It is my favorite summer, small wave board... a joy to spend hours on.

On steep, sucking waves, the nose is hard to keep out of the water and the tail is a bit wide.
I got my ass kicked on a waist high day with steep faces.... the nose would stick in, or the tail would let go.

When I took it out on a head high day, with steep faces, I had more room to control the nose with an angled take-off.
It surprised me how fast it was... and Bert's rail magic allowed for some pretty good turns.
Having said that.... it was just a test... to see what I could handle on the Skate.
I would normally pick a board with more rocker, nose kick and narrower tail in steep waves.

Here's the Skate 9'2 in gentle, head high point waves.
You can see the conditions as I paddle out and my buddy goes by on his longboard.
Skate part starts at 1:55 after "the ONE"... both shot the same session.....
"the ONE" part shows the waves I was riding on the Skate... but the headband cam makes them look tiny.

Interesting post STC. For smaller (say 1-3 ft), hollow , steep, ugly beach breaks what is your preferred board ?
I would assume an 8'10 speeed or even the Flow ?

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supthecreek said..
Ha ha.. true true Lucyloo.... I am fortunate in that regard.
Sunova appreciated my stoke about their boards.
One thing led to another, now I am a fully connected Sunova Pimp and roving street walker.

cjf17
I have ridden the Skate in gentle waves, from 1' to OH.
Then I experimented on hollower days from 2' to OH.

In the right waves, the Skate is magic.
It is a wide tail board with little rocker and not much nose kick, so it works amazingly well in softer waves with sloping faces.
Important to remember: what makes it so good in softer waves, becomes a liability in hollow waves.

Super stable, picks up waves with ease...very fast, as you would expect with the wide outline and low rocker.
It is very responsive for a wide tail board, and easy to turn in small waves.
It is my favorite summer, small wave board... a joy to spend hours on.

On steep, sucking waves, the nose is hard to keep out of the water and the tail is a bit wide.
I got my ass kicked on a waist high day with steep faces.... the nose would stick in, or the tail would let go.

When I took it out on a head high day, with steep faces, I had more room to control the nose with an angled take-off.
It surprised me how fast it was... and Bert's rail magic allowed for some pretty good turns.
Having said that.... it was just a test... to see what I could handle on the Skate.
I would normally pick a board with more rocker, nose kick and narrower tail in steep waves.

Here's the Skate 9'2 in gentle, head high point waves.
You can see the conditions as I paddle out and my buddy goes by on his longboard.
Skate part starts at 1:55 after "the ONE"... both shot the same session.....
"the ONE" part shows the waves I was riding on the Skate... but the headband cam makes them look tiny.

Thanks for the info mate do u know much about fanatic allwave 8'5 ltd

Select to expand quote

Gboots said..
Interesting post STC. For smaller (say 1-3 ft), hollow , steep, ugly beach breaks what is your preferred board ?
I would assume an 8'10 speeed or even the Flow ?

Flow or acid...speeed nose can get caught IMO...

Select to expand quote

Gboots said..
Interesting post STC. For smaller (say 1-3 ft), hollow , steep, ugly beach breaks what is your preferred board ?
I would assume an 8'10 speeed or even the Flow ?

Steep, nasty beachbreak is what I ride.
The Speeed nose saves my ass all the time.... I count on it to handle the late, straight drops.
The Acid has the same great nose kick, and is my preferred board. It's made for late and steep.
If I could ride the Acid all the time, I would.

I tend to ride the 9'2 Speeed more when it's big because big, comes with more challenging conditions... and wetsuits
I'd rather ride the 9'4 Acid, but in the winter, when the waves are going off, I am usually surfing a competitive "prone" pointbreak.... and I don't want to risk too much falling down in the chop from 25 mph offshores... so I take the Speeed.

I am picking up an 8'10 Flow this weekend.... I will have more to say on the Flow after some time on it.
I had the 9'2 Flow, but it was a bit too big for me, and I would rather compare boards that all fit me about the same.
But....I can say, that my Flow had enough nose kick to handle late drops.

Select to expand quote

cjf17 said..

supthecreek said..
Ha ha.. true true Lucyloo.... I am fortunate in that regard.
Sunova appreciated my stoke about their boards.
One thing led to another, now I am a fully connected Sunova Pimp and roving street walker.

cjf17
I have ridden the Skate in gentle waves, from 1' to OH.
Then I experimented on hollower days from 2' to OH.

In the right waves, the Skate is magic.
It is a wide tail board with little rocker and not much nose kick, so it works amazingly well in softer waves with sloping faces.
Important to remember: what makes it so good in softer waves, becomes a liability in hollow waves.

Super stable, picks up waves with ease...very fast, as you would expect with the wide outline and low rocker.
It is very responsive for a wide tail board, and easy to turn in small waves.
It is my favorite summer, small wave board... a joy to spend hours on.

On steep, sucking waves, the nose is hard to keep out of the water and the tail is a bit wide.
I got my ass kicked on a waist high day with steep faces.... the nose would stick in, or the tail would let go.

When I took it out on a head high day, with steep faces, I had more room to control the nose with an angled take-off.
It surprised me how fast it was... and Bert's rail magic allowed for some pretty good turns.
Having said that.... it was just a test... to see what I could handle on the Skate.
I would normally pick a board with more rocker, nose kick and narrower tail in steep waves.

Here's the Skate 9'2 in gentle, head high point waves.
You can see the conditions as I paddle out and my buddy goes by on his longboard.
Skate part starts at 1:55 after "the ONE"... both shot the same session.....
"the ONE" part shows the waves I was riding on the Skate... but the headband cam makes them look tiny.

Thanks for the info mate do u know much about fanatic allwave 8'5 ltd

cjf17
I was an Allwave guy for years. They were great boards for a guy my size, they eased my early SUP journey into shorter and shorter....BUT, I always preferred the HRS over the LTD.
After 5 HRS models, I decided to try the new 8'5 LTD, and placed an order.
Fate stepped in after a few months of waiting... I cancelled the order, when I discovered the Speeed and was totally blown away by the Sunova ride!

Hi there cjf

i have surfed an 8'10" Sunova Skate for about 10 months on beach breaks on the west coast of Vancouver Island. It will pick up the tiniest of waves, is incredibly stable and easy to paddle. The construction is light, attractive and tough. It turns well from the middle and tail. This is from the perspective of a 70kg early intermediate older paddler. I could definitely go to a smaller size but have elected to get a Sunova Speeed. I have no intension of selling the Skate. Way to much fun and so easy to paddle. How heavy are you and what size Skate are you looking at?

Cheers

Bob

Hi FRP. I'm 73Kg and looking at a Speeed too. What size are you thinking? Have you demo'd any Speeeds?

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FRP said..
Hi there cjf

i have surfed an 8'10" Sunova Skate for about 10 months on beach breaks on the west coast of Vancouver Island. It will pick up the tiniest of waves, is incredibly stable and easy to paddle. The construction is light, attractive and tough. It turns well from the middle and tail. This is from the perspective of a 70kg early intermediate older paddler. I could definitely go to a smaller size but have elected to get a Sunova Speeed. I have no intension of selling the Skate. Way to much fun and so easy to paddle. How heavy are you and what size Skate are you looking at?

Cheers

Bob

Thanks for the info mate I'm looking at the 8 '6 135 lts and I'm 80kgs

have a look in the buy/sell. Plenty of Skates for sale. Which should tell you everything you need to know about the Skate. The speeed is a far better board.

Just checked. 3 skates, 2 speeeds, 1 flow and 1 style for sale. But point taken. From what I understand the speeed far outsells any other Sunova board and the reviews of the speeed are glowing.

Bob

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Hoppo3228 said..

Gboots said..
Interesting post STC. For smaller (say 1-3 ft), hollow , steep, ugly beach breaks what is your preferred board ?
I would assume an 8'10 speeed or even the Flow ?

Flow or acid...speeed nose can get caught IMO...

The Flow gets my vote.
Ugly beach breaks is what I have for breakfast. (Well maybe before breakfast..).
Had it for about 3 mths now and loving it.
Demoed the speeed too and for me the flow is better for the conditions I am mostly in as it just turns easier as I my foot doesn't have to get all the way back.
Would like a speeed too for the days when the waves are nicer and less choppy but then again, I can say the flow works well in those conditions too.

Select to expand quote

cjf17 said..
I'm looking at getting a Sunova skate at a good price and unable to demo and bit worried about tail does anyone have any info on these boards , any info would be much appreciated. I was originally looking at 8'5 Ltd allwave ,cheers

I have a 8'6" Skate. Surfed it from ankle slippers to well overhead. Have a 7'4" hyper nut now. I have a couple videos on vimeo, still use it if a long paddle out is required or feeling lazy. I'd sell the skate for $700 but you'd have to come pick it up.

This is my read on these boards, having sold SUNOVA of 3 years now.
The SPEEED outsells everything as an all round performance surfing board. Dont let the nose fool you - that straight entry is what the front end is all about. Speed! The back end is where the juice is and this is what gives this board a life of its own. The combination of excellent glide (you never missa wave) drive- from the straight rails under foot, and squirt from the channels in the tail and you have an unbeatable combo.
if you eat "Ugly beach breaks for breakfast" (classic, that made me laugh xurfxup), you cant beat the FLOW. Its curvier outline just loves dropping into a sucky wall and it luvs steep take off's. It also has some girth if you like a wide board under foot.
If you you mainly eat "mush burgers" then the SKATE or the SHROOM are the go. The Skate surfs very much like a fish surf board and is really popular where it is small and often weak. The Shroom is a Skate on funky Steroids offering more speed and a bit more versatility than the Skate. The Soul, Skate and the Acid were the first SUNOVA performance boards released over 2 years ago. The Speeed (a year later) was added response to the Minion madness that was ON at the time. The ACID has been modified since its initial release and now RIPS - if you know how to rip a low volume surf shape!
Cheers AA

AA

interesting insights. Thank you for your input.

For a beach break like Wanda at Cronulla in maximum 2 to 3 feet waves for a beginner SUP surfer at 65kg (an experienced flatwater paddler), I would assume the Flow or Skate would be best suited ?

My concern with the Skate is the nose catching due to low nose rocker but it would appear to have better glide than the Shroom for catching waves.

The Skate and Flow have flat decks so would be excellent for balance. The other board that comes to mind is the Starboard Hypernut at say an 8'6 length

Personally I like the idea of a nose rider like the Style 10 or Fanatic Stylemaster but they probably need a more skilled surfer and probably not suited to black breaks

Board lengths considered appropriate :

Skate 8'10 - good glide, flat deck, stable due to wide tail
Flow 8'10 - flat deck, stable, can turn from middle but may be more difficult to catch wave
Speeed 8'10 - may be to tippy for beginner due to dome deck but I likethe idea of ease of catching waves
Shroom - just doesn't feel right for a beginner SUP surfer

I currently have only SUP surfed a 9 foot Starboard Converse iSup and a 7'11 waterborne Evoke. The 7'11 is great but at 130L for such a short length would seem to be a performance board for a bigger person. My wave count on the 7'11 is poor . Too many misses

GBoots i just got my Speeed and i reckon it will handle anything Cronulla can throw at you... until it gets too big, then it will handle anything Baysurf can throw at you...

Gboots.
I have owned the Evoke 7'11 as a beginner & found it hard to catch waves too. I think it was a bit short and a bit wide so tended to yaw a lot. (I'm 5'7 or so and 77Kgs)
The Speeed 8'10 is a great board but the straight rails make it a bit harder to turn when going for the wave and I found it a bit less stable than the Flow, though not much.
I think at your size though, a shorter Speeed (maybe an 8'8) would be better as it just makes it a bit easier to get your back foot near the fins to turn.
The Flow 8'10 paddles straighter than the Flow 8'7 when going for the wave in my opinion but is easier to turn when going for the wave than the Speeed unless you get your fancy footwork happening. (Mine is getting better but I'm a slow learner).
Due to the low tail rocker of the Flow - its actually pretty fast and catches waves easily too.
I agonized over the Flow and the Speeed for quite a while, but very happy with the Flow at my level (intermediate - 2.5 yrs SUP surfing).

I liked the Hypernut 8'6 too but found it didn't punch through the whitewash as well as the Sunovas.
You could go to a 8' Hypernut at your weight easily.
Another thought might be to look at the Jimmy Lewis Striker.
Not tried one but the dimensions look good for someone your size.

Get a skate , shroom,. or all wave that suits your weight for fun small waves as part of your quiver This allows you to ride a lot smaller length which suits the smaller shape of a smaller wave . Than get a pro wave , spitfire or speeed for the bigger suckier days. The less width but extra length for similar volume is great for the extra wave size .If you had to choose one to suit most situations id choose between the Shroom , Speeed or Spitfire .
Have fun

I think just get the speeed - around 90 - 100L and about 27 - 28" wide or maybe get a custom ?:-)

Got 5 Sunova's and cant fault them in anyway, very happy customer. Sunova have also helped out this week with making a custom board bag for one of the smaller non standard sz boards i have. Excellent customer service.

I went to purchase a speeed about 2 years ago ended up with a skate . Really enjoy it . Regularly surf in 20 knot plus onshore wind with waist/ shoulder high high waves and this board is lots of fun in those conditions .Nose does catch in the wind chop due to flat rocker .But the board is easy as on the paddle out / same standing out the back / surfs like sunova says it does on the website .
Have yet to see the shroom but currently tossing up between another skate or a shroom for a spare . I can't fault the sunova construction . Have flogged the skate for 2 years , looks as good as new aside from 1 repaired rock ding .

Sunova 8'5" speed vs 8'2" fanatic stubby ???????