Sunova Acid 8’11 Review I recently got the 2015 Sunova Acid 8’11 x 30” x 41/4” @120L in the XXX tech construction. I got it to be my big board to partner with a Deep Minion 7’4 x 27.75” @104L and use it on the choppy days when the Minion is too hard and for chunky beach breaks with a lot of current and white water. I hadn’t even heard of Sunova or Bert Burger until I got the board to demo. Turns out Bert knows what he is talking about…
Requirements: It was really important that it worked in small crappy choppy waves as that is what I needed the bigger board to work in – as well as the odd good wave session. The rider: I am 46, 5’7”, 85kg, competent/advanced rider based in Auckland, NZ.
Previous boards” 9’5 Naish Mana, 9’ Hokua, 8’5 Luke Short Designs, 8’6 LSD Fish, 8’4 Fanatic ProWave.
Current boards: 8’11 Sunova Acid @120L, 7’4 Deep Minion @104L, 14’ x 26” DC custom raceboard. All Aussie brands for some reason!?
Shape: I will let Bert talk you through this bit but it’s a short board turned into a SUP with loads of outline curve, thin tucked rails and a radical flyer and hip that pulls into a narrow tail.
Construction: These boards look beautiful! They have curves in all the right places and the balsa wood deck looks amazing plus the silver paint effect on the parabolic rails makes the board a premium product. They are pretty light and I am very impressed with the new pull-out handle which is so much better than most other brands. It even has a mini windsurfing track built in which is perfect for me as I wavesail and now I have a light wind ‘float’n’ride’ waveboard as a back up when the wind is 8-15knots and there is side-shore wind and waves. The goretex vent plug is the way to go and should be on all boards.
Fins: Tri-fin set up. The stock fins are quite big but have a bit of flex and work well. I usually never use stock fins as they are often poor quality or too big and stiff. But I haven’t felt the need to change the fins yet, but I will experiment with different sized fins and flex.
All these features make the Acid XXX construction a very premium and attractive product.
Conditions: I have had about 6 sessions/8 hours on it in waist to shoulder high crappy beach breaks and in glassy and pretty choppy conditions i.e. not the waves it is actually designed for. However, this board needed to work in these conditions, as that is what I needed a bigger board to do. I will report back when I have had some quality waves but wanted to write this review while I have the time right now.
Riding: When I first jumped on the 8’11 Acid it felt a bit tippy for its size, @120L x 30” wide, for a couple of minutes but I quickly adapted and now I find it very stable in the choppiest of sea states. It sits low in the water due to the thin rails and doesn’t feel corky at all in side chop which is great. It feels really crisp to ride which I like as I am used to that feel from having had loads of sandwich construction boards. It feels nervous under foot, in an exciting way, like it wants to really take off and charge down the line! But at the same time you can relax and do some mellow turns on it – but you know you shouldn’t. The Acid catches everything you go for! Really impressed at how easily it gets into the fattest choppiest crappy waves and generates lift and speed. I haven’t missed a wave on it yet! Now for a board that is supposed to be for fast bowling waves, it is super easy to turn from the middle, as you do, in soft crappy waves. I was stoked that it was able to be ridden mid rail in small gutless waves as that is what I ride a lot i.e. not going to get back to the tail pad in these waves. But I have done some sweet fast bottom turns on some clean shoulder high waves, where you get over the rail and get the paddle in the wave face and can get low and leveraged into the turn, and it was electric! Backside riding on a SUP is tricky at the best of times and kinda technical, but I have found the radically pulled in tail on the Acid makes it really pivoty going backside bottom and top turns. The pivoty action seems to make backside turns tighter and snappier! So the backside riding ability of the Acid is amazing and is doing wonders for my backside hacks.
Narrow tail: Bert talks about
,” the narrow tail means you can stall it and hit the brakes , wash off speed if you need to”. Now washing off speed is something I have never thought I’d need to do on a SUP as you are always wanting more speed not less and while I have done a lot of SUP surfing I have never been in barreling waves where I needed to stall and tuck in. The ability to wash off speed and make pivoty turns is something I have found can work in small waves to stay in the pocket rather than get pushed out into the flats and try to get more speed again.
Overall impression: The Acid is a high performance SUP in a unique premium balsa wood epoxy sandwich construction that is rapidly becoming my “go-to” board. It is stable, fast, crisp, catches everything, can ride small soft choppy waves with ease, can be turned from the middle , offers pivoty and full rail turning options and makes backside riding is easy. It is like a Ferrari but you can take it to the supermarket and still have fun on it. I can feel the pedigree in the shape and can’t wait to ride some head high+ waves with open faces to full unleash the potential of the Acid as it will probably blow my mind!
Flow V Acid Direct from Bert “The Acid needs a competent rider .. low rails , defined Hip/Flyer, really narrow tail, more tail rocker, with the curvy outline , it has a similar twitchier feel to the Flow when surfing from the middle, the low rail can be buried at speed from the middle, it has a softer bottom edge so it handles late drops really well, the defined flyer gives it a pivoty feel off the back foot, the narrow tail means you can stall it and hit the brakes , wash off speed if you need to, the extra tail rocker allows you to attack the pocket at speed and have comfortable hold …the Acid is designed for sucky , bowly waves allowing a rider to go top to bottom with ease, for sure the most high performance board in the range , needing better quality waves” www.standuppaddleboarder.co.uk/sup-shop/sunova-uk-the-acid/
Stev0
> 9 months ago, 6 Feb 2016
