I went from an 8'10 JP pro to a 8'2" speeed and Im 80kg, I would think you could ride a 8'5" speeed no problem at 90kg and the 8'10" would be more stable than your JP at the same size, the speeed is a very stable board at the secondary level, the domed deck makes it a little wobbly at the initial level which puts some people off when they first try it IMO.

I would never argue with Johnny Maya but he is riding boards to the lower volume limit of his weight which most of us arnt' or can't t so we may need to move our back foot a little more than him, though being so narrow at the tail no one has to move their foot around as much as nearly any other SUP board.

Personally I find the speeed tracks amazingly good for it's size and using larger fins will also help in this regard, I'm having trouble sourcing a suitable rear fin in FCS so just use the original fin provided with two of the von piros V8's or V6's. I have ridden several other big name brands of boards that are of this size and or volume and none of them even come close to how the speeed tracks IMHO.

I find the handle which I never really liked at first is actually very handy when you are standing inside on the sand bank and you can just lift the board straight up off the water and over the whitewash whilst you wait for a lull to paddle back out, the speeed also performs very well when paddling over whitewater too.

The weak point of the board I have found is the bottom which is quite thin, hence why the board is so light, I hit a floating branch or piece of wood whilst on a wave the other day and yep it ripped a gash in it, mind you I haven't found a board I couldn't damage yet!, you will also get cracks in the glass on the bottom if your paddle makes contact which happens after wipe outs occasionally, the rails and top are quite tough though.

IMO If you want a SUP you can get barrelled on like a shortboard the speed is the go to board.

See this thing on the back of your board it's called stomp pad with a kick. Regardless of what board you own your back foot belongs on this when you are jamming turns. You can't do rail turns without your foot on the back of the board. Next time you take off glance down and see where your foot is , you will surprised how far forward it is. By forcing the board from the middle will make you bog the rail and slide....which in turn makes you think your fins are too small. just thought I would throw this in after reading all the above comments.

My 2 bobs worth on the Sunova Flow I think it's a great looking board , I have seen one in the shop the 8-4 and compared it to my JP 8-6 different boards but similar attributes with the Flow looking a tad more stable.

Board sliding hmm I have a little trouble with that I thought it was the fins sliding out mainly back had
With the flow in respect of the bigger 8,10 it would seem to be miles more stable than the jp 8,10

Your 8,6 jp and the 8,7 flow may well be a bit close to each other

No it's not

Can you expand your answer please

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Piros said..
See this thing on the back of your board it's called stomp pad with a kick. Regardless of what board you own your back foot belongs on this when you are jamming turns. You can't do rail turns without your foot on the back of the board. Next time you take off glance down and see where your foot is , you will surprised how far forward it is. By forcing the board from the middle will make you bog the rail and slide....which in turn makes you think your fins are too small. just thought I would throw this in after reading all the above comments.

My 2 bobs worth on the Sunova Flow I think it's a great looking board , I have seen one in the shop the 8-4 and compared it to my JP 8-6 different boards but similar attributes with the Flow looking a tad more stable.

Guilty there your honour. I do look down and my foot is forward and to do any decent turn I have to consciously step it back - problem with spontaneity there. I don't slide from not putting it back, but turns are "stiff" ( for lack of a better term). My main reason for my foot being forward is to get up speed to drive down the line.
I have bought some larger fins and thruster set up to see how that goes, but no swell since I've had them in, so no report there.

Hmm. JP 8'6" x 29" x 4.1" x 113; Flow 8'7" x 30.25" x 4 3/8" x 121!

Like Piros said. Not even close!

Then that would make the jp 8,10 and the flow 8,10 To be not a lot in it

Yep. Although the 8'10" Flow would be much more stable as it is over an inch wider and has more surface area in the tail..

I think it needs fore than tail area to make it far more stable than the jp 8,10
This jp surfs well but no glide at all.
Good 3 ft today but with water movement just plain hard work

Plus because there is no real glide at my weight 90kg plus another 2 kg for wetsuit I feel I'm pushing the weight limit

And my tendons are not thanking me for trying to push such a board under my big but

A board over one full inch wider at the same length is going to more stable..Good luck !! with your search. Demo demo beg borrow steal!

I'm going for either a jp wide body 8,8 or flow 8,10

Both will cover all chop but more so the jp of course being wider again

Great shame for the Stand Up Paddle Forum police (in my humble opinion......although Sup The Creek sometimes calls me "Grizzily" ....always grizziling on about something
Am thinking back to that topic "My Sic Quiver"
At the time I said "why is this topic not being moved to the board talk forum?".....as it was obviously board talk
Never happened.....and now the Forum Police move this thread to the board talk forum ???
As I said at the time there seem to be two different forum policies......one for the forum poster who is presumably giving money to the forum administrators.
And one for the general punter who is enthusiastic about a board....but there is no money changing hands?

I am coming to the conclusion that any brand in the respective sizes are so close to each other that there may never be one board that is more stable than the other and therefor it's just a matter if buying what you like the look of the most.

I was looking at the flow but compared to my 8,10 jp surf No real difference in stability or marginal if anything so if I was buying a Flow to replace my jp surf it is purely a cosmetic and weight choice.

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Foam said..
I am coming to the conclusion that any brand in the respective sizes are so close to each other that there may never be one board that is more stable than the other and therefor it's just a matter if buying what you like the look of the most.

I was looking at the flow but compared to my 8,10 jp surf No real difference in stability or marginal if anything so if I was buying a Flow to replace my jp surf it is purely a cosmetic and weight choice.

Hey Foam,

Thats pretty general. As much as we like to thank you for loving our look, there is definitely a few key facts that separate this technology from anything out there.
Even tho every slight shape difference has a huge effect on the overall performance of a board. Lets even avoid discussing the shape parts of your comment, as thats Bert's job ;-).

As has been pointed out many times here and there and by us everywhere our Balsa tech is light. Almost, or as light as full carbon construction. However, we do not use carbon, except for the rails. AND, this has a few major advantages:

Carbon is STIFF! And that's in general a bad thing.
1) It's stiff for the overall boards which flexes less in the wave and worse if it can't flex it also cannot SPRING back, which is another big advantage of Bert's Balsa Flex Tech and why he invented it for surfboards. But it works just a good for SUP.

2) The second stiffness is in the surfaces. And this is probably the most under stated part of our boards and why the general feeling is pretty positive.
Thats a good thing for the deck which should be stiff, and Bert solved this with the resin I-BEAMS on all Balsa Flex boards (they are the black lines of the boards).
On the bottom however stiffness is really bad. Its the reason why boards are unstable or shatter or bump in less than perfect conditions. Bert decided to use thinner BALSA on the bottom WITHOUT the I-BEAMS, which make the bottom surface actually give in. The EPS has memory and pushes it back really well. What that does is that it works almost like a suspension system for the boards.

This is what we think is why our boards actually are selling well. Because they FEEL really comfortable. It almost feels like you could use less litres to get the same stability than on another construction.

I have lately tested this construction on a windsurf race board against a standard RRD Windsurf board and the difference was mind-blowing. First you can hear it (or better you don't hear anything...) and second it feels super smooth.

Ok. so much for this one. Happy to go for the look. But more than the look.

Was also explained in that old video from SFX and Piros.


jump to: 2:00 mins

Thanx,
Tino

I was just making a comment in regards to stability not construction .
My comments based on stability for both the mentioned boards was from bert him self .
As I was sure the 8,10 flow had far more stability than the jp surf 8,10
But no this is not the case and as such was advised the difference was marginal.

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Foam said...
I was just making a comment in regards to stability not construction
My comments based on stability for both the mentioned boards was from bert him self .
As I was sure the 8,10 flow had far more stability than the jp surf 8,10
But no this is not the case and as such was advised the difference was marginal.

Hey foam.
I appreciated your comment and did not mean mine as being against yours. But I did think it was a good opportunity to point out some details on the actual tech. We usually lack this from our side.
Thanx.

Tino, you guys need to stop with all this innovation. It is so confusing being a buyer. What width? What length? What shape? Flow, or Acid, or Speeed, or ?? What if it is choppy? What if the waves are big? Or small? Or fat? Or hollow?

It is doing my head in!

Kidding of course (But it is tricky deciding on the right board.)

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Piros said..
See this thing on the back of your board it's called stomp pad with a kick. Regardless of what board you own your back foot belongs on this when you are jamming turns. You can't do rail turns without your foot on the back of the board. Next time you take off glance down and see where your foot is , you will surprised how far forward it is. By forcing the board from the middle will make you bog the rail and slide....which in turn makes you think your fins are too small. just thought I would throw this in after reading all the above comments.

My 2 bobs worth on the Sunova Flow I think it's a great looking board , I have seen one in the shop the 8-4 and compared it to my JP 8-6 different boards but similar attributes with the Flow looking a tad more stable.

Should copy this into a new thread... this is the most important yet overlooked detail in any type of surfing. I constantly have to force myself to get my foot back, even on 6' 0" shortboards. You really only feel a fraction of what your board can do without your rear foot on this... and for ultra sensitivity and the highest performance, jam your foot into the ramp on the back.

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Tino42 said...

Foam said...
I was just making a comment in regards to stability not construction
My comments based on stability for both the mentioned boards was from bert him self .
As I was sure the 8,10 flow had far more stability than the jp surf 8,10
But no this is not the case and as such was advised the difference was marginal.

Hey foam.
I appreciated your comment and did not mean mine as being against yours. But I did think it was a good opportunity to point out some details on the actual tech. We usually lack this from our side.
Thanx.

Yep no worries at all yes your construction is beautifull and I would love to own one but not when it's so close to my jp in stability .
Love my jp surfs great but a **** ass pain in any chop but I am getting better at dealing with this but I still will be on the look out for a bit more stability with the chop here lately I feel more like a knee Boarder.
But when it's clean oh yeaaaaaaaa can't get me off the ceiling

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Tino42 said..

This is what we think is why our boards actually are selling well. Because they FEEL really comfortable.

Yup, that's probably one of the many reasons.

I find them so comfortable, that i'm considering start sleeping on my new boards once they arrive...

I'm just not sure if my marriage will survive that, as the Mrs. already complains a lot about the time i spend around my current boards!!!

Cheers,
Johnny

Picked up my flow during the week can't wait to take it out tomorrow over on the west coast ended up getting the 8'7 x 30 x 120liters

Looks nice!

Beautiful board.

I just got another beauty, but it is a bit smaller:


Sunova Magic Carpet 6'4".