Ive been following the Sunova Speeed thread for close on a year. Ive had amazing feedback from Tino, Supbru, Supmaori, Caution, Supthecreek and others. After much deliberation re size, 3 boards landed in South Africa recently for Ian and I.
Ian is 80kg and Im 70kg and we have the 8.5, 8.2 and 7.11.
The first thing to hit you when unwrapping them is that these boards in their construction and looks are a work of art.
Ian and I had a session in small shoulder high waves and swapped around on the 8.2 and 8.5. Ian thought he would be better with the 8.5 but actually found the 8.2 stable enough and more maneuverable.

I subsequently had 3 sessions in great condition with just over head high down the line waves on the 8.2.
I found it very stable and easy to get out through the white water. What was very noticeable was the ease of getting onto a wave and then the incredible speed this well named SUP generates.
(Would that there was someone taking photos or a video of the incredible waves. It was a deserted beach with just my dog watching from the shore and at one stage a lone surfer joined me)
Im dying to get the 7.11 out.

So from all the reading and research and after just a few sessions I must say Im completely taken with these boards. They have lived upto and far exceeded all expectations.
Thanks a stack to you all on this forum for all your help and advice.
If anyone in the fair cape wants to have a look / try, give me a shout.

Stoked for you Tannaman..Happy to have been able to help out
Chur brother

I guess the speed is the most acclaimed board ever :)

Good stuff - enjoy your new stick dude!

The Speeed gets a lot of love for being both versatile and high performance, a combo that is tough to pull off. Gotta love being able to split three boards between two people. Nice way to do a quiver.

I've found that when riding a Speeed that is relatively close to your weight you can down size your fins a lot. I ride a 123L 8'8 at 103 kg and have found that the board really comes alive with PC-7 sized fins, which are what I would use in most short boards and quite a bit smaller than the 103 fins that came with the board..

Yep totally agree i found the 103s way to big for me,had better luck with 85s or 83 cant quite remember but have found the c drives really good in 8.10 and 8.5.I will add that on the rare occasion where im out in big clean forehand waves i do like the hold of the sunover fins,really find them solid on big bottom turns.

Sorry for hijacking, but how can you tell the difference between the small fins and large fins?

Tannaman, ha ha... you got ALL the board sizes we discussed.... that's one way to get the right one

Have a great summer on your new toys, and yes.... some SA vids would be fun to see!

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cantSUPenough said..
Sorry for hijacking, but how can you tell the difference between the small fins and large fins?

The Sunova fins have numbers printed on them that theoretically correspond to the suggested weight of the rider. So 103s are for someone who is 103kgs, but as a 103kg person, I still think they are too big on my speeed. I use large sized c-drives they work just fine.

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exiled said..

cantSUPenough said..
Sorry for hijacking, but how can you tell the difference between the small fins and large fins?

The Sunova fins have numbers printed on them that theoretically correspond to the suggested weight of the rider. So 103s are for someone who is 103kgs, but as a 103kg person, I still think they are too big on my speeed. I use large sized c-drives they work just fine.

Sorry, I meant from a surfing point of view. Do you find it is easier to turn, are you less likely to slide out, does stability change, do you go faster? I am not even 100% why I would swap from thruster to quad let alone why I would change fin size. I keep meaning to experiment with fins within a session (to really test the difference), but once I am surfing I don't want to come out and change fins...

good to hear tannaman.
keep us posted with the stoke!

surfed the 9'5 today in one foot surf (waist high)......lots of fun without worrying in an anal fashion about fin size

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cantSUPenough said..

exiled said..

cantSUPenough said..
Sorry for hijacking, but how can you tell the difference between the small fins and large fins?

The Sunova fins have numbers printed on them that theoretically correspond to the suggested weight of the rider. So 103s are for someone who is 103kgs, but as a 103kg person, I still think they are too big on my speeed. I use large sized c-drives they work just fine.

Sorry, I meant from a surfing point of view. Do you find it is easier to turn, are you less likely to slide out, does stability change, do you go faster? I am not even 100% why I would swap from thruster to quad let alone why I would change fin size. I keep meaning to experiment with fins within a session (to really test the difference), but once I am surfing I don't want to come out and change fins...

With smaller fins I have found it easier to turn the board from the middle and easier to get a more vertical turn when I do have my foot back all the way. It really opened the board up for me without losing any appreciable drive. Old style fiberglass FCS thruster sets are like ~$40 USD from places like indofins, its worth it to buy the next couple of sizes down.

Select to expand quote

exiled said..

cantSUPenough said..

exiled said..

cantSUPenough said..
Sorry for hijacking, but how can you tell the difference between the small fins and large fins?

The Sunova fins have numbers printed on them that theoretically correspond to the suggested weight of the rider. So 103s are for someone who is 103kgs, but as a 103kg person, I still think they are too big on my speeed. I use large sized c-drives they work just fine.

Sorry, I meant from a surfing point of view. Do you find it is easier to turn, are you less likely to slide out, does stability change, do you go faster? I am not even 100% why I would swap from thruster to quad let alone why I would change fin size. I keep meaning to experiment with fins within a session (to really test the difference), but once I am surfing I don't want to come out and change fins...

With smaller fins I have found it easier to turn the board from the middle and easier to get a more vertical turn when I do have my foot back all the way. It really opened the board up for me without losing any appreciable drive. Old style fiberglass FCS thruster sets are like ~$40 USD from places like indofins, its worth it to buy the next couple of sizes down.

Great - thanks for letting me know!