Hi - thanks to advice on here I had narrowed my new board choice to a Fanatic Allwave but now that I have had an unexpected car bill there is no way I can afford a new board. So it is the second hand market for me and there's no Allwaves coming up where I am. There's a good number of Whoppers and Drives though.

My bias is for surfing but I am now seeing the benefits of just getting out on calm coastal water for fitness paddling too. So my thoughts on the two boards are:

Drive: better all rounder, good on flat water and can surf. As i am mainly surfing I'd like to hear views on how well they surf on smaller waist high waves that are pretty weak mostly. Keep on hearing they are tippy boards but I am guessing that is just lack of water time? I'.m thinking this board has more progression built into it rather than the Whopper?

Whopper: very stable, good in surf, quick to learn on but a dog on the flat. My main worry on the Whopper is is the calm coastal paddling....will it just zig zag and just be sooooo slow or not that bad really and bearable. Will after a few months surfing on it will I find the width limiting and be wanting a more streamlined board? I've also heard that being slow doesn't help on catching waves but surely that width helps? Is there too much rocker on it to get smaller weaker waves?

Advice welcome...lots of thoughts going through my mind as you can see. I am 90 kg. Thanks in advance. (Oh...no dealers where I am to demo and only two or three SUP paddlers ride my beach break and they are on tiny surf SUPs)

Hi Slab
If you read your own post I think you know the answer to your question already.
Go the Drive, It's what I surf and I enjoy it in any type of waves. It's 30.5 wide so stability should not be an issue. You can surf it from the tail in the larger stuff or from the middle in fuller waves. I think the wopper might be a little too much board for you at 90kgs.
Cheers Scott

Yes Waterhorse - when I was writing the post I was conscious that I was kind of answeting my own question but it is based purely on reading and no practical experience so good to get others' views and experiences. Like the pic!

yep the drive is the go, I got rid of mine to fund the purchase of a 9'5 WP from Starboard and that is an excellent board, however, the drive should have remained in the garage for just mucking about on.

enjoy the DRIVE it is a SUP that places a smile on your face as you get to cruise on waves & add a bit of OLD SKOOL stylin' with drop knee turns & looong cutbacks .. it is heaps of fun

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Slab said...

Yes Waterhorse - when I was writing the post I was conscious that I was kind of answeting my own question but it is based purely on reading and no practical experience so good to get others' views and experiences. Like the pic!

I see at my hometurf never the kind of waves Supbali post but for the "realworld" conditions (for me that is something between knee and shoulderhigh on a good day with chop, a short waveperiod, more crumbling and windgenerated as pure swell waves) I LOVE THE DRIVE!
I tested the whopper as well (a overated board imo) and got a WP8.10 and a Hokua9.0 too but everytime I surf it the Drive its just fun.
The WP turns a lot tighter, the Hokua hard work but insane surfing and a adrenalin rush, but the Drive..........
Its real stable, picking up every wrinkle you can imagine and still handles a decent size on those od days and holidays. Its really a bit of longboard style surfing so a lot of walking but once you know how to do it it can turn pretty tight as making proper noserides as well, behaves nice and hard to explain but good fun.
As a fitness tourboard its doing fine a 10km when sightseeing a nature waterpark.
In speed it won,t even come close to a tour or raceboard, but as a comfy cruiser its doing fine.

Tip: get one with a deckpad or put one on yourself. If you are paddling cold/not to warm water the startough gets slippery