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SUP Gear Reviews / Newly Acquired / On Order / Re: Sunova Driftwood - Build project

« on: July 10, 2020, 08:58:24 PM »

Aloha SUPthecreek
I have greatest respect for Sunova which why i WAS ORIGINALLY shocked...it took me awhile OFFLINE to find out who Burchas was and WE ARE GOOD and I understand WHY.

You may be the Sunova, I'm not picking a fight with or Sunova just getting to the truth.. And you can't really comment and be sarcastic about how things really you don't understand the difficulty of logistics of hawaii - This just happened today - shipping rates up 47% by our monopoly operator - 90% of everything we have in Hawaii comes in by ship ..

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/2020/07/10/hawaii-news/young-brothers-seeks-47-rate-hike/?fbclid=IwAR0sP4L-BI2-5hvZy6NMHC4F4fwoS_GpBP-JejYX3Flo02-Ps_79SuX8FaE

So don't be judgemental when you don't know how expensive doing anything in Hawaii is ! - Aloha -

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SUP Gear Reviews / Newly Acquired / On Order / Re: Sunova Driftwood - Build project

« on: July 10, 2020, 09:42:42 AM »

Aloha Luc,

We used to have a FL distributor but it was a disaster because the one time we relented to the distributor to make "cheaper" boards it ruined our quality rep... so we never touched it again. That being said we are working on finding distributors who are real enthusiasts not just transactional, we also want all our distributors to make all the money so they can grow organically "farm to table " so to speak ..i.e. once approved our distributors buy the boards at PRODUCTION COST plus 15% overlay to cover production management & logistics... a much much bigger margin than buying at wholesale and selling at retail...basically from a net position, the distributor is in the same position as us.. We primarily focus on Hawaii and let our distributors we trust manage their area as their own kingdom. We have enough on our plate in Hawaii to deal with, our lifestyle is more important as we are all getting older mid 50s..

As to the Carbon Wood construction, we vacuum bag EACH layer SEPARATELY - 1st layer S-glass to LOCK IN the foam shape, then the carbon  ( we just OVERLAP the rails and wood, otherwise the board gets too heavy ) , then the wood veneer & final glass layer so that board takes 3 baggings to get to where it is.. Our all wood construction takes 2 baggings thus the difference in cost.. The construction is already overkill in terms of structural rigidity since we have a stringer in most of our boards ( except the Raceboards by request to reduce weight )

There is no magic to physics...less WEIGHT will equal Less Durability ( less structural material ) - we minimize it to the max by at least doing DOUBLE vacuum bagging but TROPICAL woods are heavier but blended with Carbon, it's very strong..We just honest enough to be transparent about it... you can always make a board lighter, just REMOVE materials, it will be lighter, but it will SNAP easy. I dread sharing our build techniques openly so please contact me directly if you can. ian@hyprnalu.com - Have a great day everyone. Aloha

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SUP Gear Reviews / Newly Acquired / On Order / Re: Sunova Driftwood - Build project

« on: July 10, 2020, 08:02:28 AM »

Aloha Everyone,
I hope you guys understand how it feels like when you've worked on something for years going against the grain of the fashionable trends and then be villified when it's the right thing to do.. Well I haven't logged on to the Zone in 10 years precisely because this is not the forum to share any new ideas. However the good news is I realized who Burchas was and the joke is WE had discussed doing this 13ft Raceboard before. I was very upfront with him about the real problem for a small company..SHIPPING LOGISTICS...so I contacted him offline and WE ARE GOOD...We are working on alternatives to get him what he wants.

I would have loved to make the board for Burchas but from experience I knew, I just couldn't ship a board like that by AIR CARGO...Even Before the Pandemic, all the airlines kept reducing the size of boards anyone can ship at ever increasing prices. The REAL TRAGEDY here for all of us is the AIRLINES ( at least in the US ) where quarterly profits and OVERLEVERAGED balance sheets means less and less service. Now with Govt. bailout and pandemic traffic, less planes etc. even our local Hawaiian Airlines have now restricted Inter Island shipments of air cargo ( not just baggage ) to 9ft boards officially. So if we can't ship by container to a regional port and maybe truck it locally then no point. As usual SMALL companies making BIG objects that do not have  the resources to have a big distribution network will be at a great disadvantage. The big and rich will get bigger and richer in the greatest money printing episode in the history of the US...unfortunately poor and small will get poorer and smaller. See you guys in another 10 years, feel free to bitch at me directly, contact info is on our website. Case is closed ! Aloha

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SUP Gear Reviews / Newly Acquired / On Order / Re: Sunova Driftwood - Build project

« on: July 09, 2020, 09:31:33 PM »

Tall Dude,
I don't disagree with you in terms of all the different possiblities of hull designs and EVEN MORE SO for Shape outlines for surfboards, but SUP hulls was NOT an 80s or 90s thing..it really got going after Y2K and had always started with FLAT PLANING bottoms because most were more concerned about STABILITY. Right from the beginning we eschewed what others were doing and went our own way. I did NOT even know about Bill Stewart.. the Stewart I know is Mike Stewart (now also on the Big Island of Hawaii ) who makes the Science Bodyboards ( and so do we as custom boards ).. So as far a LONG RACEBOARDS, we grafted a canoe nose onto a SUP and i was doing to integrate a SUP, Surfski and Outrigger into one piece of equipment -

But we decided to focus on our GUNS instead because we do want to SURF our boards regardless of LENGTH.. We made OC-1s before (21ft long) so 12'6 or 14 etc is no different, the longer the board, the more you have to pay attention to DRAG...so we tried all kinds of concaves and settled on the "variable width hull" where you stand WIDER than you MOVE - and PROPORTIONS matter in SUP because you're STANDING on it, the empirical tests we did over 2 years came to the proportion formula we have been in production for more than 5 years.

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SUP Gear Reviews / Newly Acquired / On Order / Re: Sunova Driftwood - Build project

« on: July 09, 2020, 04:00:25 PM »

Tried to post this before - but it got deleted -- so I will reword it

Burchas could have just ordered it, and we ship boards to Australia all the time but with the global lockdown that is no longer possible to fly ANYTHING over 10ft - we have been looking for an Australian distributor for a LONG TIME... but everyone seems to just want to sell the cheapest nastiest crap.

We don't use SOFT materials like Bamboo, Paulownia, Balsa - that is CHEAP materials in the name of "sustainability for the environment" - that's why we don't use the whole log, just the strongest HARDWOOD veneers

For the quality materials and the ridiculous amount of labor we put into the boards - our boards are incredible VALUE - Cheap is NOT VALUE - I like to think we sell a Porsche for the price of a Toyota

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SUP Gear Reviews / Newly Acquired / On Order / Re: Sunova Driftwood - Build project

« on: July 09, 2020, 03:34:00 PM »

This SUNOFAGUN custom build project is just a CUSTOM KNOCKOFF- RIPOFF...For 7 years now we were the first to do LONG GUNS with our patented Variable Width Hull design - this is the latest iteration - also available in 14ft -   - we get knocked off a lot because we're a small company

SUNOVA jumped into the BIG BULBOUS PENIS nose like every other company in the world...we WENT the OTHER WAY.. This includes the DUGOUTS ( we use outrigger canoes in Hawaii )

Starboard was the first to copy about 4 years ago for their ALLSTAR line of boards, this year about the same time Sunova did this, I found out that INFINITY did exactly the same custom build for another "Brand Ambassador" as a "custom knockoff" -

They can knock it off and when it worthwhile to take legal action, we will - but in the end THOSE are IN THE KNOW... THEY KNOW !! ... it's only the clueless that get conned into paying BIG BUCKS for a "custom" job when it has been our REGULAR PRODUCTION BOARD for more than 7 years !!!
Our GUN series goes from 9'6, 10'6, 11'6", 12'6 and 14'

I understand some buy ripoffs because they are CHEAPER but ours actually COST LESS and much better material and workmanship - We ONLY MAKE NAKED BOARDS - If you're gonna be Naked , you'd better be FLAWLESS -- BONDO and PAINT to hide crap is not an ATTRIBUTE

HYPR Philosophy - TRANSPARENCY - CLEARLY NAKED - " If you're gonna be NAKED, you better be FLAWLESS" - Our carbon boards are made with a single sheet carbon wrap for HYPR Strength & Stiffness - like racecars CARBON MONOCOQUE SHELL - we do not use carbon trimmings, scraps, recycled cloth, coconut fibres, balsa, FLAX and other cheap fibres...Would you make a supersonic fighter aircraft with recycled materials, it would fall apart - It doesn't sound Green - but this is a high performance weapon, NO SHORTCUTS -

Please SPREAD the TRUE WORD so that others don't get RIPPED OFF - ALoha Ian