Messages

346

SUP Gear Reviews / Newly Acquired / On Order / Re: First days on new Sunova Speeed 8'10"

« on: July 31, 2015, 10:07:49 PM »

Hi SUPladomi,
Yes, I did wavesail it one day, and had a blast. Wavesailing has been my main focus for 30 years, so I have wave boards at 72, 78, 84, 92, and 100 liters; but when the wind was between 6 and 12, I was stuck. Too much wind for perfect surfing, and not enough wind for even my 100 liter, so a big part of any SUP board for me is the ability to wavesail it. So far I have sailed the Fanatic AllWAve 8'11", the JP Fusion around 9'3"(?), and the old Starboard Extreme; all around 150 liters. No surprise, the Speeed way outperforms all of these. It is a little tippier than the others, but that is not a problem with a sail. It pumps onto a wave ridiculously easy, usually just one or two pumps. If you get your rear foot right on the "hip" in the outline, and really move your foot all the way from one rail to the other and not just leave it in one place like on a smaller wave board, the Speed is perfectly capable of coming vertically right off the lip time after time. It loved to smack the white water at the edge of a close out section. It delights in turning on the wave face, but will also allow you to use your extra speed from the sail to carry speed out in front of the wave before cranking a turn back up to the lip. I found that this is a weak spot in sailing all of the other SUPs that I tried; the moment you tried to carry speed out in front of the wave, they just plowed to almost a stop. The wide nose pops up easily over walls of whitewater. The mast track is easy to use and perfectly positioned. It is easy to uphaul for a young body, and a bit more challenging than the other SUPs for me to uphaul with all my busted up body parts. The hull is way more anxious to plane than any of the others that I tried, partly because there is not quite as much kick in the tail rocker, along with the lightness. Though if the wind is planable, I would go get one of my regular wave boards. The one minor detail that holds it back slightly for windsupping is the fin arrangement. Toed in fins really need to be up on edge all the time so that one fin is always released out of the water. Anytime both thruster fins are moving through the water, it is like a skier doing a snowplow creating huge drag. Add to that single foiled fins with one flat side, and you have continuous double fin stall with detached turbulent flow around the flat side of both fins. You can really feel this drag when the board tries to get up and planing, which is why some brands with a windsurfing heritage often put parallel thruster boxes on their SUP boards with mast attachments. The board design of the Speeed really wants to plane fast, but the toed in fin drag holds it back somewhat. I am hoping to alleviate some of this by putting in double foiled thrusters with a thick enough foil that the water might be able to attach along that inside surface, and thereby get rid of most of the turbulent stall and drag. Again, this is not a huge deal, since I will normally only wavesail this board in sub-planing conditions, so the fin drag is not really noticeable or relevant. One last note on fins is that many guys like to go to either a single fin or a 2+1 for winsupping, and that is not really an option on this board because of the FCS X2 fin tab inserts that would not support a fin over six inches, and for that reason I don't think they are available for that base in larger sizes. Again, not a big deal because the thruster fin arrangement works great on the wave and sub-planing. I did pick up a set of 5 ½" thrusters that I am going to try next time I wavesail the Speeed, since with a sail, it was easy to overpower the 4 ¾"s that I had in last time.
One piece of advice for wavesailing an SUP; don't go big on sail size, since the extra power just seems to fight the board on the wave rather than help it. If the wind gets too light for my 100 liter waveboard with a 5.9 sail, I will to to the Speeed with a 5.3 sail.
Bottom line, I had a blast wavesailing the Speeed, and look forward to doing more of it.

347

SUP Gear Reviews / Newly Acquired / On Order / First days on new Sunova Speeed 8'10"

« on: July 31, 2015, 04:50:55 PM »

Now that I have about 8 sessions on my new Sunova Speeed 8'10", I thought that it was time to post my first impressions.
Quick stats: Started wave supping about six weeks ago on a Fanatic AllWave 8'11", but have surfed for 50+ years and wavesailed for 30+ years. During the summer months, I am on the ocean on one craft or another for 4 to 8 hours a day. 64 yrs old and 165 lbs (75 kilos). This time of year is mostly small reef breaks, knee to shoulder high.
First credit where its due: Jim K at Extreme Windsurfing who hosts this site was fantastic about getting this board to me. There were a few logistical challenges, and Jim handled all of them for me, getting the board delivered in great time and at a great price. I highly recommend working with him. Also the guys at Sunova were great about helping out with some details.
Now for a long review for when you have the time and are bored:
Board finish: Fantastic. Very refined construction finish, sharp looking, very light, and great details like goretex vent plug, windsurf mast track, liftsup handle (love the ability to pick the board straight up with one hand, and then later have the handle disappear without a hole), and well reinforced boxes. I don't know if it was by accident, but the strips of balsa on my board were actually lined up by slight color variation on the front of the board, which shows some caring craftsmanship.
Stability: This board is 130 liters, and my previous boards I had ridden were all 150 to 160, thought today I swapped with a 137 liter Starboard Converse for comparison. This board is right at my skill limit. If the waves are calm and glassy, I am in good shape, and can paddle around and stand still with no problems. The wide nose is a great source of stability, especially when the board is moving forward. Early this morning there was a lot of small crossed up rolling wind chop from a wind line outside the break, and I was struggling constantly, and in the water every couple of minutes. At least as of now, it is confirming my previous experience on different surf craft when it comes to stability and rail thickness (which does disagree with Bert Burgers position). I do believe that boxier rails provide more stationary stability, since when the board starts to tip, the thicker rail begins to submerge, and wants to push back up to level the board. Thinner rails sink easier, and therefore make it easier to tip up on edge; great when on a wave, not so great when trying to stand still and balance. Argument was made by Bert that thinner rails are actually more stable because they are trapped under a layer of water. I am not sure about this in calm water, but I know it is a problem with rolling cross surge. When the cross surge comes over the top of the rail, it sucks it down tipping the board hard over to one side. My wife was surfing next to me this morning, and commented that she could actually see the cross surge sucking the thinner rail under. I have found this to be true on other surf craft as well. As a comparison today I swapped onto a Starboard Converse which was 137 liters at 9.0 and 30 wide. The biggest difference was the rail profile, and the Converse was way more stable. Bottom line, the Speeed has great stability in calm water, but the thinner rails create challenges for me in cross surge.
Pivot turns: Awesome, because the tail is narrow compared to the rest of the board, a short step back, and the tail sinks easily for a quick pivot onto a wave.
Catching waves: Fantastic (assuming that there are not cross rollers). The wide nose causes the board to plane up very quickly. It is super stable up on the nose if you need to hop up there to pull into a wave. There is plenty of nose scoop for late critical takeoffs. This board will easily catch anything from a tiny rolling swell to a pitching lip.
Speed down the line: Like the name says; Speeed! Great fun to trim up high right under a pealing lip, and off to the races. I have made it across some sections that I never guessed that I was going to make.
Bottom turns: I am still figuring this one out. On all of the other SUP boards that I have ridden up to this point, my bottom turns have been very consistent for each particular board. For better or worse, I consistently replicate a similar bottom turn. On the Speeed, I am creating a huge range of bottom turns from horrid (ending up falling on my face), to jaw dropping awesome as the board accelerates up to the lip on steroids. Changing the fins has helped me. I switched from 3D 7s (4 ¾ thrusters and 4 ½ trailer), to Sunova 105s (5") thrusters, and added a tiny 3 ½" trailing fin. This gave both more drive, and more looseness. I think that my challenges have to do with the boards highly varied outline. Most of the rail line is very straight for speed down the line, and if I try to turn the board off that part of the rail because the wave is too small or slow to encourage stepping way back, then the board does not want to turn as tight as I expect, and I end up with my body overcommitted into the turn. If the wave has enough juice to allow my rear foot to find the "hip" in the outline, then the outline/thrusters/channels all work together to create a sweet tight turn with amazing acceleration. I am only finding this sweet spot about one wave out of four at this point, but it is sure sweet when I do. I would love any advice on this one.
Cutbacks: If I remember to really move my rear foot from one side to the other, the turns flow is sweetly. This board punishes attempts to turn it flat; it wants to be up on rail to perform.
Whitewater: This was a pleasant surprise, and a huge benefit of the thinner rails. When I am traversing a closed out section trying to get around to a clean wall, thicker rails like on the Allwave really get battered from the side by the whitewater, making it a challenge to stay in balance. The thinner rails of the Speeed allow the whitewater to just wash over the rails and deck of the board, leaving a very stable ride; cool.
Backside: Another big surprise. On all the other SUPs, I sucked backside. I just kind of wandered down the line, with slow wobbly turns. Normally frontside is where I do best. However on the Speeed, every backside bottom turn is sweet every time. My rear heel just seems to find the right spot (unlike frontside), and the board makes a sweet accelerating  turn. Cutbacks and roundhouses also seem easier than frontside, which is really not normal for me. Anyway, I am now enjoying taking lefts, instead of paddling my brains out to get over to a right even if its going to close out on my head.
Paddling out: There is one difference here that might take some minor adjustments. On boards with pointier noses, the nose parts the lip or whitewater on the way out, and may go through it or up and over. The wide nose on the Speeed, combined with the substantial nose kick, means that when it encounters something, it wants to go up and over, not through. This can be a good thing, but it also means that you need to be prepared for that nose to pop up at you very fast. Someone once suggested not stepping back as far on this board, and I think I would agree, since it is not necessary to lift the nose as much to get it to go up and over.

Thats it for now. I have a lot to learn on this board, and am learning more every session. At this point changing to larger thrusters and a smaller trailing fin really seemed to help, but I would love input on that or anything else anyone would like to share.

348

SUP General / Re: Any suggestions for nice place to stay and SUP waves for Christmas in Hawaii

« on: July 22, 2015, 12:50:33 AM »

Hi GOTWAVZ,
As mentioned, the west side does get plenty of great waves in the winter, and is often uncrowded (except of course for Honolua). The whole area near S turns has good waves, and great kiting if the wind is slightly more north than the usual NE trades (check the launch roughly across from Kepola street).
You mentioned driving to Spreckles to kite. Not sure which part of Sprecklesville you were thinking of, but please remember that the area in front of the airport runway, stretching from the upwind end of Camp One through the traditional windsurf launch called Sprecks, and including the next cove upwind of there called Lobster Cove as far as the down wind point at Sugar Cove, is all part of the FAA restricted area not allowing kiting. Keeping kiting access on the north shore of Maui is contingent on honoring the FAA waiver that allows kiting on the north shore, and the waiver specifies no kiting in that area that is usually referred to as Sprecks. There are plenty of FAA signs at the Sprecks beach reminding people that there is no kiting allowed in that area. The reason is that the FAA control tower radar picks up the kites and if they are anywhere near the end of the runway, it makes life hard for the air traffic controllers that have to confirm whether their radar is showing a plane or helicopter off course in front of a Boeing 737 taking off, or just a kite in the restricted area. There is an area opened up to kiting further to the east of Sprecks which is accessed at Baldwin Beach Park, and this launch gives great access to the north shore outer reefs. Then of course further to the east there is Lanes which is next to Ho'okipa, and this is a great kiting area which usually shows more size than further down the coast.
When you visit, please respect the continued access for the  kiters of Maui by not kiting in the Sprecks area which is restricted. Many people have worked hard to keep kiting access on Maui, and it is important to protect that. If you meant somewhere other than what most of us think of as the Sprecks area which runs from Camp One up to Sugar Cove, sorry for the misunderstanding. Hope you have a great trip with plenty of wind and waves.
Here are a couple of links from Maui kiteboarding organizations highlighting different launch areas and concerns:

http://www.mauikiteboardingassociation.com/kitemaps.html