Author Topic: Any one find a creative solution to the LIFTSUP  (Read 20058 times)

Badger

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Re: Any one find a creative solution to the LIFTSUP
« Reply #45 on: February 05, 2019, 05:15:55 AM »
I've got the LiftSUP handle on my two Sunovas (Acid & Insane) and my custom BARK raceboard. No problems with it since I'm not in cold weather.

There's a long thread on the zone about tail handles. Isn't that a creative solution to the issue of dealing with shorebreak etc?



Tail handles are no help at all in the shorebreak. If the board is pointed toward shore, you have to lift the tail for every wave or the board will have tendency to nosedive into the bottom. If the board is sideways, it will twist your arm. If pointed out to sea, you would have to walk backwards to get to shore.





« Last Edit: February 05, 2019, 05:19:42 AM by Badger »
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kayadogg

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Re: Any one find a creative solution to the LIFTSUP
« Reply #46 on: February 05, 2019, 07:00:45 AM »
I've got the LiftSUP handle on my two Sunovas (Acid & Insane) and my custom BARK raceboard. No problems with it since I'm not in cold weather.

There's a long thread on the zone about tail handles. Isn't that a creative solution to the issue of dealing with shorebreak etc?



Tail handles are no help at all in the shorebreak. If the board is pointed toward shore, you have to lift the tail for every wave or the board will have tendency to nosedive into the bottom. If the board is sideways, it will twist your arm. If pointed out to sea, you would have to walk backwards to get to shore.

Actually a tail handle can be of some help in shorebreak. You don't need to walk backwards, you just grab it and get the hell out of Dodge. This means dragging your board so obviously it's not someone's first choice but when your top priority is getting out of the water, it can be a pretty obvious compromise to make. Is it ideal? No, but it can and has worked for many people.

Badger

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Re: Any one find a creative solution to the LIFTSUP
« Reply #47 on: February 05, 2019, 07:40:19 AM »
I've got the LiftSUP handle on my two Sunovas (Acid & Insane) and my custom BARK raceboard. No problems with it since I'm not in cold weather.

There's a long thread on the zone about tail handles. Isn't that a creative solution to the issue of dealing with shorebreak etc?



Tail handles are no help at all in the shorebreak. If the board is pointed toward shore, you have to lift the tail for every wave or the board will have tendency to nosedive into the bottom. If the board is sideways, it will twist your arm. If pointed out to sea, you would have to walk backwards to get to shore.

Actually a tail handle can be of some help in shorebreak. You don't need to walk backwards, you just grab it and get the hell out of Dodge. This means dragging your board so obviously it's not someone's first choice but when your top priority is getting out of the water, it can be a pretty obvious compromise to make. Is it ideal? No, but it can and has worked for many people.


Yeah, if the water is less than knee deep that would work. Just grab the tail handle and run for it.

My beaches are very flat. If I fall trying to surf the wave in, I usually get hit by half a dozen waves before I make it to the shallows. That's usually where I would be fiddling with the LiftSUP trying to get it out. I can clearly remember lifting the tail to let the whitewater pass by but I never had to drag the board ashore.


« Last Edit: February 05, 2019, 07:52:50 AM by Badger »
Kalama E3 6'1 x 23" 105L
Axis HPS 980 / PNG 1300
Sunova Flow  8'10 X 31"  119L
Me - 6'0" - 165lbs - 66yo

Area 10

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Re: Any one find a creative solution to the LIFTSUP
« Reply #48 on: February 05, 2019, 09:25:53 AM »
I've got the LiftSUP handle on my two Sunovas (Acid & Insane) and my custom BARK raceboard. No problems with it since I'm not in cold weather.

There's a long thread on the zone about tail handles. Isn't that a creative solution to the issue of dealing with shorebreak etc?



Tail handles are no help at all in the shorebreak. If the board is pointed toward shore, you have to lift the tail for every wave or the board will have tendency to nosedive into the bottom. If the board is sideways, it will twist your arm. If pointed out to sea, you would have to walk backwards to get to shore.

Actually a tail handle can be of some help in shorebreak. You don't need to walk backwards, you just grab it and get the hell out of Dodge. This means dragging your board so obviously it's not someone's first choice but when your top priority is getting out of the water, it can be a pretty obvious compromise to make. Is it ideal? No, but it can and has worked for many people.
Two problems with that. First, my beach is shingle. You drag your board from the tail and you've got a waterlogged repair to make to the nose. Second, in a big shorebreak, you don't want the board to be between you and the wave, which it would be if you are dragging it behind you. If you get unlucky, that board is going to hit you HARD right up the ass (or worse).

In the situation I was in, the way to do this is to get off the board to one side (having timed your exit between waves), quickly grab the centre handle of your board, and run like hell up the beach. If you mistime it, you can launch the board ahead of you (beachwards) and duck back under the wave. Not ideal, since you will have to be careful of the board as it sucks out again, and you might ding the board, but at least you won't be dinged too. But this technique relies on having a handle you can grab quickly. When you do try to grab it, and it won't open, so you realise that the oncoming head-high shorebreak is going to crunch right on you, and your 14ft board is going to be scything around in the shorebreak with you, it is a horrible sinking feeling. Then one second later KaBoom! You are toast, and so perhaps is your board.

I wouldn't have to be thinking about tail handles if these boards didn't have LiftSUP handles. I'm sure that they work really well for inland flat water SUPs. But for surf and heavy downwind etc. they are a menace.

For big heavy boards, the best handles IMO are the SIC-style ones. You can lock them, and they give good leverage in wind etc. I can lift up and place my 16ft custom SUPs (that have a SIC-style handle) onto the roof rack with one hand with no trouble at all.

But good ledge handles on smaller boards can work well too, albeit you can't do a one-handed lift and they are less secure in high winds.

Keep LiftSUP handles for flat water boards, please.


PonoBill

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Re: Any one find a creative solution to the LIFTSUP
« Reply #49 on: February 05, 2019, 08:29:28 PM »
The SIC dished bridge handle is a revelation. I can control my 17' Bullet V2 in howling Hood River wind with one hand. I can swing the board up to the side, flip it upside down and plop it onto the rack with one hand. It's centerline on the board at the exact center of balance, and I've never felt it under my bare feet, even though I have to move around on this board constantly in big wind conditions--very flat rocker, you have to work it to keep the nose from punching in. If I had my druthers that handle would be on all my boards, but it's only on one. It would be GREAT on my foil board, especially since I switched to the 29" mast, and it's made it a little tougher to use my silly mast track as a handle. I had some interesting moments getting out of the water this morning and ultimately had to settle for a pathetic drag by the wing to get the board out and then returning to the surf for my paddle.
Foote 10'4X34", SIC 17.5 V1 hollow and an EPS one in Hood River. Foote 9'0" x 31", L41 8'8", 18' Speedboard, etc. etc.

stoneaxe

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Re: Any one find a creative solution to the LIFTSUP
« Reply #50 on: February 05, 2019, 09:11:59 PM »
Strange how everyone feels so different. I think tail handles are great in shore break. I hold my board out in front of me almost all the way in by the tail. So what if you have to push the tail down as a wave goes by...how is that a problem? it's what tail handles are great for. I'm usually pushing down and letting the wave pull me in. if anything a tail handle helps me get in. Once I get into shallower water I spin it around and pick it up by the center handle. Couldn't be easier.
« Last Edit: February 05, 2019, 09:14:06 PM by stoneaxe »
Bob

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Re: Any one find a creative solution to the LIFTSUP
« Reply #51 on: February 05, 2019, 09:38:11 PM »
Strange how everyone feels so different. I think tail handles are great in shore break. I hold my board out in front of me almost all the way in by the tail. So what if you have to push the tail down as a wave goes by...how is that a problem? it's what tail handles are great for. I'm usually pushing down and letting the wave pull me in. if anything a tail handle helps me get in. Once I get into shallower water I spin it around and pick it up by the center handle. Couldn't be easier.
It is perfectly possible to believe, at the same time that:
1. Tail handles are useful.
2. LiftSUP handles should be for flat water boards only.

But this thread is about LiftSUP, not tail handles. If the suggested answer to having a LiftSUP handle on your board is “fit a tail handle, at your own expense”, and not “please manufacturer X don’t use LiftSUP handles” then you are a very forgiving person. In my country, a race SUP costs the same as the average monthly wage *before* tax (and we pay a lot more tax than you do in the US). So we are not going to want to spend more money, when the brand could just provide a handle fit for the purpose in the first place. For most people, their SUP purchase will be their biggest single outlay in a year, after home, car, and maybe holidays. So details matter, and we are not going to be very tolerant of basic design or manufacturing shortcomings, especially when people have been complaining about them for years.
« Last Edit: February 05, 2019, 09:53:22 PM by Area 10 »

SaMoSUP

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Re: Any one find a creative solution to the LIFTSUP
« Reply #52 on: February 05, 2019, 11:42:44 PM »
Actually this thread is about creative solutions to boards with existing LiftSUP handles so the tail handle counts.

And LiftSUP handles are perfectly fine in shorebreak but maybe not so much in the winter when wearing gloves or if you've got butterfingers. So it's not only for flat water boards.

It's great for locking up your board, resting the paddle on it while carrying, and looping the leash so it doesn't drag on the sand.

Sunova will gladly make you a board with an alternate handle. Otherwise,  I know people who've sawed off the handle and the remaining hole works fine to grab the board.



Area 10

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Re: Any one find a creative solution to the LIFTSUP
« Reply #53 on: February 06, 2019, 02:03:29 AM »
Fine. So the “creative” solutions include: cut it off, fit another handle, or get a custom from Sunova.

And we have disagreement about whether LiftSUP handles will get you into trouble in shorebreak and other dangerous situations (white water?).

Wonderful. Then this topic looks set to roll on forever, causing Sunova and other brands that persist with this style of handle negative press.

eastbound

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Re: Any one find a creative solution to the LIFTSUP
« Reply #54 on: February 06, 2019, 03:40:28 AM »
my lift sup is not a problem looking for a solution, thx

perhaps the vision by some that their problems with the lift sup are global, is the problem

my lift sup works fine--and my creek surfs great





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stoneaxe

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Re: Any one find a creative solution to the LIFTSUP
« Reply #55 on: February 06, 2019, 05:17:01 AM »
I was responding to Badger saying tail handles are useless in shorebreak. We all have preferences or ways of doing things that color our opinion.

Sunova is selling boards...and it seems like they are doing better than most others out there. I'm not a fan of the liftsup but it wouldn't change my mind about buying one and I doubt it affects their sales much. My problem is mostly that I don't like mechanisms (even simple ones) where they aren't needed. But really...much ado about nothing.
Bob

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Badger

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Re: Any one find a creative solution to the LIFTSUP
« Reply #56 on: February 06, 2019, 05:30:23 AM »
I take it back. Tail handles are not useless in the shorebreak.  I thought about it and I do use the tail handle until I get to where it's shallow enough to pick up the board and walk with it. It's at that point where you need to quickly grab the center handle.
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LBsup

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Re: Any one find a creative solution to the LIFTSUP
« Reply #57 on: February 06, 2019, 05:44:53 AM »
Area10 good points.  For the record it was never my intention to give Sunova bad press.  I think Sunovas are beautiful boards that are extremely well built and that’s where I maybe got frustrated by personal experiences surfing with mitts and dealing with the handle.  It caused me to move on and I did.  That being said if Rick does a demo this year in NJ in warmer weather I’ll try to be there.  Always fun to try different boards and I’m still itching to demo the Creek and I have much respect for Rick, great guy.

Finally, I’ll apologize once more to eb.  Lesson learned never make a comment when you’ve had a couple beers. Lol.  Hope people in the northeast are getting waves.  I had a quick fun session yesterday morning.  Wrong winds today hopefully tomorrow.
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SaMoSUP

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Re: Any one find a creative solution to the LIFTSUP
« Reply #58 on: February 06, 2019, 09:34:55 AM »
I'd like to add that initially I was reluctant on getting a Sunova because of what I read about others' experience with the handle, even though I already had a liftsup custom installed on one of my raceboards. You guys made me think twice.

In the end, the great performance of the Sunova outweighed the perceived inconvenience of the liftsup. I actually now think it's a very convenient feature.

It's like buying a great sports car that didn't come with cupholders  ;D

stoneaxe

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Re: Any one find a creative solution to the LIFTSUP
« Reply #59 on: February 06, 2019, 03:20:23 PM »
I agree with that completely Badger...:)

I think having a Liftsup must be just like anything else. You adjust to using it. Being more careful getting out, timing exits better, finding a technique that works. Not being able to grab it quickly in the right (or wrong) situation could make things go south fast but only if you let it happen. It definitely makes it easier to handle your board in some situations.




Bob

8-4 Vec, 9-0 SouthCounty, 9-8 Starboard, 10-4 Foote Triton, 10-6 C4, 12-6 Starboard, 14-0 Vec (babysitting the 18-0 Speedboard) Ke Nalu Molokai, Ke Nalu Maliko, Ke Nalu Wiki Ke Nalu Konihi

 


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