Short Acid review

I am VERY happy with my two Sunova Acid boards. I am 95 kg and I bought a 8'10 and 9'1. The 9'1 is used at big left which is quite a powerful wave and often shoulder to overhead in size, but it always pretty lumpy/choppy and I need the extra stability. The 8'10 is too much work out there for me. I have ridden the 9'1 much more than the 8'10 but I am happiest surfing the 8'10.

The reason for this review is that I have noticed two major differences between the Acid and all my other boards (8'7 Flow, 8'8 and 8'10 Speeds, 8'8 Hokua X32 and 7'10 Minion).

First, I don't have to push my back foot back over the fins, and I don't feel as I am steering it from the tail. Instead I feel I am steering it with my hips/body, that is, if I want to turn I just twist my body and the board smoothly carves where I want to go. I have not experienced that feeling on a SUP before, and I like it!!

Second, I feel as if the board slices across the wave which creates speed and is just a great feeling. I can't quite explain it, but when you turn across the face it seems to slice across the face - it feels very different to me than on my other boards.

Maybe it is all in my imagination, but I like it!

(And as I have said in another post, in good conditions I have felt perfectly fine on my 8'10 115L board and am looking to buy a used 8'7 - don't think I can justify another new one...)

Lovin' mine. Took it out this morning in some very nice 3'+ conditions at Manly but due to a .....hangover, I had to swap over to my noserider:-(

CAN it get vertical .?

sounds like your a happy surfer .enjoy the stoke.

NOT BAD.good buddy.

what..
a great little SUP wave you got there .

I was thinking of the flow 8.10 @130 litre.for me .

I do mention the Acid... so not a total thread hi-jack, I hope you don't mind CSE

Billekrub asked
"Which boards still perform well at ratios, 1.6 to 1.8? "

Sunova's are basically low liter boards with very foiled rails, so not easy to get to 1.8 ratio and have a good fit.

Some scenarios:
Longest lengths and Max rider weights to your specs
9'4 Acid 136 L
1.8 = 68 kg
1.6 = 75 kg
to light, in my view, for that size Acid

9'6 Flow, 9'5 Speeed and the ONE 159 - 160 L
1.8 = 78 kg
1.6 = 89 kg (best bet)

I loved my 9'5 Speeed, but I felt I gave up too much performance on the 9'2 Flow (see below)

the ONE 9'5 with more intermediate performance... but an awesome board for the comfort crowd!
More stable than the 9'5 Speeed.
I'm a big fan and ride it in some pretty beefy waves.

The 9'6 Flow is probably rock solid, stability wise.
My Flow experience
my 8'10 Flow is a ripper, love it.
my 9'2 Flow was more of a great intermediate board, stable, fast turns easily from the middle...
But I had some resistance when laying down a hard bottom turn.
I imagine the curve continues with the 9'6


The Skate is a very stable board
great for soft and weak waves, so a good choice up to 10' if your conditions match it's design range.
My 9'2 at 148 L is on par with the ONE 9'5 for stability.
The ONE 9'5 is suitable for a wider range of wave conditions.
I frequently take it out when the Skate would not handle the steeper surf.

Longboards are very low liter and narrow till you get into the XL's

Hope that gives you some answers.

Just a question CSE - why do you have an 8'8 & 8'10 Speeed - wouldn't they be very similar (& ps please let me know if you want to sell one? )

Hey CSE - last weekend was at Wilsons Prom - brilliant weekend, no wind and small clean surf , westcoast weekend before, got out yesterday arvo for a play close to DJ.

I will keep my eyes open for a 2nd hand Sunova - not sure about speed or acid - i'm not convinced the rounded nose is the best choice in the chop we get more often than not, especially after riding my Sunova Style at Flinders. Brilliant on cleaner days, but with chop doesn't seem to cut through it as well as pointier nosed boards.
Would be interested on anyone's feedback?
Cheers

The one thing I can say is, the Speeed nose is very kicked... and the Style is fairly flat, so the Speeed nose is not upset by sticking into chop.... it just rides over it. I found a bigger Speeed to be super stable in all kinds of crap. (9'5) whereas my narrower 8'10 was work. The Flow is more stable, size for size and also works well in chop.

The acid doesn't have glide so you might want to reconsider

What about if you are 65 kg on the 9'1"? There are boards with more glide for sure, and at 95 kg my 9'1 does not have much glide, but at 65 kg I would think that a 125L board would have some glide even with that shape and rocker.

So what are we saying, the Flows paddle faster than the acids ??? seems a pretty similar kinda rocker too me just the rails are much thinner ??

What bout on wave which one do we thinks gonna be quicker ??

IMO... the Acid is a MUCH better paddler than the Flow.
Acid is easy to paddle straight, with just proper technique, that also makes it a faster paddler than the Flow.
The difference is the wider outline and wider tail on the Flow.
The Flow picks up waves very easy, because of the wider tail area, so paddle speed isn't super important on Flow.

The Acid pumps really fast down the line and I would say... faster than the Flow.

The Flow is vastly more stable, size for size IMO
I ride an 8'10 Flow in winter gear.... can't do that, without difficulty on my 9'4 Acid

Gboots
I have never seen an Insane, but I have to figure it's a good paddler because of length vs width and compact outline.

Although the Acid paddles better than the Flow (less yaw, more speed), the wider tail of the Flow makes it surprisingly easy to pick up waves.
The Flow has almost instant acceleration, because of the wide, flat area between the side bites.
It may actually pick up waves easier than the Acid because of this.

Note:
Because of my age and weight, I am riding the larger end of the sizes.....it's quite possible that at smaller sizes there may be different results.