Sunova Style-Longboard Style Sup

Wow! That's a first GWatto - getting that board up to you so quick!
Stoked your stoked! I love my 10'x29 Style!


SPSC comp last weekend - pic thanks to Jezza/JeremyCorne.com

Yesterday, i finally had the chance to finally try the Style. The Style XL to be more precise. 10' x 30 1/2" @139l.

Really thin nose and tail, not a lot of nose rocker, plenty of kick tail. The rails are pretty nice, not too thick, not too thin.
While i was (and still am) pretty excited about this shape, it is the 9'6 x 28" that i'm really looking forward to demo, as I like smaller boards.

The wave where I tried it is a kind of difficult to read wave. A righthand point break, with a kind of steep take off on a bubbling portion of the reef, followed by a fat although fast section that usually closes out on a white water mush. Except for the first 20m of wave, not really the kind of wave I like. Being the fist time I was surfing it, it was way trickier than i looked from afar.
While the fat section looked like it would provide a perfect spot to ride on the nose, the wave was actually too fat, being that the first section was too steep for a board I had never tried (with the reef lurking underneath). Not only the shape was different from my normal ride, as the size of the board was a completely different world from what I'm used to (my everyday board is a Brushed Carbon Starboard 8'0 x 28" Pro).

This being said, let me tell you what I think about this specific board:

My stats:
- Height - 1,92m
- Weight - 104,5kg
- Age - 36yo

Construction, Weight, look:
Just look around and read any feedback for the Sunova SUP boards construction. Amazing!
I'd rate them 5 out of 5.

Fins:
The board comes with a 2+1 fin set up. The side fins are pretty big and the center fin almost looks like a sword - it is big. I got one of my favorite fins on the box (an RFC Rake 7'0) and went surfing.

Stability:
Coming from my 8'0, when I climbed on the board, it felt stupid stable. So stable I could paddle while standing on one foot. I felt the stability should be close to a starboard whopper, which I own but haven't surfed for almost 8 months. I think this is due to the board having such low nose rocker.
Punching through white water waves is pretty easy, as is finding the sweet spot for paddling.

Paddling:
All of the boards I usually surf are way smaller than this one, so it felt really fast. So fast I would sometimes find myself paddling almost as if I were on my race boards.
With such big fins tracking is phenomenal.

Catching waves:
While paddling was really easy and fast, I struggled to get into my first couple of waves. At the time, i couldn't really understand why, but it got better during the session. Now, one day later, i think it was a mix of having a much bigger board under my feet, which doesn't have a lot of rocker, on a spot with a trick take off zone which I had never surfed.

Surfing:
Once I got my first wave, first thing i did was the bottom turn. Actually it was a bit more of a mid face turn. Felt that trademark Sunova magic carpet ride, and then went straight into a full on rail carve... SPLASH!!!
Tried it again with the same result and started realizing that this board is not an high performance short SUP board. Instead, i started using the kick tail a bit more to turn and tried to surf it more like a log.
That's when I started to make sense of it.
It is indeed a noserider.
Turn gently of the tail, cross step to get yourself on the tip of the nose and then back to the tail. Carve smoothly, and a bit more of tip time. I must confess I didn't spent enough time on the board to become used to such a long and wide board, but on one of my last waves I managed to get a proper hang five-to-ten-then-five-again right on to the critical section while keeping the things under control.
On my last wave, i got an hang five to a close out reentry and decided to go in and get my board to try that wave with a board i'm familiar with.

Some people had told me that this board was slow. Not being fast either, the board has the kind of speed one would expect from a good noserider: just enough to engage the board on the wave and then walk to the nose. Actually, it was the first SUP board i tried that felt like that. Really nice.
I think that those who are looking for a SUP with a real log/longboard kind of feel, can stop looking around - here it is. I think it should be a brilliant board on points like Noosa, Malibu and all those epic longboard spots we know off. Here in Portugal I know a couple of spots where it would be a lot of fun.

I heard a friend is getting a 9'6" in the next container that is due to arrive in Europe. Really looking forward to see it up close and personal.

Does anyone has a similar feedback to mine?
Johnny

Thanks for your comment on the video and, at the same time, to confirm my thoughts.
I felt that maybe all these perceptions could be increased to this board being 2 1/2" wider than my everyday board, but i'm sure it was really not knowing the board and the spot.

I really think i'd love the 9'6 x 28"!!!

Anyone able to compare the Style with the Naish Nalu 10'6"?

I'm considering a 10" Style, but cant decide between the 29" or 30.5" wide.
Local store doesnt have any demos available at the moment.

Cheers

Thanks Stiches

Do you have the 29" or the XL 30.5"?

Cheers

Mine is a 29" - 'battle ship' stable!

Would love some feedback from anyone who has ridden the 9'6x28! Very interested in this board!