I need some help as I have decision fatigue and am struggling to decide whether to get a Duotone Skybrid 85l or KT Super K 80l or even a similar sized Drifter 4. I'm an 85kg intermediate rider who likes to blast upwind and chase swell to surf back downwind. It will be my only board and I ride mostly in 10-25 knots that is a bit gusty with the odd 30 knot day. Probably can't go wrong with either board but if people have made this decision already I would love to hear your feedback on these boards.
Between those two the Super K is the easy choice IMO. It will have better low end so you can minimize your wing size for less wing management while surfing and is almost a full kilo lighter (6.25 vs 5.3kg)
I'm 86kg and ride the same as you. I put over 4000 kilometers on the Sunova Carver this year and I wouldn't trade it for either of the above boards. Mine was 5'10"x20"x85l and weighed in at 4.88kg with no footstrap inserts and in vapor build. Best swell riding board I've ever had!
Haven't ridden a Skybird, but have a 92L KT at 90kg, love it, so fast through the water and up onto the foil that I will probably size down my front foil this summer, Seems to be well built and very reactive for a 6"5' board.
Tried the Skybrid, Sab Torpedo, Indiana and some other midlength,s and got a superK 92l. Awesome board in everything from super low to high wind. Since I got it I haven,t used my Wingdrifter 5.4x56l. Not even in 3.5 powered up. I used it on flat water up to 3m+ breaking Atlantic swell.The 92 feels quit big for its size so with your weight I would go for the 80l.A friend of me is your weight, (really liked the SuperK80), but prefered an even less wide board so bought the new Naish Midlentgh 85l.
That one looks awesome and he loves it:
www.naish.com/products/hover-dw-crossover
Me on my SuperK last week in France, offshore wind, small waves but heaps of fun :)
Omen flux. Apple tree collab so it won't suck water when you ding it.
omen also has a new mid length coming out soon.
or from your list super k.
Thanks everyone for your help. I've just put the cash down on a stock 85l Sunova Carver. Love the idea of the timber on the Sunova as my carbon boards seem to crack after heavy use.
Select to expand quoteap73 said..
Thanks everyone for your help. I've just put the cash down on a stock 85l Sunova Carver. Love the idea of the timber on the Sunova as my carbon boards seem to crack after heavy use.
You're going to love it!
My Sunova 7.6 Casey Elite DW board construction is amazing.Last aug the Missus was learning to wing on it, leying in the water for a while while some idiot completely missed and ran straight in to her.
He just missed here by an inch but the foil did fully hit the Sunova. I have seen crashes like that with foils going halfway into boards where with the Sunova only the rails was cracked (see pics).I was very happy that the Missus was okay, but also suprised how (relative) little damage there was given the speed and that a foilmast ran into it on full speed. I have seen cracks like that on other boards just from dropping it.
That said, my KT Wingdriffter5.4x56l is after 2y still faultless and so is my SuperK92l and they are here in stock.In northern Europe there aren,t a heap of Sunova,s on stock, so waiting forthem for 6months isnt uncommon.
