I tried two new boards since the first post in this thread, and bought one of them, so I thought that the thread needed updating. I have included the original post for those that want easy reference. Just scroll down to find where the new info begins.
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Over the past couple of weeks I compared a few boards in the 120 to 150 liter range, and thought that I would share my observations which should be taken with note of my limited SUP experience. I know that some will disagree with some of my thoughts, so these are not facts, just my observations. Rider: 5'11", 163 lbs, 64 yrs old, surfing 40+ years, wavesailing extensively for 30 years, waveskiing 12 years, SUP for 3 months (almost every day).
Fanatic AllWave 8'11" x 31 @ 150L Very thick rails.
Construction: HRS construction, so fairly heavy, but completely bullet proof.
Paddling: Very stable with nice glide because the thick rails make it ride high in the water. This board is a pleasure just to paddle around on, more so than the others.
Catching waves: Easy because of the glide, and so gives the option of catching swells relatively early.
Speed on the wave: Medium. Because of the length, the thick rails, and the weight, everything seems to happen in slow motion. This is not necessarily a bad thing; you just need to be in the mood for flow rather than fast or lively.
Surfing: Turns nicely from anywhere along the rail. A little long and heavy compared to others. Rails are very corky in big surf for my weight, which can be a bit unnerving in big fast drops. An awesome board to build confidence and basic skills.
Out through white water: Great, since the pointed nose combined with the weight carries it over or through white water with minimal momentum loss.
Use: This is the board that I and my wife both learned on. It was perfect for that, but it does not see the water much these days.
Fanatic AllWave 8'5" x 32 @ 136 L Moderate rails.
Construction: HRS construction, so fairly heavy, but completely bullet proof. This board does not feel that heavy on the water because the shorter length means less swing weight out in front.
Paddling: Excellent stability for a board of this length; more stable than the longer Speeed. Also nice glide for the length. Surprisingly little yaw for a shorter board.
Catching waves: Easy because it floats fairly high in the water which helps it to glide quickly.
Speed on the wave: Because of the extensive rocker and rail curve, it is not that fast unless you pump, which it is happy to do from anyplace along the rail line, in which case it accelerates nicely.
Surfing: Nice tight turns with more of a short board feel than any of the others. The very first bottom turn that my wife made on this board, she had a hilarious look of shock on her face from how tightly the board turned back up to the lip compared to what she had experienced before. Rails are much thinner than on the 8'11" Allwave which helps, but still a little thick for really big surf.
Out through white water: Very good due to the pointed nose, and the weight which helps to carry momentum.
Use: This is my wife's new board which she chose because of the amount of stability packed into a shorter length, but I get to take it out when I want more of a short board feel.
Sunova Speeed 8'10" x 29 ? @ 130 L Fairly thin rails
Construction: Fairly light. A very intricate and refined design with a clean bead edge almost the whole length of the rails, very sharply defined channels back by the fins, and a very solid look and feel to the board. The only minor marks up to this point are two very tiny spider webs from mast slams while getting worked in the impact zone while windsupping. I think that it far more durable than most boards of this weight.
Paddling: Moderately stable when paddling, or when standing in smooth conditions. Very good glide with very little yaw because of the straight rail lines. Very tippy for me in rough conditions. It is not the initial tippiness that gets me, but the tendency of the rails to really get sucked under by cross rollers with difficulty in stopping the rail from sucking me all the way over. If there is a lot of movement in the water, I need to either keep paddling or do a lot of bracing.
Catching waves: Awesome. The wider nose makes the board glide very early, making it easy to catch swells well before they break, and gives great stability if you need to jump up onto the nose to pull into the wave.
Speed on the wave: Truly amazing. It'll blow your hair back on just a moderate size wave, hits warp speed on bigger waves, and continues to surprise by making it through sections that you know most other boards would not make.
Surfing: Your stance placement has a huge affect on how the board turns. If you are a little forward, the straight rail line makes the board very stiff; you can pump down the line, but tight turns are not happening. If you get back on the tail, it changes its character dramatically and makes great turns. One of the most noticeable characteristics of the Speeed is the amount of acceleration that comes out of the turns, I am assuming because of the deep hard-edged channels that run next to the fins. These provide extra grip, and force the water to exit out the tail driving the board forward. Between these channels and the rail line, I would not call the board loose, but more drivey through the turns. It seems like 50% of the energy that you put into the turns goes into direction change, and 50% goes into acceloration. The thin rails give this board fantastic grip in big surf and create very little drag, making the board feel light and fast. Fun to work your feet like on a longboard, and run up to the nose when given the chance. The sharp kick in the nose rocker helps on late drops, but if you are angling a very critical drop, the corner of the square nose can dig into the base of the wave sometimes, but it always seems to kicks its way clear. Overall, more of a longboard feel.
Going out through white water: I know that some will disagree on this, but I find it a challenge compared to boards with pointier noses. The very wide nose combined with a lot of nose kick, means that the board does not want to penetrate white water or a lip, but wants to abruptly rise up over it. I remember reading about a guy in the Mentawais who bruised some ribs when the nose of his Speeed popped back at him instead of penetrating through the lip.
Use: This is my board for when the water is smooth, and I want to focus on generating speed, and playing longboard style. (I can still turn tight, but it is more off the tail like a longboard instead of off more of the rail like some others.)
Starboard Air Born 8'8" x 31 ½ @ 123 L Fairly thin overall (3.7")
Construction: Brushed Carbon, VERY light, very expensive, and a little fragile. Paint on the rails chips off very easily, along with minor chips into the glass. I put rail tape along the rails after the first day, which I have not done on any of the other boards.
Paddling: Unreal stability, though more yaw than the others because of the curvy outline and the quad setup. I will happily take this out in wind and cross chop that would be a nightmare for me on the Speeed, and challenging on the 8'5" AllWave, both of which have higher volumes. I will happily stay out and surf in conditions that I would not stay out in on the other boards. However, this board paddles SLOW. I am not sure why, since it is a single concave and they put a flat rocker section in the middle. The board does sit lower in the water than the others, so there is literally no glide.
Catching waves: The complete lack of glide means that waves need to be caught a little further inside, and drops are often late since you need to keep paddling until the wave is ready to break, instead of being able to glide on the swell as you fade into the pocket.
Speed: The feeling of being somewhat slow continues onto the wave. There is a flatter rocker in the mid section for speed down the line, but it cannot make sections that the Speeed would blow right past. The board feels big and wide to pump down the line, though it can be done. The best speed is achieved by getting back on the tail and cranking hard carving turns, which allows the quad fins to start generating speed.
Surfing: If surfed passively, the board feels wide, and slow. It is happy to turn from almost anywhere along the curvy outline which makes it easy and forgiving. The board really comes alive if you can get back on the tail and get all of that width out of the water. Then the board accelerates, and cranks some very sharp carved turns carrying more drive up to the lip than the others. The turning versatility makes it one of the more fun boards to surf as long as you can keep going rail to rail. Though there are five fin boxes, the rear one is designed just for a nubster option, and is too far back to work as a thruster set up, so it surfs as a quad.
Out through the white water: Good because of the pointed nose and the excellent stability, but the extreme lightness means that the board does not carry as much momentum through the wave, and can get pushed back a little.
Use: This is my new board for any kind of rough conditions, since it makes it fun.
Fanatic Stubby 8'6" x 29 ½" @ 120 L Moderate rails.
Construction: This is Fanatics lighter construction, similar in weight to the Speeed which costs a great deal less. It is not as light as the Starboard brushed carbon, but way more durable.
Paddling: Less stable than the others, but good for an 8'6" 120L. Very slightly less stable overall than the Speeed, but less of a tendency for the rails to suck under. Average paddling speed, similar to the 8'5" AllWave.
Catching waves: Very good; similar to the AllWave 8'5".
Speed on the wave: Very good, a bit faster than the AllWaves, but not as fast as the Speeed.
Surfing: Nice curve in the rear half of the rail line gives great versatility, very similar to the AllWave 8'5", with very slightly thinner rails which is better in bigger surf, at the cost of some stability.
Out through the white water: Again, the blunt nose does not pierce the white water or lip, and wants to sharply pop up over it which decreases momentum and stability.
Use: Though this board surfed great, it did not quite make our quiver since we already have the Speeed which is faster, and this lacked the stability of the AllWave 8'5". I think that it is a great board for the right person.
Thats it; maybe something useful there for newbies like us in understanding different board characteristics./quote]
/quote]
NEW POST STARTS HERE.
Since writing this, I have tried two more boards, and bought one of them and sold one of them (maybe two), so I thought that I should update. I quoted the original post so that it is handy for comparison.
Elua Makani "Really?" 8'3" x 32" @ 117 L Moderate rails.
Construction: Double carbon wrap with pvc sandwich. Very light and durable. Great price. Comes as a quad only setup.
Paddling: Amazingly easy to balance on, no problems and never got wet even though this is less volume than I am used to. More stable than the 8'10" Speeed. A little more yaw than I am used to, in part because of being a quad.
Catching waves: Super quick to pivot in front of a wave. Very easy, though not enough glide to catch them super early.
Speed on the wave: Moderate when trimming, good speed when pumping.
Surfing: This is what I was looking for in this board; tight carving turns. Did not happen. After an easy paddle out and an easy wave catch, I was all excited, and then the board felt very stiff when trying to carve. Moved my rear foot all over and it did not help. If I really got on the tail, the board became very twitchy rail to rail, but still no tight carving. Seemed like the worst of both worlds; either stiff or twitchy, not able to find tight carves.
Out through the white water: Not a problem.
Use: Everything about this board was easier than I expected, until I was on the wave. The performance on the wave was not close to the tight carves I was looking for, so not a board I would be interested in surfing. I think that the problem was the width, especially in the tail.
Tabou SupaSurf 9.0" x 31.5 @ 145 liters. Moderate rails. (I was really interested in trying the 8'6"x 31, but this is all they had.)
Construction: This is their carbon TES construction, so it is pretty light, very comparable to a Sunova, but not as light as a $3000 Starboard brushed carbon. The paint job is very vulnerable to paddle hits, as seen on the demo board that I rode. Two leash attachments, and two mast track attachments (a first as far as I know). The handle is the old slot kind; not as nice as the ledge handles that everyone else is doing. Comes as a thruster setup.
Paddling: Great stability; better than the Speeed or even the 8'11" AllWave, though it surfs much smaller than the AllWave. The key is that it is wide right at the mid-point, but then narrows quickly towards the nose and tail. A little bit of yaw because of all the curve in the outline.
Catching waves: Probably just me, but the extra stability on this board makes it very easy for me to step way back on the tail for a tight pivot in front of the wave. The narrow tail also really helps to sink and pivot. Tippier boards make me hesitant to step that far back on the tail in the sucky water right in front of a pitching lip. Easy, with lots of glide for catching the swell early. In coming off of the Speeed, you can feel that the narrower nose on this board is more willing to hang up a rail during those last few strokes, but it never cost me a wave.
Speed on the wave: Not as fast as the Speeed, but pretty darn good. There is quite a flat section in the rocker line through the mid-section, which makes up for all the curve in the rail line when trimming down a fast wall.
Surfing: This is what I fell in love with; so smooth and carvy. Even though the middle is 31 ½, the tail tapers in very early and nicely, so you don't feel like you are surfing on a wide board. I think that what sums up the feeling is that I have never been on a board that carries the flow as well from carve to carve; for example through a good frontside roundhouse (heel carve), the board carries more speed through a quicker and tighter rail change than I have experienced elsewhere. Despite being the longest board that I have ever owned, it has the best shortboard style turn, in that it carves off more of the rail rather than turning off the tail. I can make the Speeed turn tighter if I really get back on the tail, but to me that is a longboard style turn because I am lifting so much of the rail line out of the water in order to execute the turn. On this board, I can keep more of the rail in the water, and use the curve in the rail line to help carve the turn. The soft curvy rails up front are very forgiving, so doing a floater off the white water or coming off the lip of a closeout is super easy because you know that you will not hang up a rail on the re-entry. The only negative feeling that I have found is that you can feel the flat section in the mid area of the board when taking a critical drop. You can subtly feel that flat section kind of slap the base of the wave. The designer was smart, in that he put in the most extreme nose scoop that I have seen (actually somewhat like the Speeed now that I think about it), so that more than compensates for the flat rocker section in taking critical drops; no hint of pearling even when coming down off a pitching lip.
Out through the white water: The extreme nose scoop can make the nose pop up pretty hard when encountering a pitching lip.
Use: This is now my go-to board if I am looking for smooth performance and plenty of stability. I will still grab my Speeed if it is small and glassy, and I want the tighter turns off the tail coupled with extra speed down the line. Also I do love the way that the Speeed encourages me to walk the board more like a long board, where as the Tabou is happy to let me plant my feet more short board style. I have sold my 8'11" AllWave. I have not tested this board yet in really horrid conditions, but if it does well, I just might be selling the Starboard 8'8" Air Born that was my rough water board. Even though the stated widths are the same (31 ½), the Tabou feels two inches narrower in terms of performance while still being almost as stable ; I think because the Air Born is more of a fish design, so it carries a lot of width back into the tail, at least two inches more at one foot off. And the Air Born also carries a lot more width up into the nose area before it starts pulling in, so it looks and feels a lot bigger on the wave. Even my wife at 56 kilos did not feel that this board felt too big at all even though she usually rides an 8'5", and was wowed on her first wave by how smoothly it carves. Another board joins our quiver.
