Got sick of seeing it sitting in the lounge room but crap surf isn't at all tempting so only one thing for it - throw it in the river and go for a cruise.
ME: 6ft/75kgs/longboarder/intermediate sup'er.
BOARD: suplove 9.4 x 29 1/4 x 4 1/4
First impression: not a subtle board in any way. Beautiful bamboo deck and bottom/bright coloured big and boxy rails/very point nose.
I have been riding an LSD 9.2 for a couple of weeks and the two boards could not look any more different. The lsd was quite a subtle looking board with what I would call low to medium rails (for a sup) and a very shortboard kinda outline/shape. The suplove in comparison looks more like a new model starboard or maybe a subvector with the beefy rails and what I would call a performance sup shape rather than a shortboard shape.
Ok - at the rivers edge - stepped on from the bank and paddled away (yep no splash). Very first thought was how stable and fast it was right from the get go. Normally a smaller board like this would require a coupla smaller paddle strokes on either side to get it going straight but no - half a dozen strokes on one side and I was still going straight and up to speed already ! It is noticably more stable and faster to paddle than the lsd but I kinda expected that because it does seem to have a lower rocker and considerably more volume. The board also seems to sit quite low in the water which suprised me cos I thought it would be corky due to the high volumed rails and I reckon this also helped it get to speed and hold its speed better and was less effected by the wind.
Half an hour later cruisin currumbin creek and still amazed by how stable this board is and how quick it is for a 9'6 - which is gunna be a blessing once I get it in the surf.
So - flatwater paddle outta the way and thus far very very impressed - but the biggest test is yet to come when I get it in the surf in the near future. The hardest thing for this board is the fact that I have just spent two weeks on one of the best sups I have ever surfed so its got its work cut out for it to get close to that - however I have a good feeling that this board may have something up its sleeve
(kooked it bigtime). I just wasnt prepared for how quick the bloody thing took off on such small waves on the first few and just ended up on my ass in the drink which is something I haven't done for years 
too funny.
