Hey fellas, ok I’ve had a few people wanting me to post up this thread about my sunova. I’ve had limited surfs on it, but I have found a few things.
First things first, a few details:
Ant
OK so now, these are just my opinions and findings, I’m not trying to rave about the board or promote them, but it is my board and I do like it.
I have had it out about 3 or 4 times, all in sloppy average conditions, except for today, which was nice chest - head high blue walls.
Upon picking the board up, I’ve noticed the pretty thin rails.
The fins are pretty thick, made of plywood I think.
There were a few chips and dings in the fins when I bought it and so I started to sand, and smelt that familiar smell of polyester resin and glass.
The fins feel solid, and I haven’t had any problems with them slipping or sliding down the face.
This thing is light! but feels really sturdy and strong too. I can’t indent it with thumb pressure and yes I have stood on the board upside down and bounced a little bit, no dramas there.
Having the board out in the surf one thing that worried me was how it was going to paddle. It paddles fine. I can get into waves easier than my friends 6’1 and haven’t had any problems paddling and catching waves.
This thing duck dives DEEP, just sinks and is great to get under the closeouts around the beachies here.
The first thing I noticed upon catching my first wave, which was backhand, and isn’t my strongest side, was how loose and free the board seemed… I can’t explain it but on other boards it felt as if I could only go straight and maybe slightly turn up to the lip. This board it feels as if the distance between me and the face is 10 metres and I can take all my time to turn around and get to the face… it jsut seems to have opened up my backhand.
It is loose but yet really responsive, you go to turn and it sticks and does what you want. The snaps off the lip on my back hand are just lightning fast, I’ve never had snaps done that quick.
I have had probably only 2 good frontside waves, and on both I managed a good hack, and felt I had moved a decent amount of water, but still had enough speed to recover and keep on going. Usually I would move that much water and then other boards would bog and I’d sorta just fall in on my arse, but this seems to pull through.
As you can see from the rocker shot above, there is a semi-bulge just infront of the front foot, where the vent is. Initially I thought the bulge was a certain feature in terms of flex and response. Speaking to speedneedle and bert, they just said that over time EPS and balsa will compound a little, and the bulge is only accentuated by the dip from the front foot, afterall this board is 10 years old and still going strong!
The balsa rails seem to be made up of sections and have cut and glue sections, similar to putting relief cuts in fibreglass when glassing a board.
Doing a knocking test, it sounds as if it is pretty uniform inside, with the knocks getting more dull near/on the rails obviously…
Other than that , I’m not too sure what else to tell you guys. So if you’d like, ask me any questions and I’ll try and answer them.
And no, I’m not going to cut my board up just to see whats inside 
Cheers
Ant
Very cool impressions. Curious what types of boards you came off of, since that
may feed/suppress your reaction to this board. (eg. name brand board, or long-
term shaper/surfer relationship, or just a series of random boards).
I don’t mean to knock it, but for its size I thought 6lbs 4oz was a bit heavier than
the equivalent PU/PE board that I make, which often come in a full pound lighter.
Granted durability and ride quality may be in the balance, so do you have any data
for the typical finished weight of that model when brand new?
I am beginning to realize that water intrusion may be a factor (heck, 10 years old,
but has it seen much water time?)
Having seen the board in person today, I can confirm that it is a very fine looking craft. I can’t believe it is 10 years old - it looks immaculate.
Judging by Lavz’s waves - it seems to work well too. He seemed to be catching waves both much earlier and also in more critical sections than I’d have been able to manage on my wider 6’ twin.
Hey Ant,
You know I’ve been waiting for this review! Could you post a pic of the transition from the deck skin to rail? I just want to see how much overlap Bert gets on the rail. Also, it looks like it doesn’t have a concave deck? Could that bulge on the board be part of the design (you know, like a step deck), or is it just the years of use? Could you also post a pic of the “relief cuts” that you were refering to? Thanks!!!
Cheers,
Rio
Hey PlusOne,
I’ve ridden all types of boards over a number of years, mainly just a series of randoms… just swap and ride whatevers under my feet.
From chips greenpin which is like 5’4, 6’1 al merrick thruster, 6’2 thruster T&C, 6’4 Colt thruster, 7’2 T&C minimal, and 9ft+ mals
But take in to account im just an amateur surfer, can handle myself in bigger waves but aint no pro.
I’ve held my friends 6’1 normal pupe, and its probably similar weight… but this board does seem incredibly light.
I have no data on what the board would have weighed initially or what Bert usually gets these type of boards to because he usually makes boards
for bigger guys and surf.
It’s 10 years old and has seen apparently a 2 year round oz surfing trip, with the surfer before hand always going down south to margerat river and waves near by, so yeah its faced quite a bit of water time i think.
Another observation I’ve had is that this board is making and sticking some drops I would have never taken off on. Usually I’d bog the nose and just bail… but with this board its almost wigged me out because i’ve made the drop and been in the mindset of ‘sh!t might as well jump…’ and then it makes it with all this speed and it ends up wiping me out anyways… . good fun but! So i’ve started to stick steeper & more critical take offs.
For me, i think this board is suited very well to the surf in perth, my size and weight, and will be a good tool to advance my surfing level.
The previous owner had 2 sunovas, 1 Jacks pupe, and a tufflight. He claimed to love the sunovas and jack, and didn’t like the tufflight. He had recently returned from a trip to mentawais and said that it was too bumpy in offshore winds and he couldn’t paddle into waves effectively. From what I saw it looked like a nice board but he didn’t rate it.
Cheers
Ant
I shut down my other thread on this, so I’ll post this here , now .
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Member since: Mon Aug 02 2004
Location: West Australia
Status: Carp
Posted: Aug 24, 2006, 10:40 AM
Post # 1 of 1 ( 52 views)
Some serious “Sunova” shortboard surfing session sighted … Edit | Quote | Reply
yep , Pascal and I got to witness young “Lavz” getting a few good ones this morning , in some chest high , pretty decent-shaped righthanders [his backhand] .
The board sure seemed to paddle , duckdive , and turn well .
But perhaps I should leave him to say more (after all…it was HIM riding it , not me !)
We also had a whale and its pup about 100 metres or so away from us for the whole time Pascal and I were out there . [I believe ? …my eyesight is not THAT good in the water without my glasses on . I don’t think I saw the ‘pup’ , but I DEFINATELY could see the WHALE !!]
sorry guys , no photos …I was busy surfing my “bushfire” as a quad this morning .
cheers
ben
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Thanks , Ant , for the feedback on the Sunova … keep it coming !
cheers mate !
ben
Okay Ant
We’ll have to compare notes here for the crew I guess.
my package just arrived from brown today
I won’t be able to unpack it till tomorrow to see the damage
and I won’t be able to ride it till this weekend but we got a small 3’-4; hawaiian swell friday
too bad my knee’s so f’d up I’m doing the chester walk again.
sharkcountry’s drooling with that in mind
but he’s in totally love with his 5-fin as am I so we’ll see
a Chandler 5fin poly versus a Bert wanna be
I’m afraid it’s gonna be small for my 200lb fat butt but they said it’s possible
I figure based on Bert’s personal board the smaller the better so that why I went with this
here’s the pics before it was sent
I’ll post what it looked like after I unpacked it later before I wax it.
Bert’s buzz crew says this will last me the next 10 years so cutting it up going be a hard choice but if I sell enough of my old stuff to buy another maybe I’ll give it a thought.
To give you an idea of the pocketbook pain it cost me nearly $200 USD just to get it here so you can imagine what I’m expecting especially since I could’ve had Griff make me two more custom 5-fins for the same price as this off the shelf wunderkind…
Hi Lavs -
Nice looking board! Appears to be right in there with any of the current designs available in conventional material.
Maybe you could lay a straight edge along the bottom (balanced at center) and let us know what the rocker specs are at the tips, one foot and two feet from the ends (or whatever units of measure you use down there?)
Maybe nose width, tail width and wide point position relative to mid point?
Of course, fin specs, i.e. base, height, rake, position from end of tail and rail as well as toe-in and cant?
Concave(s), vee?
How does all that compare to boards you’ve ridden?
I’m not questioning your feedback for a second. Just wondering if the ride can be attributed to Bert’s skill as a designer/shaper, his skills in material technology or all of the above?
in Ross’s shop
[and there is still a 7’6 “funboard” ‘Sunova’ there at the moment , too ! …that one also has been in there nearly as long as this one was , before Lavz finally “bit the bullet” , and bought it …]
Hey Ben
what are they asking for those things?
"chip’s “greenpin’ , which is like 5’4”
w-e-l-l-l-l-l…
It’s 5’7 3/4" , actually …
but , yes … it feels WAAAY smaller because it is 18" wide , and a narrow pintail … [I just wish I could find those shots from last winter that I took of you on that board ]
cheers
ben
oneula , that firewire looks fun …maybe on a separate post you could give us all the dimensions and fin details of it , please ? …cheers mate !
Hey B.
Mate looks like a really nice board! Hopefully it will arrive in one peice for you. I like how clean the lines look, and the twinnies should work well I think…
Also I’d love to hear what your firewire is like because after all, mine is 10 years old… its like how bert released that vac bag thread, that was stuff he did 15 years ago…imagine the stuff he is tinkering with now.
I scored my board for $400AUD but not sure what it was going for brand new…
3’ hawaiin would be absolute heaven to the dribble we get here… went for another surf this arvo, and it just miserable. Nice sunny day though… good to be out.
John M - good idea mate, i’ll definately get on to the measurements for you… by feet… do you want me to stand on the board and measure from toe to heel? isn’t that how everybody measures things? 
Dak - I’m getting a hold of a better short focal length camera tonight so I can get close ups of the rails and other bits and bobs…
Thanks for the interest and replies guys, ill keep the info coming!
Cheers
Ant
one more before you hit work , Ant …
did you notice a different sweet spot [where you had to stand] than on your previous shorter thrusters ?
I ask , because I have always wondered with the lighter shorter more narrower and rockered thrusters , if there is a much smaller margin for error in terms of where to stand .
You certainly seemed to be getting it wired today …that wave you got just as I was having a shower was a CRACKER [remember it ? …you went for the highline and got swatted , but you had PLENTY of speed happening , I noticed …
cheers
ben
mmmmhhh cuting sunovas into pieces, sounds like fun lavz…
I have a trashed sunova that i will attempt to repair one day when i do i will take some photos of the skin to rail connection and post. This one has large areas of deck delam two fins ripped off and a bit of a crease starting, Its my brother inlaws and/was well used/trashed over a period of several years beyound what a poly would take.
I have also own and surfed a 9’2" gunnier mal which i luved for four years until a untimely flat landing at kuta reef creased it beyond repair…the sunovas do surf well, better than surftechs…yeah i think so
Nice surf up at the point at lunch time today some steep takeoffs and some good hammerings…getting too old fat and slow
Hey kiri!
I would love to have a sunova mal… I think thats where the compsand technology would really come in handy.
We should get all the perth guys together and meet up for a surf or beer or something sometime soon.
I can’t deal with the crowds at point… at anyone time you’ll get dropped in on by 5 other people who dont even know you are there.
I’ve had a good surf or two at point but i’d rather surf mush by myself than surf with a shite tempered crowd.
Ant
yeah ant i am hearing you, not a big fan of the point on a busy day, tend to surf it when theres only a few crew out only 4-5 guys on the peak today and the southerly drift was keeping it clear. All the sands been pulled off the rocks and thats keeping the kooks away except me…
Got a nice drop in by my mate almost took me head off…
cheers
“We should get all the perth guys together and meet up for a surf …”
monday ??
cheers
ben
Thanks Lavz.
Well needless to say thats one old board…Im sure BB has made some advances since then…I think he alluded to that in a previous post a year ago. Ten years is a century in R&D years!
Im with +1 tho…3kg is not very light…its not difficult to make them much lighter but Im almost sure that high durability may have been a requirement…or some water intrusion.
So, I guess its safe to say that you have a board that will improve your surfing and surfing experiences, give you many years of use/utility, but isnt going to turn you into a Taj.
Thats what I suspected all along…
“but isnt going to turn you into a Taj.”
now , THAT would be HOT !!
If anyone ever made a board that made you ride switchfoot WAAAAY better than you ride [on your normal stance] , imagine how many of THOSE boards would get sold !
ben