Sunova Soul 6'0 single fin
A few years back i got a 6'1 nitro from bert. The board looks great from a distance but put it under your arm and its a different story. One rail is really low and the other is as boxy as a piece of timber. No concave and no tail rocker. I was so dissapointed with this board. Its been out about 10 times and not a mark on it. I agree that these boards are super strong and will last a long time but thats pointless if the board is a pig.
Ahh the shitty Nitro...you picked the worst of the lot I reckon. I never had one but I surfed a couple, not to my liking either. One thing with Bert's boards is that they are real back foot surfed boards because of the flat bottom and flat tail rocker. Once you get that figured out you realise boards don't always need concave, etc if the rocker line is right.
What's that orange thing, some sort of sex toy? To be honest tripper the orange sex toy looks like it would surf better the umm surfboard.
That orange 'sex toy' is a speed fuselage for a radio controlled helicopter.
First off I'll let you all know that the following 'review' will have an automatic bias towards Sunova, I've been riding them for 15 years, both short boards and an 8' mal and Bert is a good mate of mine - he is the guy I learnt most about board design from.
I was a lucky camper on xmas eve, becoming the proud owner of two new Sunova boards, a Soul 6'0 and a Magnum 7'2 - more about the Magnum in a separate thread.
The Soul is to replace a HB Eve 6'0 that was lost to fire earlier this year (the entire quiver went up).
Dimensions are 6'0 x 20 7/8 x 2 7/8 - 33 litres volume.
The board has 1 x 4 oz and 1 x 2 oz top and bottom - epoxy / balsa laminate skin over a styrene blank with the parabolic rail made from built up 5mm balsa strips. The tail and nose are blocked. The board is finished in a 2 pac epoxy filler coat and then polished to high gloss. For the most part created with heat and vacuum.
So due to this process, the boards are not cheap, but they will last years with no drop in performance like an old faithful poly will tend to do. This one was $1000 delivered to my door.
I had a couple of Sunova that lasted near on 14 years with minimal damage and surfed great right to their fiery death.
Once xmas lunch was done and the family had gone home I took the Soul for it's first wave at Day Street, 2ft with a 10 kn cross shore. There is a solid right hand bank that puts out a few rideable waves even when the conditions are average.
This is what the conditions looked like.
I used the fin that came with the board, a FCS 7" Mako. I settled on just forward of midway in the finbox as a good starting point.
Board paddles very well as to be expected, being styrene / balsa they are extra buoyant for an equivalent volume poly board. Picks up waves well.
It took me a couple of waves to get my positioning sorted after coming off the Quartet. Once I found the Soul's groove, the session became very "smooth". The board is up and planing instantly, does the smoothest round house cutties and flows over dead sections with ease - never had to pump once, just rock it rail to rail into the next reform section. Sunova boards have flat bottoms and flat through the tail rocker, so generating speed is never an issue. When a couple of end sections presented, step on the back foot and the board turns crisply to make the lip with good, solid release into the next maneuver - both fore and backhand.
I was not happy with the fin placement, and also think a standard 7" fin would have been better in the conditions of the day. So some tweaking of fin placement and I'm sure the Soul will perform even better.
So far the Sunova Soul has lived up to it's name, smooth cruising for that different paced surf that's always good for the soul.