Hi All,
I am buying my first dedicated foil sup and have narrowed it down to the starboard hyper foil 7'7 or the Fanatic Sky SUP 6'11". I am 93 kg and usually ride a Naish 9'10" Hokua 155l non-foil board. I want to use it for surf and wing foiling
Has anyone tried both? Thoughts if you own either would also be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
The new 2020 Fanatics are pretty amazing , have been using the 6-7 for wing foiling . Very good nose design for the wing foil which is really important.
Do not go too small to learn I found during learning that being balanced and centred makes a big difference in how quickly you can progress.
I am 85kg and 6'1 on a surf SUP I usually ride around 110 to 120ltrs. I am currently riding a 6'11 x 29. 129ltr Flying Vee
but this is not a sales pitch for my product both the Fanatic and Naish are great products.
In fact JB from Naish who is one of the best foil riders I have seen this still riding a bigger board than most and turning just as hard as most.
He is about your weight so would be a good person to message for advice on board sizing..
If you can get to Merimbula for the event I will have a demo 6'11 and 6'5 you can try.
Hope this helps
Rod
Jimmy Lewis boards Australia
Select to expand quoteBruuka said..
Thanks Piros and Rod for the input. Very helpful.
There's a thread with some unhappy Starboard customers showing some apparently poor workmanship. FWIW
Select to expand quoteMLB007 said..
There's a thread with some unhappy Starboard customers showing some apparently poor workmanship. FWIW
Actually, it is more a thread about a customer who did not even try to contact the brand over a seemingly defective board, and prefer to go rant on a forum rather than contact the brand first.
As with any manufactured product, even more with handmade ones, some are defective. But they cannot correct the situation if you do not contact them first.
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with *board in any way :-)
You should have a look at Sunova and One which seems to me have the best 100% dedicated foil board with a lot of R&D made by foilers !!
I have the 7'2" starboard hyperfoil and I like it. It's the only foil sup i have tried though so I don't have much to compare it to.
I am 100kg and it is a good size for me, the 7'7 would have been too big past the first few days. Stability is good, tracking, paddling speed and wave catching abilities are quite good for a board this size. The narrow width, outline and channels help a lot in this I think.
Build quality is great and I haven't had any issues. I guess all board companies have issues from time to time but starboard has a pretty strong long time rep for quality.
Select to expand quotecolas said..MLB007 said..
There's a thread with some unhappy Starboard customers showing some apparently poor workmanship. FWIW
Actually, it is more a thread about a customer who did not even try to contact the brand over a seemingly defective board, and prefer to go rant on a forum rather than contact the brand first.
As with any manufactured product, even more with handmade ones, some are defective. But they cannot correct the situation if you do not contact them first.
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with *board in any way :-)
Actually, there are several other responses from other unhappy Starboard owners that seems to have suffered 'easy' type damage on new boards, aside from the original poster. But I'm still considering their Hypernut due to their strong reputation. Honestly, it's all hoping your (all major board companies?) new Chinese supplier does it right. Right?
Select to expand quoteMLB007 said..
Honestly, it's all hoping your (all major board companies?) new Chinese supplier does it right. Right?
Absolutely not!
And although yes, there are some brands that just order boards remotely, just choosing the graphics (some even let the factory place fin boxes as they see fit), a lot of them really invest themselves in the production process, Sta*rboard, Jimmy Lewis, Sunova, I can't list them all...
Select to expand quoteMLB007 said..
Honestly, it's all hoping your (all major board companies?) new Chinese supplier does it right. Right?
Absolutely not!
And although yes, there are some brands that just order boards remotely, just choosing the graphics (some even let the factory place fin boxes as they see fit), a lot of them really invest themselves in the production process, Sta*rboard, Jimmy Lewis, Sunova, I can't list them all...
Also, the supplier may build to your specs, but brands still have to balance them between the customer expectations of price, weight and durability... and the profit expectations if you have greedy shareholders. And the reached compromise may not be what some consumers expects.
Yes, pretty much so. What major board company doesn't farm production to China?
Never said they didn't go over and design their own boards, show the workers what to do, etc, but none of that guarantees that what shows up in the shipping container is the same quality as the samples. Things tend to slide when the production rates pick up. ;)
There are several discussions here and elsewhere about boards and quality and it "seems" as though there are more problems with new boards being reported than years past (from my limited reading since I started 3 years ago).
There seem to be new design and construction techniques being used and some of those will prove to be un-workable or just not a great idea. Some problems will be with manufacturing and some will be faulty supplies used. Others will be great and problem free.
They will all still be produced.
I will put in a good word for the 2020 Fanatic 6'11" Sky sup, just a great shape. I'm about the same weight as the OP as well.
I've had little success paddling it downwind up onto the foil but don't believe the board has anything to do with it, mostly I'm the problem and too small of a wing.
I'm looking forward to learning winging on it next season, it will be perfect for that. In the meantime I'll continue kitefoiling with it (no seriously) and it has worked great in 8 to 35+ mph winds and 6'+ swell. It's like having my own private island when things go bad (rarely). I learned on a 4'9" kitefoil board but this is way more fun, I just don't see any disadvantage aside from carrying it around.
Sure less is more when you get over the hump of learning. The 6-11 though is a great value tool for the first season if you're a big guy.
What else has all the modern design features and is 140+ liters, a full custom but there goes your value.
