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Sunova TR3 paulonia images

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Created by Balsaboards N.Z. > 9 months ago, 21 Nov 2019
jb1979
NSW, 62 posts
16 Oct 2020 3:04PM
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pete53 said..
Any observations/comments on wear and tear of TR3 in comparison to XXX now that it's Been out there in various board shapes for a while?


I personally have noticed it seems scratch/mark easier, but is just as tough.

I crashed my car into a pole with my tr3 placid inside, it flew forward, smashed the windscreen but not a mark on the board. not bad!

Tardy
4929 posts
18 Oct 2020 9:35AM
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jb1979 said..


pete53 said..
Any observations/comments on wear and tear of TR3 in comparison to XXX now that it's Been out there in various board shapes for a while?




I personally have noticed it seems scratch/mark easier, but is just as tough.

I crashed my car into a pole with my tr3 placid inside, it flew forward, smashed the windscreen but not a mark on the board. not bad!



Them poles just seem to jump out at ya JB1979 .. my placid and 9.11 insane TR3 are holding out well ...the insane i would say is tougher with the full gloss .the deck on my placid has sunk a little ..but i guess i ride it too much ...i am rough on boards ,And do sink the deck on most of my boards ..heel heavy rider .the flex seems a little stiffer than the balsa ,maybe being a softer wood ...but the 3-400 $ saving is worth it ..i will be going full gloss on my next custom ..

Balsaboards N.Z.
90 posts
1 Nov 2020 1:46PM
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pete53 said..
Any observations/comments on wear and tear of TR3 in comparison to XXX now that it's Been out there in various board shapes for a while?


way more durable as far as taking a stomping, and very close as far as flex - as of about today.d

backbeach
NSW, 105 posts
2 Nov 2020 8:19PM
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Not had the same luck with my TR3 Placid. This happened in peaky 3 ft surf

So I repaired it 3 layers of 4oz with epoxy resin and it creased in 2 ft surf which was reform stuff in a river


Both sessions the surf size and power didn't warrant this level of damage.


LastSupper
VIC, 360 posts
2 Nov 2020 10:26PM
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backbeach said..
Not had the same luck with my TR3 Placid. This happened in peaky 3 ft surf

So I repaired it 3 layers of 4oz with epoxy resin and it creased in 2 ft surf which was reform stuff in a river


Both sessions the surf size and power didn't warrant this level of damage.



Thats sad to see ! No board is the same after snapping once ??

justaddwater
NSW, 678 posts
3 Nov 2020 7:32AM
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LastSupper said..

backbeach said..
Not had the same luck with my TR3 Placid. This happened in peaky 3 ft surf

So I repaired it 3 layers of 4oz with epoxy resin and it creased in 2 ft surf which was reform stuff in a river


Both sessions the surf size and power didn't warrant this level of damage.




Thats sad to see ! No board is the same after snapping once ??


SNAPOVA!!!!!!

justaddwater
NSW, 678 posts
3 Nov 2020 12:49PM
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justaddwater said..

LastSupper said..


backbeach said..
Not had the same luck with my TR3 Placid. This happened in peaky 3 ft surf

So I repaired it 3 layers of 4oz with epoxy resin and it creased in 2 ft surf which was reform stuff in a river


Both sessions the surf size and power didn't warrant this level of damage.





Thats sad to see ! No board is the same after snapping once ??



SNAPOVA!!!!!!


Come on sunova,do the right thing!!!! Your boards aren't cheap the thing that inpresed us in the beginning with xxx construction and sunova as a progressive brand was the way you guys stepped up and replaced boards that failed,what's changed !!!,other than the Tr3 inferior construction.

backbeach
NSW, 105 posts
3 Nov 2020 9:58PM
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Hey guys not holding my breath on refunds etc but its not the first sunova sup thats gone down this path. (I had a sunova shortboard whose blank collapsed too) I'm really perplexed as to how the second crease occured. It was a fun board while it lasted. Sounds like there's people who've put there sunova boards through some hard yards and they've come out intact. For me personally I really can't afford to take that chance again even though I think their designs are great, it's buyer beware

justaddwater
NSW, 678 posts
4 Nov 2020 9:19AM
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backbeach said..
Hey guys not holding my breath on refunds etc but its not the first sunova sup thats gone down this path. (I had a sunova shortboard whose blank collapsed too) I'm really perplexed as to how the second crease occured. It was a fun board while it lasted. Sounds like there's people who've put there sunova boards through some hard yards and they've come out intact. For me personally I really can't afford to take that chance again even though I think their designs are great, it's buyer beware


Backbeach ,I have had sunova xxx boards in the past and they were ok ,I judge my boards on deck compression/ standing area,the new Tr3 construction in that respect at least is nowhere near as strong ! I have not seen one Tr3 constructed board that does NOT have deck compression!,usual response all decks compress,no they don't!!!Regarding xxx not many can afford near carbon prices!!! As backbeach says BUYER BEWARE !!! Disclaimer I have never met backbeach/ do not know him. Just feel for him and the situation he finds himself in .Many of us own / considering sunova product and are waiting for a positive response from Sunova.

anchorpoint
190 posts
4 Nov 2020 6:35AM
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Im perplexed....always had XXX boards from Sunova, yet to buy a TR3 ( i prefer the look of the XXX) , my XXX are so hard i cant complain, and was under the assumption reading all the views on seabreeze that the TR3 were actually strongers than the XXX ......maybe the extra flex of the XXX prevent more this kind of damage ??

justaddwater
NSW, 678 posts
4 Nov 2020 12:03PM
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anchorpoint said..
Im perplexed....always had XXX boards from Sunova, yet to buy a TR3 ( i prefer the look of the XXX) , my XXX are so hard i cant complain, and was under the assumption reading all the views on seabreeze that the TR3 were actually strongers than the XXX ......maybe the extra flex of the XXX prevent more this kind of damage ??


Anchor point no they aren't,xxxDeck 2.5 mm balsa Sandwich between glass layers with scoring through the balsa so resin will tye the lot together (eyebeam type principal). "....Tr3 .6 of one millimeter paulownia timber between glass layers still a sandwich construction but inferior to xxx that's why they are cheaper and failing ! Both of these constructions are there for any one to read in there tech page,the methods I have described are my interpretation of the specs. This is not a sunova bash as I have stated some of there products are good but questionable value for money in Tr3 construction.....As far as what is written on Seabreeze,beware what team riders and ambassadors promote they are Bias.

slsurf
234 posts
4 Nov 2020 10:44AM
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I bought a sunova pretty heavily used by team rider before me and been thru the wringer since. Very impressed with construction. No deck dents. Same for everyone else I know who has one, all xxx. Everything can break though if it is hit the right way, hard to say in this instance unless inspected by someone who knows. I would think if its a defect sunova would help out. Thinner boards with a lot of surface area could be more vulnerable as well.

Stronger, lighter, cheaper pick any 2 out of 3....

justaddwater
NSW, 678 posts
4 Nov 2020 4:16PM
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slsurf said..
I bought a sunova pretty heavily used by team rider before me and been thru the wringer since. Very impressed with construction. No deck dents. Same for everyone else I know who has one, all xxx. Everything can break though if it is hit the right way, hard to say in this instance unless inspected by someone who knows. I would think if its a defect sunova would help out. Thinner boards with a lot of surface area could be more vulnerable as well.

Stronger, lighter, cheaper pick any 2 out of 3....


Sl surf I agree with your comments re xxx/ however the board in question isTR3 and we are all hoping sunova will help out

juniorburger
49 posts
4 Nov 2020 2:19PM
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Hi Guys,

Interesting to come across this topic and hear everyones experiences with different Sunova boards and technologies, i work for the company on the ground at the factory full time and it's surprising how much information is spread on this forum but how little we actually receive or are contacted about through our channels. I do scroll through here when i have the chance and will chime in when something relevant pops up. Within this post ill do a little fact checking and give some more information on the differences between XXXtec and TR3tec.

Firstly the differences in thickness of the sandwich mediums is a little less than stated in some of the posts above, with the XXXtec we use a 2mm Balsa on the deck as the sandwich medium, on the TR3tec we use 1.2mm Paulownia. Paulownia is a lot denser than balsa so you can use a thinner sandwich and retain amazing impact resistance, we also use more fibreglass reinforcements on the TR3tec boards maintain overall durability. Justaddwater i would be interested to know exactly how many Sunova TR3 boards you have seen with a compressed deck, they only first landed in Australia at the start of the year and there wasn't too many. I have personally heard of only one board, that customer contacted us directly and we came up with a solution collectively..

When we came up with the TR3tec for a number of reasons, not simply because we wanted to make a cheaper inferior product because i don't believe thats what TR3 boards are. One of the main reasons was to keep an achievable price point in the market due to increased costs across a number of areas. Another was the fact it's becoming increasingly hard to find a sustainable reliable source of balsa in commercial quantities, in the density required to build a superior product. I'm glad so far everyone in this topic hasn't had issues with their XXXtec boards but i will be the first to admit they aren't problem free either due to the inconsitency of balsa wood, so we wanted to find a more predictable, sustainable solution. This was possible through the use of paulownia wood.

Regarding the overall build of boards it's very tough to find a happy medium between strength and weight, we do our best to supply lightweight great performing gear that can stand up and withstand as broad range of conditions as possible and i think we generally do a pretty good job of that. For sure we have boards that break in all the technologies we made, we could make them unbreakable but it would come at the expense of weight and performance so at some point you have to draw the line. Something else that i think is seldom taken into consideration is the surface area and thickness of a board. In this particular case the placid is 33 1/2" wide and only 4 1/2" thick with a super low profile, this is great for performance but if you end up with a lip breaking directly on your board you could encounter some issues..

Regarding this case particularly the customer did contact us about the board asking for advice on how to repair it or if we had any recommendations of people who could do the job. We could see the board was clearly in 2 pieces but understood if a boards in the wrong spot it will break and there didn't seem to be any discontent. From our side it didn't seem to be a manufacturing issue. We recommended a repairer on the GC and heard no further about it until i came across this thread. If anyone has any issues with any of our boards and would like to have a talk about it, we are always open to chat through any of our channels but it's really hard for us to amend issues and come up with solutions to problems we don't actually know exist..

Cheers,

Dylan

backbeach
NSW, 105 posts
4 Nov 2020 9:58PM
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Guess I should respond to this. First of all good on Justaddwater for advocating and then for Dylan to actually respond, nice to see some accountability. I reached out to Sunova and to Surffx where I bought the board, both on a no blame basis looking for repair advice. After 45+ years of surfing never heard of a refund for a broken board and on a hiding to nothing looking for same. I knew I would struggle with the vacuum bagging with a snap repair but it was going to cost me $500 to fix. Add that to the $1500 price tag and the $0 board value decided to DIY. Got some great advice from board maker mates and repair went tikitibu and surfed well post repair, albeit I got this board to learn and transition on, which is why the resale thing really hurts. The second crease above the initial break repair, which happened in sloppy and weak 2ft river mouth reforms, left me thinking suspect build quality. I think Dylan actually inadvertently calls it;
"Something else that i think is seldom taken into consideration is the surface area and thickness of a board. In this particular case the placid is 33 1/2" wide and only 4 1/2" thick with a super low profile, this is great for performance but if you end up with a lip breaking directly on your board you could encounter some issues..
But its a bit two faced to say it's not a manufacturing issue when there's inherent shortcomings in the design parameters that make it susceptible to breaking from a wave lip hitting it which is where a boards designed to be.
I can honestly say I bought the sunova because I thought it was high end quality as was it's price. Had I known this boards dimensions made it more susceptible to breakage by waves I would of chosen something more sustainable which is what I thought I was buying.

I reckon Bert is an amazing pioneer in board technology and his designs have kept a lot of people, pros and the great unwashed, stoked and frothing for years. Proof lies in the pudding and Sunova and Firewire are heavyweights in the game cos they got the points on the board.

As for me I'm just an average punter that has to wear what's happened. Dylan, I didn't see any point in reaching out again -to what end?

Really all I'm doing is sharing my experience of the TR3 construction on a thread where old mate balsa is talking it up. It's nice to have a bit of balance (that's a sup joke, tee tee!)

AlexF
485 posts
4 Nov 2020 7:13PM
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Glad i hadn't ordered a TR3 Placid.
But also haven't ordered in XXX because the price was inappropriate compared to other sandwich boards, like Quatro Pro tech.
I wonder why the Sunovas have to be build with wood and not classic sandwich, ecology?

rockmagnet
QLD, 1458 posts
5 Nov 2020 8:18AM
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AlexF said..
Glad i hadn't ordered a TR3 Placid.
But also haven't ordered in XXX because the price was inappropriate compared to other sandwich boards, like Quatro Pro tech.
I wonder why the Sunovas have to be build with wood and not classic sandwich, ecology?


I don't think that there is any brand of board or build that would be any different to a Sunova. If the wave is going to break your Sunova it could break any board. Boards break, get over it. Wrong place ,wrong time, wrong wave.

Ads01
QLD, 29 posts
5 Nov 2020 12:25PM
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juniorburger said..
Hi Guys,

Interesting to come across this topic and hear everyones experiences with different Sunova boards and technologies, i work for the company on the ground at the factory full time and it's surprising how much information is spread on this forum but how little we actually receive or are contacted about through our channels. I do scroll through here when i have the chance and will chime in when something relevant pops up. Within this post ill do a little fact checking and give some more information on the differences between XXXtec and TR3tec.

Firstly the differences in thickness of the sandwich mediums is a little less than stated in some of the posts above, with the XXXtec we use a 2mm Balsa on the deck as the sandwich medium, on the TR3tec we use 1.2mm Paulownia. Paulownia is a lot denser than balsa so you can use a thinner sandwich and retain amazing impact resistance, we also use more fibreglass reinforcements on the TR3tec boards maintain overall durability. Justaddwater i would be interested to know exactly how many Sunova TR3 boards you have seen with a compressed deck, they only first landed in Australia at the start of the year and there wasn't too many. I have personally heard of only one board, that customer contacted us directly and we came up with a solution collectively..

When we came up with the TR3tec for a number of reasons, not simply because we wanted to make a cheaper inferior product because i don't believe thats what TR3 boards are. One of the main reasons was to keep an achievable price point in the market due to increased costs across a number of areas. Another was the fact it's becoming increasingly hard to find a sustainable reliable source of balsa in commercial quantities, in the density required to build a superior product. I'm glad so far everyone in this topic hasn't had issues with their XXXtec boards but i will be the first to admit they aren't problem free either due to the inconsitency of balsa wood, so we wanted to find a more predictable, sustainable solution. This was possible through the use of paulownia wood.

Regarding the overall build of boards it's very tough to find a happy medium between strength and weight, we do our best to supply lightweight great performing gear that can stand up and withstand as broad range of conditions as possible and i think we generally do a pretty good job of that. For sure we have boards that break in all the technologies we made, we could make them unbreakable but it would come at the expense of weight and performance so at some point you have to draw the line. Something else that i think is seldom taken into consideration is the surface area and thickness of a board. In this particular case the placid is 33 1/2" wide and only 4 1/2" thick with a super low profile, this is great for performance but if you end up with a lip breaking directly on your board you could encounter some issues..

Regarding this case particularly the customer did contact us about the board asking for advice on how to repair it or if we had any recommendations of people who could do the job. We could see the board was clearly in 2 pieces but understood if a boards in the wrong spot it will break and there didn't seem to be any discontent. From our side it didn't seem to be a manufacturing issue. We recommended a repairer on the GC and heard no further about it until i came across this thread. If anyone has any issues with any of our boards and would like to have a talk about it, we are always open to chat through any of our channels but it's really hard for us to amend issues and come up with solutions to problems we don't actually know exist..

Cheers,

Dylan


Hi Dylan
Who on the Gc did you recommend for repairs,I'm in need of one?



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"Sunova TR3 paulonia images" started by Balsaboards N.Z.