8’0 Sunova 8Ball Balsa Flex Standard – Futures – 3 Fin – Black Line
THE 8BALL is a performance mid length board that you can hook turns deep in the pocket, driven by the needs of surfers who want serious paddle power, but still want a board that performs off the tail.
We took some of the characteristics of our long time favorite performance shortboards and we put a longer front end on them. The result is a board that can catch waves like a longboard but surf off the tail like a shortboard. We took the nose entry and flattened it for additional paddle power, then took enough area out of the nose to keep the rails from catching on late drops. As you step onto the tail the curvy outline and performance rocker of the shortboard kick in and you are away, having a ball.
Put the 8Ball in the pocket and see what this board has really got.
Dimensions
Volume
8’0 x 21 5/8” x 2 11/16”
50.0 ltr
OUTLINE: NARROWER PULLED IN LONGBOARD NOSE, WIDEST POINT PULLED BACK INTO A HIP FLYER, ROUNDED PIN
BOTTOM: FLAT BOTTOM
ROCKER: FULL HIGH PERFORMANCE ROCKER
RAILS: STANDARD PROFILE
FINS (not included): THRUSTER
GOAL: A LOOSE, GOOD PADDLING MID LENGTH BOARD THAT CAN HANDLE A RANGE OF CONDITIONS
WAVE: WAIST HIGH TO DOUBLE OVERHEAD
RIDER: NOVICE TO PRO
ABOUT THE BOARD
GENERAL GOAL | THEME OF THE BOARD
A loose, good paddling mid-length board that can handle a range of conditions.
WAVE TYPE ||| SIZE IT’S WORKING BEST
All waves, however, it favors juicy waves. From just under waist high up to double overhead and more.
MANEUVERS IT DOES BEST
Back foot snaps and powered-up roundhouse cutbacks.
SKILL LEVEL IT’S BEST FOR
Novice to Pro.
PADDLE POWER
Average.
WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF WHEN YOU DESIGNED IT?
Back in the early 90’s Longboarding made a comeback, so did competitive longboarding. You had 2 distinct schools of longboarder, crew born before the late 1950s who had the chance to grow up longboarding and just had a natural logger style, even if they hadn’t stepped on one for 30 years or more. Then there were crew born in the 60’s, most of whom grew up on shortboards. In an effort to woo more people along to the longboard contests an 8 ft division was created, with the judging criteria based on performance shortboard surfing. This was how the 8 ball came into existence, as a competition 8ft board.
WHAT IT POSSIBLY COMPROMISES ON THEN?
One of the few boards with no compromises, it handles a variety of conditions and comes as close as you get to a true all rounder. If anything then possibly the amount of rocker, it’s more suited to a surfer who keeps his board moving, someone who climbs up like they’re on a horse and says “giddy up boy” may find it doesn’t carry as well as a flatter rocker.
SHAPE DETAILS SUMMARY | DESIGN INFO
OUTLINE
Narrower pulled in longboard nose, widest point pulled back into a hip flyer, rounded pin. The benefit of pulling the widest point back is you get a long nose and a short tail, so the tail resembles a shorter board. When you stand on the tail to turn, it really does feel like you’re on a shorter board. Combined with the hip/flyer it does incredibly tight back foot snaps, gets vertical easily, and hooks under the lip.
RAILS
Standard profile. A lot of boards at this length assume the rider needs extra float and generally come with thicker rails which are harder to bury and have less sensitivity. The 8 Ball’s rails are relatively refined, even more in the tail, so it feels more like the backend of a high-performance shortboard.
ROCKER
Full high performance rocker. With this amount of rocker the board fits nicely into tighter parts of the wave, it prefers being pumped for speed, instead of someone waiting for it to build its own momentum. It also likes a tight cutback at speed along with throw type maneuvers, where you may be going slow, but you can still throw the board up to the lip.
BOTTOM
Flat bottom. The idea is to keep the board going fast, it already has plenty of features to keep the board loose and sensitive, no need for added contours as the overall design is not dependent on bottom contours for control. Additionally the general Sunova construction with the flexible bottom adds another dimension that reduces the need for contours.
DECK
Standard. Not much going on here apart from thickness distribution. Having the nose and tail quite refined reduces swing weight and keeps the tail feeling sensitive and flexy.
FINS (not included)
Thruster. For sure the best performance option, I personally like to run a slightly smaller tail fin, as this frees the tail up a little better in tight under the lip style turns and snaps in general.
FINAL STATEMENT
A high-performance 8ft board that paddles long and surfs short.
Brand
Sunova Parabolic Surfboard
An introduction to the man behind the creation of the parabolic rail, as well as Firewire’s technology and surfboard design. Bert Burger, originating out of Mandurah Western Australia, has been designing, innovating and building sandwich construction and vacuum bagged surfboards for over 23 years.
The surf is always up along Bert’s home turf of the 12,000 km coastline of Western Australia, and so it is rightly famous for its quality and variety of surf, and the perfect testing ground for Bert and his Sunova surfboards. Plenty of reefs, beaches and point breaks – take your pick.
Bert is a likable guy who is in tune with both the older and younger surfers. A surfer and a shaper as well as an innovator, having pioneered or created a lot of the standard industry techniques in surfboard production these days. His philosophy has always been to have the best quality each surfboard can be.
One of Bert’s and Sunova’s biggest challenges is educating surfers that the Sunova ride of surfboards will give them much more enjoyment from their surfing, and they will feel like their ability has improved straight away.
But maybe the main challenge facing Sunova though is educating the public to understand that a Sunova board is much more durable than the PU surfboards that they have ridden all their lives. That paying $600 per board, every 6 months or every year, is in fact more expensive than the investment in a $1,000 Sunova board, which will last them 10 years or more if looked after.
THERE ARE MANY ASPECTS TO SURFBOARD SELECTION THESE ARE THE POINTS TO CONSIDER
LENGTH
Typically surfboards are measured in inches. The length is measured from the nose to the tail. Choosing the length of the surfboard is dependant on your size (weight, height), board type and waves conditions you wish to use the board for.
WIDTH
The widest point of the surfboard is measured from rail to rail. Generally the wider the surfboard the more stable the board, while a board with smaller width maintains better speed and performance.
BOARD THICKNESS
Surfboard thickness is measured from the top deck to the bottom. The thickness again has a bearing on the board’s performance. Professional surfers will tend to go for the thinner boards as they are lighter and offer better performance.The thicker boards are stronger and because there is more foam under the surfer the boards are more stable.
ROCKER
The bottom curve of a surfboard. Generally the more rocker the surfboard has the more loose (manoeuvrable) the surfboard will be. Where the flatter rocker surfboards will be faster, although they will lack the looseness. The nose is the tip of the surfboard, the nose can vary in shapes and size. Basically the thinner the nose the more response the board will perform, while wider noses are better for stabilization.
STRINGER
Used to increase the strength of a surfboard, a stringer (normally made from wood) runs down the length of a surfboards (typically in the centre of the board from the tip of the nose to the tail).
Boards built with Epoxy, Carbon Fibre and soft boards generally don’t have stringers.
FINS
Generally heavier surfers require larger fins to hold the waves better. Although if you prefer to ride a looser (less hold in the waves), smaller fins would be a better option.
FIN CONSIDERATIONS
Fin configurations have an effect on the ways your surfboards perform.
The following are some of the more common fin configurations.
SINGLE FIN
The single fin was the original fin configuration for surfboards. Based on the idea of the sailboat keel. Single fins are added stabilization and control on the powerful, larger waves, although lack manoeuvrability
TWIN FIN
Are great for small waves, being fast and manoeuvrable, but when put into tight spots on larger waves, they become hard to control. Popular with Fish surfboards.
THRUSTER 3 FIN
Widely recognized as the standard fin configuration, the thruster answers the shortcomings of the single fin and the twin fins configurations.
The thrusters give you stabilization, control and manoeuvrability in all types of surfing conditions.
This concept was the brainchild of Australia’s Simon Anderson
QUADS 4 FINS
With four fins in the water, Quads boasts an extraordinary amount of holding power in larger surf.
You may think that having four fins would sacrifice speed by creating more drag, but this is not the case.
The both sets of fins are working together on the rail, which makers believe they creates less drag than a board with a centre fin.
The manoeuvrability isn’t sacrificed either, with fins directly under your back foot, the quads are very responsive.
KEEL
Similar setup to the Twin Fin, although smaller (low profile) fins are generally placed wider (closer to the rails) on the surfboard.
Popular with Fish and Egg / Retro surfboards.
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