Trevor’s Review

This spring I was able to get my hands on the Sunova Search 14. I am a bigger guy a 6ft and 240lbs, with decent balance skills. Through the summer I have been able to paddle this board in a multitude of conditions. I have raced, downwinded, and and run flat water on it. I have even enjoyed doing small circuits on it in 40km, gusting winds. The one discipline that I haven’t gotten to try yet is surfing.One of the biggest problems I have encountered with SUP is finding a board that I am immediately comfortable on. That may have to do with my size in relation to the boards I am paddling. I have a Sunova Allwater 27” which I needed to ride a couple of times in rougher conditions to become comfortable on and get used to the drop deck design.  However on the Sunova Search, I felt locked in and secure in all conditions immediately. Pivot turns which take me awhile to get confident with on a board I performed efficiently. In rough water from day one I not only felt comfortable but confident.

On flat water the board tracked surprisingly straight for a planing hull board. I was highly impressed by its glide as well.

Downwinding was a dream on this board. It catches the waves easily, and wants you to be riding them. With the surf style design of the board, the cross chop didn’t push the nose around at all and just washed across the board, with no real effect. Consistently on runs I was falling in a lot less on this board than on similar boards. My performance and speed improved greatly as there is truth to the fastest board is the one you can stay on.

Although I have only been able to paddle on local lakes here in Alberta, I have been able to paddle flat water and rough wind effected water as well. Like me this board really enjoys these conditions. When the winds were over 20km I would paddle upwind, proving its efficiency with a head wind. Once tired, I would turn around and ride the waves back and reenergize. I was able to do this in 20-40km winds and the board was outstanding. Going upwind it had very little wave slapping, and when it did occur, it had small amounts of vibrations, most likely to the dampening effects of the Paulownia wood construction. When turning crossway to the wind, it performed admirably as I was able to weight and unweight the rails which is an advantage of a surf style board. But the ride back, is what made me do multiple circuits.

On the lakes here, we get a lot of boat traffic and the waves produced from this has renewed the simple fun that attracted me to this sport. I was able to catch small rides on ankle high wakes. Although I have yet to surf this board, with what I have experienced so far, I’m really looking forward to trying it out.

Being a planing board, it’s limitation is when you race, however with it’s tracking and glide it does surprisingly well. You won’t win many races on it, but you will get to hang out with great people.

I am greatly impressed with the Sunova Search 14’ x 30”. It is an outstanding all around board, that has performed excellent in all the conditions that I have been able to expose it to thus far. And if you live in a lake environment and want to catch whatever wave you can get on. This is the board to check out.

Trevor Petersen