Daniel Hasulyo’s Next Chapter: Partnering with Team SUNOVA

It’s been a well kept secret with some cryptic but rad clips dripping in on social media of “A” SUNOVA rider bombing waves on a race board. Although many could find some clues in the rider’s SUP style, both mellow and in control in the swell, nothing was certain until the drop of the first official video over the weekend from SUNOVA announcing this new and exciting partnership with Daniel Hasulyo, pro SUP athlete, World SUP Champion, Coach and entrepreneur.

“One of the most influential athletes of our times, Daniel proved multiple times to be an outstanding ambassador of the sport of stand-up paddling and to be at the heart of the growth of the industry from every aspect. Research, Development, Extreme Action, Professional High Performance, Coaching, Event Organization and Sport Diplomatic roles are all on his daily agenda, while pursuing the dream of living the lifestyle of a high performance waterman and rooting family from his passion. The future is bright and we are here for it,” reads SUNOVA’s first social media piece with Daniel and we could not agree more! TotalSUP caught up with Daniel to talk about this new chapter of his life and professional career.

Hi Daniel, congratulations on the announcement! Could you share a bit of background to the move and the decision behind it?

Hi friends of TotalSUP and readers around the world, great happenings indeed and very excited for this new chapter. I have been racing and working with Starboard for almost 9 years, but 20, if we really consider also windsurfing. I have grown into the waterman I am today under the guidance of Svein Rasmussen and surrounded by some of the most exceptional athletes in the world, and I’m lucky to call many of them good friends.

From young kid to young father and World Champion athlete, besides Sai, Bruno and my parents the rest of my “family” have been Starboard related and I am eternally grateful to each and everyone of the people I got to meet during this incredible journey.

After many years, I felt that it was time for a change, new motivation, long term vision, freedom of creation and putting all my years of experience at the best use, while growing into a new version of an athlete and businessman, and embracing self-growth in order to be able to give back to the community at a greater level, while chasing a World Title, and keep loving the ocean, family and nature over all was my goal.

In a turn out of two weeks, while I started my yearly preparations in Bali and after good amount of late night talks, phone calls emails and long paddles, I have made a decision to not sign the 2024 contract with the Tiki family, and instead form a new alliance with SUNOVA. I had a really good feel from the first chat and I think we matched our energy levels with Martin Jandke and we are ready to push hard.

The new chapter: What has attracted you to the SUNOVA brand and how do you envision the new partnership?

Their wood finish, beautiful craftsmanship of each piece produced. Design and performance joined at perfection. Martin and I have been seeing each other for many years, here in Thailand, after all I have lived here for nine years and he’s been here way more. Every time we’ve met we had a good time, then last year during the SUP Surf and Race competition in Khao Lak I had a chance to visit the Board Factory and I was really impressed with the feel of the SUNOVA environment, seeing how from factory to the waves the whole area lives in the hype and now all of that is further evolving.

At the time though I still had very different interests. Then earlier this year one of our friends proposed this cooperation, it took me a couple of days to digest and even play with the idea, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense and I had a very good feeling so we looked at the possibility to pull it off before the season’s start, and just in time, with lots of excitement we set foundation to what we believe will deliver a major wave in the SUP community.

I truly believe in the potential and the readiness of SUNOVA. Their development process, attention to detail, possible custom finish, openness for collaborations and most importantly quality of the products are exceptional and we thought that pairing my experience on the water and on land with their legacy would be a win-win and a direction that would keep all of us excited for many years to come so here we are 😊

As over the years I have been based in Asia and I call this part of the world “home” now, my major focus with SUNOVA will be managing and creating new market opportunities in Asia, while still in the first years focusing on racing also. I obviously love designing and creating boards, but as for now they have a very solid line up and we will look into this in the future.

Creating events and moments that create community is at the heart of a healthy growth and with SUNOVA we are going to try to match the experience of owning a SUNOVA with the quality of our products. I really look forward to the next years to come. Between, surfing, foiling and SUP there is an incredible growth ahead of us and I believe that Asia will be holding a leading position in this evolution of outdoor watersports both at recreational and professional levels.

On top of competing, you’ve been busy with coaching, involving ocean paddling, tech racing and surf – Is such comprehensive approach the new way forward?

Doing what you love sounds absolutely cliché but it is as true as it comes. I love the ocean, I love the adrenaline, endurance sports, surfing sports, and all that comes with it and as a Hungarian youngster I really had to go through every step of the learning pyramid to be able to be confident in the ocean. It meant a lot to me when my friends and coaches helped me with tips and shared lots of knowledge for me to understand the sport better. So when it comes to coaching or running clinics and camps at the end we are always looking for that feeling of ultimate personal improvement that is a massive victory for each participant.

I’m just trying to let others experience the same stoke that I had the chance to live. Between parenting, training and competing I do still have some free time and I love connecting with people and go through the improvements together, so yes definitely this more comprehensive approach is a way forward that has worked very well for me.

What’s your new board set up?

It’s super exciting as s for now I have chosen three main models for the year for racing: 14x 19 Flatwater Faast Pro Elite, 14x 20 Flatwater Faast Pro Elite and 14x 21 AllWater Faast Pro.

But I will also be SUP surfing a lot, can’t wait to try my new SUP Longboard 9×26.5 and also SUNOVA’s ACID performance SUP Surf Board and all SUNOVA foil gear. I have been pump foiling around with the DockStart and it’s a superb little board if you are looking for a good pump foil board, highly recommended 🙂

Could you share a sneak peek of what’s coming?

Here is a couple of fixed dates on my calendar: India SUP Open in March, Longboard SUP Cosmic Experience Pro Surf in April and SUP Surf & Race Camp Bali. Then I’ll be flying to Barcelona for the SUP Festival and Okinawa for the O2Y 30km Ocean Race. In July and August there will be SUP SURF+RACE+LIFESTYLE Camps in Khao Lak. In November I’ll be heading for the APP x KAPP Busan SUP Open and then the Worlds.

This year the ICF World Championship will be in Sarasota. In 2022 in Oklahoma, i won the distance race in similar conditions. Nothing would make me happier to bring a world champion title to SUNOVA to cement this new chapter. So GAME ON! I am very excited for great year ahead 🙂  This is in a nutshell, still waiting to fill in a couple of gaps in the calendar, see and perhaps participate to even more events in the South East Asian Region.

Thank you for your time Daniel – Once again, congrats and good luck with all your plans!

*Images courtesy of SUNOVA

To find out more about SUNOVA, visit sunovasurfboards.com

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