First look at the new SUNOVA Allround Faast Pro Flat Deck with Designer Marcus Tardrew

If innovation takes iteration, then that’s the concept fuelling the design of the SUNOVA Allround Faast Pro boards. With each refinement and tweak, Marcus Tardrew, SUNOVA Rider and Designer, and the Team advance the design, zeroing in on the elements that make a race board excel.

The result? A board that’s engineered through relentless improvement to deliver peak performance in bop-course style races with a lot of buoy turns for flat deck enthusiasts.

TotalSUP caught up with the incredibly busy Marcus for an exclusive first look at the new SUNOVA Allround Faast Pro Flat Deck. Learn more about what makes this board stand out!

Daniel Hasulyo and Christian Taucher take the SUNOVA Allround Faast Pro Flat Deck for a spin

Hi Marcus, welcome back to TotalSUP! What have you been up to?

Hi Anna, thank you! I have been really busy starting my own foil brand, moving to the east coast of Australia and also designing boards with the crew at SUNOVA.

Marcus Tardrew, SUNOVA Rider and Designer

We’d like to chat about the new SUNOVA Allround Faast Pro board. As the tag indicates: “THE ALLROUND FAAST PRO is what its name says!” What’s the story behind designing this board?

Well, we have the Allwater which has quickly become a favourite around the world and also amongst our team riders. We wanted the performance of the Allwater but in a flat deck. We started with the hull shape of the Allwater with the deck of the allrounder and went from there,

Tweaking the bits that needed to be changed to make it a true high performance flat deck board. The goal was a board you could take to any race and be competitive in any discipline, even if you are faced with a tech race in the surf.

How did you identify a gap in the market to design a board that handles most conditions? Is it possible to develop a board that handles it all and how do you achieve that?

There’s always going to be pros and cons to design changes but I feel this board could win you races at a high level in any race. Working off our already very successful Allwater put us in the ballpark straight away to have a great board that can handle it all.

If you are racing at a super elite level in really flat conditions then the flat water board will be faster.
But sometimes you have to take one board to a regatta and race all disciplines, this would be the board to take in that circumstance.

What makes this board different compared to the ALLWATER model?

The really huge difference is the flat deck. Other changes include slightly wider outline in the tail to keep a lot of stability for kick turning, surfing etc.

The bottom shape has been tweaked a bit also to help it sit up and plane when needed and also for the stability.

What are the key features that you look for when designing high-performance boards?

It really depends on the discipline it is being used for. Bottom shapes and rockers affect how it will perform in flat vs downwind for example.

Bottom shapes themselves can affect how the rocker works also so there’s a lot to consider for every board.

Having a solid range like we do now mean we are always building off what we have learnt for the last 8 or so years together.

So it not like we start from scratch each time. It always one change at a time and see how it reacts then change another thing, so on and so on, until we are happy we have a board worthy of a new release.
We don’t release a board every year for the sake of it.

Could you share your thoughts on the following aspects of the SUNOVA Allround Faast Pro:

Stability: Lots of though have been given to keeping stability because flat deck generally raise your centre of gravity.

Acceleration and Speed: The rocker has been reduced to help with a full water line and the nose not riding too high during acceleration.

How it performs on flat vs choppy waters: Due to the new rocker combined with the new bottom shape we feel this board out performs the old model in both conditions.

Could this be a board for aspiring SUP racers just entering the competitive circuit?

For sure. If your just starting you don’t want to buy a full quiver of boards. This one board you could own and take part in all types of racing at a high level.

What’s next? What are your SUP, foil and R&D plans?

Well, I’m about to go to Hawaii for downwind month which I’ve tried to do most years. R&D plans for both boards is to never rest. I’m a rider as much as a designer so I want the best gear which means I’m never happy. We all want to go faster, carve harder, boost higher, don’t we 😉

Shape details summary

Outline: Wider entry, parallel mid section, wider tail. The overall outline of this board makes it great, for all round paddling. The straighter mid section enables it to be fast, yet stable, and the slightly wider tail gives you great control during buoy turns, or surfing on waves.

Rails: Rounded, not rolled. There are no pronounced hard edges in this board, but they are not completely rolled either.

Rocker: Medium rocker. The rocker on this board is the same as the Allwater Faast.

Bottom: Subtle single concave for added stability.

Deck: Flat deck with slightly sunken standing area. High volume nose to improve versatility. It features 3 grab handle positions along the side for starts and beach drags and also suicide handles at the back of the board, for survival conditions in the surf.

Fins: Single. Good directional control.

Learn more about the new SUNOVA Allround Faast Pro

To find out more about SUNOVA, visit sunovasurfboards.com

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Follow Marcus Tardrew on Instagram 

*Images courtesy Christian Taucher