Creek

GENERAL GOAL | THEME OF THE BOARD:

A high performance board with “stability tools” built in. Designed to handle challenging conditions and still deliver maximum performance.

WAVE TYPE | SIZE IT'S WORKING BEST:

All conditions. Stable in chop, rips in everything. From just under waist high up to head and a half.

MANEUVERS IT DOES BEST:

Power carves and tight back foot hacks.

SKILL LEVEL IT'S BEST FOR:

Novice to Pro. Select the volume you need and this board will deliver.

PADDLE POWER:

SPEED: Good

DIRECTIONAL CONTROL: Good

OVER WHITE WATER: With the fuller nose, it's great.

WAVE CATCHING ABILITY: Good

WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF WHEN YOU DESIGNED IT?:

Luckily I didn’t have to think about anything when I designed this board Rick Weeks (AKA Sup the Creek) gave me an exact idea of what he wanted, by taking his favorite aspects from a bunch of his favorite Sunova’s, here is what Rick was thinking. 

“Simply put, I wanted a board with the stability of the Skate with the performance of the Acid. Add to that, the magic of the Speeed tail and you have a full on ripper that is stable enough for adverse conditions or larger riders”. The nose is wider than most high performance boards to give added lift and stability when paddling hard into a wave, and comfort when waiting for a set.

The rail line has enough curve to allow mid board turns and fast down the line pumping. What really makes this board special is combining a curvy rail line with the Speeed tail and high performance rocker. The distinct “bend” in the rail line at the side bites, coupled with deep channels and tail rocker, give this board a spectacular ability to snap a tight, carving turn, and do it without scrubbing off speed.

The result is a high performance board that is easy to use and works from 1’ to well overhead.

OUTLINE:

Slightly fuller nose, curvy mid outline, hip diamond tail. The fuller nose offers good paddle power, lets you sneak forward while you claw in. The curvy mid outline starts to feel like the Flow and Acid, very surfable from the middle, initiates turns easily while positioned forward. The hip diamond is stolen from the Speeed and offers that magic snap off the backfoot when you turn off the tail.

RAILS:

Low to medium thickness, standard profile upfront with a slight bevel and pronounced bottom edge, carrying some meat into the tail to accommodate the depth of the channels with really crisp hard edges. Keeping the rails low, adds to sensitivity into turns along with added stability at paddling speed. The subtle edge upfront helps the front really climb onto the water and give it a skaty feel. Even though the rails into the tail carry some volume, most of it is removed due to the channels, so from the fins back the edge is quite crisp allowing for good release and speed.

ROCKER:

High performance shortboard style rocker. It’s a clean curve nearly all the way, with a subtle acceleration in the nose, the performance rocker transforms the board into something way more surfable than you think.

BOTTOM:

Single concave with 4 super deep channels in the tail. The concave helps pull it up onto the rail easier and also engages the face on the drops, but the outstanding feature is for sure the channels. I did a lot of channel bottoms in the late 80’s early 90’s and really enjoyed them more in my longboard. I used a curved channel (Thanks Star Jammer) that redirected water out to the rail, rather than more directly out the tail. This had a feeling of allowing the back end to come around quicker and easier through a turn. Because the water was escaping out the inside rail, as opposed to needing all the water to travel completely across the board and release off the opposite rail, so in combination with the hip they have a similar effect. Next, the channels make the board fast, way faster than expected, at first this was a bit of a mystery, but my theory now is the added turbulence through the channels, creates a boundary of vortices and eddy’s that the board somewhat climbs onto and separates the surface of the board from the main body of water under your board when you’re really moving. Also because the channels are cut so deeply into the rail I think air is able to sneak in there and create a little less viscous drag on the surface as well. Lastly, the channels also offer an extra degree of hold, feedback is the board is harder to slide, so a lot of the advanced guys say they can go a size down on their fins and it works.

DECK:

Relatively flat in the standing area. We basically stole the deck and rail profile from the Flow, so it’s a comfortable flat deck to stand on while the rails pinch down into a lower performance rail.

FINS:

Thruster. Standard reliable performance thruster. But the channels almost do the job of more fins.

FINAL STATEMENT:

The outline, rocker and Speeed tail combine to give an incredibly organic synergy to this board. The CREEK is a very fast, full on ripper, that is solid in juice while stable enough for wonky conditions, winter gear or larger riders. A great travel board.