With lots of board manufacturers in the market , there are bound to be some similar shapes out there.
Here we look at two boards which on paper look nearly identical, but there are some differences which you can feel once riding them.
below we look at the The coreban Nitro 8’5 & The GONG 8’4 Painy.
Coreban ‘Nitro’
8’5 x 28 x 4.5 -112.3 litres
GONG SUP ‘Painy’
8’4 x 29 1/2 x 4.7 115 litres
Board outline templates are similar but the Coreban is more drawn in at the nose and tail making it very unstable in choppy conditions.
Tail volumes are close , but the GONG has it for high performance rails, so a little more water falls over the tail when paddling.
The rocker lines are very different as seen here , the coreban has more glide in flat water , but the Gong performs better in steep waves and gives you that ‘locked in’ feeling a short board only gives you.
more tails shots and fins, the Coreban’s advantages are that it has a ‘longboard box’ fin slot in the rear so you can change the tail fin for more stability or looseness, the Gong has a FCS fin setup so the rear fins will always remain smaller as FCS fins are not big in comparison to what fin you can choose with a ‘longboard box’
In summary I have ridden both boards in a variety of conditions, If i pick how both boards perform in the 2ft range as a definite comparison, I would say the ‘GONG Painy’ has the advantage having more volume and width for comfort, although I must say the Coreban’s rocker line is suprising for a board 28 inches wide and it does catch waves.
For generating speed on the wave face, the GONG seems to have it again , relying on the rails more than on the board volume, which will keep those ‘die hard’ surfers looking for a SUP board happy!
For allround stability the boards fair up very similar there is only around 3 litres difference between the two and because of the rocker lines, board widths and tail volumes they feel much alike on the flat.
Comparison based on rider weight of 85kg.
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