Nude Chopper 90 Review

I am sure quite a few of you have seen these designs popping up more and more regularly at your local break.

The Chopper design originated when Ben Severne decided to try a radical chopped off nose (or tail - i cant quite remember) design around 3 years ago and ended up with a board that felt like something special.

He has then gone on to dominate contest and free sailing sessions - something i was keeping a close eye on as blatted around on my super fast single fin Kode 80.

Ben just seemed to be getting a ridiculous amount of drive and low end planing out of this design - primarily the 80 litre version. You just couldnt argue with the stats - he would be scoring 20 or 30 tail slide reverses and sick pocket reos in a session where i would struggle to put together 5 good uns - usually only at about 70% of the pace he was getting.

And the wave threeo count was starting to get ridiculous. His jump count was sky high too. This board took BEn to international fame - his biggest win being an annihilation of the field 2 years ago in the ledge to lancelin wave comp - complete with sail away threeo in the final - followed by 2 kick out airs on the same wave (i know because i was on a jet ski with a video camera hooting and hollering and completely ruining the soundtrack on the footage) and there was a strong international field of sailors in that event - Swifty , Volwater , Luke Walmsley and Jaeger were all in the draw

Clearly something was going on.

There was a 90 litre version kicking around (the famous "monkey board" )which i tried last summer - and it was instant super drive surfing looseness fun.

Eventually - thanks to a Birthday and a generous wife i was presented with a chopper 90.

My first sail was a bit disappointing -
i had the mast track in the middle of the track and the board just seemed to be pushing water. Something was wrong. Simon Hurrey - freestyler extraordinaire and tech savvy dude went to work on the board with the straight edge and we discovered that to get the rig on the correct part of the rocker - you had to have the mast base right at the back of the track - otherwise you were sitting the rig on the entry rocker (which is a big no no as this unbalances the board).

This probably should have been made public knowledge by Nude as i would hate to think of other punters like myself not getting the most out of the board due to a lack of communication by the shapers.

So the next 2 sessions i had the base in the right spot and WHAMMO ! super early planing, incredible drive - i am talking onshore no power in the sail board fanging down the line from surfboard drive - quite frankly - feels like a little outboard is on the back of the thing.

And then the top turn - this is easily the loosest board i have ever ridden.

Which is nuts as its also one of the largest boards i have sailed. I am approaching my sailing with a surfing outlook now and its a real blast.

For a 90 litre board this thing is incredibly rangey - powered 5.3 still feels great on this (its 61 cm wide!!) - i guess thats due to its compact shape

So incredibly stoked on this board - it has made me super hungry to go sailing - and i do believe i will be ordering an 80 soon.

i am also going to mount a campaign for another national wave title - with boards this good i'd be mad not too (just hope i can dodge Jaeger, Scott and Ben till a final)

Right now this is easily the best board i have ever used - the only unproven aspect of this thing is down the line margs - where i suspect my Kode 80 will still rule for safety and punt factor- but we will see about that when i finally score those conditions (prob not till jan)

I am 86 - 82 kg depending on pie / beer consumption over winter

I reckon an 80 for qld - although the 74 could also work for you

if you are spending alot of time on the 5.2 - go the 80

My chopper is a twin and works just fine.