First off Tem is a great guy and I wish I could have spent more time talking with him. My review of riding skis that are not set up any where close to how I would set mine up, riding in really bad conditions, and with lots of back pain should not really be taken to hear by anyone.
One of the most critical things for me to be comfortable on a ski is a decent length handle pole...in Daytona my back was wrecked by Sunday and short poles really are the worst for me. A short pole does two things, it keeps you constantly bent forward which makes my back tight and prevents me from moving how I would like, but more important for a short guy like me it prevents me from being able to transition my weight rearward which is a super important part of making a boat turn correctly.
I can't say that I could give you a really fair assessment of either of the two demo boats (red or black) that were there. I rode both of them pretty poorly and was in a ton of pain. But I will do my best to give a good honest review of the limited experience I had with them, and I did get some insight in to their capabilities. I did have the chance to spend a little more time on Corey's boat which was an older stock length version, so I will end with that one.
Red: I can't really speak to the handling of this boat because the pole was super short and I just basically fell down a lot when I tried to turn it or roll it. The ski did not ride nose high at all but was probably the easiest ski to flip that I have ever ridden. And it was stable. I would love to have the chance to ride that boat with about 6 inches added to the pole. The other thing that was difficult for me was the foot hold placement was like 4 inches forward from the rear of the ski. Which made things feel a little awkward especially trying to roll the boat. Easy fix for me would be to run a strap in the rear. I would really love to have a chance to ride this hull with those two issues sorted out! I think it has a ton of potential, especially as a small wave ski.
Black: This ski was about 400% more comfortable for me because of the longer pole, a little longer would still have been better as far as the pole goes. But the hull felt great. I still had issues trying to roll the ski, and I think that is a combo of footholds and pole but has nothing to do with the hull itself. The boat turns quite well as far as I could tell and even with my inability to get my weight back there was never any time where I felt like it was going to pearl. And the hull was quite stable and pretty easy to recover on. When you consider that the hull was only 56 lbs, it really is amazing how well this hull worked. Again, flipping the hull is ridiculously easy. I don't remember what motor they were running 7xx but it felt like good running 1000. I'm certainly a fan of this package and if I lived in Florida I would really consider buying this hull. And if I had to compete in conditions like we had in Daytona I think this would have been at the top of my list, (provided I had time to get used to it and set it up to suit me.)
Corey's Red/Orange older version hull.
My favorite boat of the weekend. Foot holds were too big to lock in to, but when the ski handled as well as it did, who cares. Stock length hull with footholds all the way back, comfortable pole length, super fun to ride. The motor in that ski was an old tired 61x with a b-pipe, and if I had not ridden the other two Superfreak hulls I would have told you this was the easiest boat to flip I rode there. I rode the ski for 10 or so minutes, super happy that I had finally found something that would turn and not destroy my back. (The Rickter I was riding was pretty great, but was a little limited with the steering setup on it.) I've ridden lots of skis and can usually get a pretty good idea of how a boat will flip by riding it around, but I way misjudged this thing. This is was the first time I have ever been really surprised by how unexpectedly quickly the boat comes around...and I think that is the best part of this hull. It is really stable handles well, and flips incredibly easily.
All this being said, I can't really tell you how the skis handle in the surf...I still don't really know. I would love to ride one of these boats in a heavier fiberglass version, probably stock length but maybe with a rocker profile like the red hull in some clean sizable surf. I'd also like to try a set of tubbies on them...the tubbies give you a pivot point close to the front of the ski that is just can not be duplicated with rocker profile.
Overall, I love Tem and his approach and I hope this is just the beginning for him. For quality of construction/price I think he can seems to be the top guy at this point.
