Supernova

Built for speed. Tuned for chaos. Designed to detonate 1–3' surf. Since Ben Aipa’s 1974 creation of the STING, AIPA has been on the forefront of performance designs. Duke continues to evolve his fathers designs by implementing the STING’s design principles of surface area reduction and control.
Duke’s passion is collaborating with athletes from different backgrounds,so when Surf n’ Show’s Noel Salas approached Duke with a concept to co-design a small wave specific High-Performance Groveler, a design which he felt was missing in most surfboard quivers, Duke was 100% in to prove it could be done. The sole purpose for this model was to absolutely shred and traverse at Mach 2 speeds in 1’-3’ surf on a surfboard that’s not a fish, or a hybrid, but a true HP Groveler! It sounds cliche, but we truly focused on creating the fastest, most maneuverable board in its class. The Supernova defines this category with the focus of small wave ripping for surfers that like a performance outline under their feet without the restrictions of a wide nose fish or stigma of a typical hybrid board groveler.
We incorporated 50-plus years of AIPA design history and Noel's career of testing 100s of surfboards in varying shapes into this board. We are not talking about a daily driver or all arounder that also kind of works in smaller waves like most board builders make. We are talking about a high-performance outline that works specifically for the small stuff, no fluff…. Duke said, “The SUPERNOVA represents the most intense and critical collaborative design work I’ve ever done. Even when the board was working unreal, we kept pushing the design, polishing it into the fastest, most responsive board in its class.. point blank”.
For speed, the foundation of the board demanded we create the straightest rail line possible in a compact outline, and complement these factors with modern performance fish rockers and staged-bottom contours.
We knew that to give the board the level of performance that we were looking for , we would need a drastic design attribute to bring the board to life, so we incorporated an element called the “null wing” to reduce surface area and create an intricate angular rail line break which gives the SUPERNOVA it’s unique pivot/point of release. The null wing isn’t quite a wing or a bump—it’s a modern evolution of the original STING, the Swing Twin, and the High Bump Thruster. It cuts surface area, disrupts water flow, and creates a distinct break in the rail line for crisp, immediate release.
The SUPERNOVA is aimed at disrupting the standards that kind of work in smaller conditions giving surfers an edge with a compact HP groveler meant for speed and spontaneous maneuvers -- in small waves ONLY.