LoL. Sorry, your right. Spend the money on a better topdeck. lmao.
If all your going to do is ride in the surf or just rip up the lake, then the SN is a great ski.
If you plan to get serious into flatwater freestyle/freeriding then you will be better off with the RN. If the SN is that much better why didn't Rick Roy, Eric Malone, Alisander Lenzi, Josh Lustic, Jason Storyer, and all the other "Pro's" get Wamilton, Lightweight DE, XFT to build them lightweight SN hulls?
yeah, the front of a SN is lower than a RN, but at the rear the SN gets higher. Also the hood is sloped some whereas the RN lowered hoods are flater in the areas you need them to be.
Also, if the SN was so good why would there only be a run from 90-95 of this design vs the run of 96-2010 with "0" change to the upper deck. That is 15 years with the same top deck on an "inferior" design!
Ok, enough with the "propaganda".
yes, the SN and the RN shared the same bottom hull from 1990 until 2007. But that is all that they had in common as far as handling. Flat water, the SN feels heavy. Almost like you cannot get any leverage. Hop on a RN, you get some more leveage, but when you drop a lowered bracket you get a ton more leverage. But wait, you are making the RN more into a SN with the lowered bracket. Well, yes and no. With the SN the pole is lowered but the bracket is mounted on an angle. So to get the ski to rotate, you actually have to twist the pole/bars. The RN bracket once lowered sits more vertical than horizontal (ie like the SN) so when you go to try and rotate the ski, you are not having to twist but are more forcing the ski over into the direction of your roll or nosestab.
OK, because I typed this, it is the gospel, why? Because I said so.:scared:
Funny thing I remember back from 2004 or so there was a guy in Florida that no matter how many hulls he went through, the SN was the shiznet, he would paint one up. Crush the nose, rip the nose off, replace the hull, repaint............... and then it happened. This guy picked up a RN, got it set up and guess what. lets just say he had a change of heart. This guy was as opinionated, diehard as anybody gets. You cannot change his mind for nothing. Nothing you can say, tell him, nothin............
So, does all this mean squat. Depends on what you want out of your ski. For me, the SN is far inferior as a hull design. Or is it? In the surf it is a great handling ski. On the race coursse, It may even be better in some ways to a RN. Hell, I know of two top level racers that still can rock it on the old SN. One of them just retired that hull about a year ago and snatched the SD 951 out of it and put it in an 08-09 SJ hull. But for flat water. Yeah, it just plain sucks.................................for me.
Ride what you want, enjoy the hell out of it like it is the next best thing to sliced bread.