Those of you who watch these things will have noticed that the 2013 Fanatic performance boards have been posted onto the site. The new Falcons look great as usual and they have included a 152L (90cm wide) board in the line-up. This is good news and will be something to consider against the Starboard Ultrasonic 147L. I wish that I could get hold of these two boards for some back to back testing. Not likely unfortunately. The small and medium Falcons seem little changed from last year but the bigger boards now have cut-outs under them.
The Falcon teaser video is worth watching and contains some nice gybing footage.
Look out for:
- Entry speed (most of us enter the gybe way too slowly - watch these guys!)
- Knees bent pointing at the center of the carving circle, arms straight
- Flare/step/flip (in that order!)
- Maintain weight on the inside rail and look out of the gybe in the direction of the exit line.
The other model of interest to me is the Hawk. I watched them testing the new 97L here last year and it cooked over the chop. Maybe not as fast as the Rockets but probably more fun.
If you're considering this board please go for the Ltd edition. Much lighter!
I promised to give feedback on my new Savage 7.8 and a few of you have contacted me asking for details. The wind has been a bit scarce over the last few weeks so I have only used this sail 3 times - twice in very light wind. The one decent sail I had was great. The wind was strong for a 7.8 and I could easily have sailed with my 6.4 Cross but the sailing was fast, easy and comfortable with the extra sail area. The sail is extremely stable when powered up (solid as a rock) and the low swing weight and instant rotation make gybing a pleasure.
On the down side I really battled in the light winds. When off the plane the sail feels heavy and lifeless. I have to say that there were times when I felt that I could definitely have got going with my old North Ram but just bobbed on the Savage, pumping to no avail and taking major strain to back and legs.
My feeling now is that if you are a heavy sailor you probably need to look at a cammed sail in the big sizes. If you are a smaller sailor and 7.5 is going to be your biggest sail then also consider cams. I am totally relaxed since I have 9m and 9.8m sails for light winds, both with cams. I'm sure that I am going to have a really good season with the Savage. I may need to hold on to the 9m a bit longer than when I was using the 7.8m Ram. The wind strengths that I sail it in will be greater than for the Ram. It is early days however and I will continue to give feedback as soon as Gareth gets here (3 weeks time). We can then do some direct comparisons on the water between the Savage and his cammed slalom sail.
Talk to you soon
No comments:
Post a Comment