Hi
The first block of this year’s PWA slalom racing is over and
results have been interesting. I will
say something about the racing but first I want to mention an interesting
development within our sport.
Most board and sail
companies attract top sailors to their stables.
These athletes showcase the equipment in competition and also play an
important role in the development of high end products.
This approach has resulted in a steady
improvement in board/sail design and construction (to the benefit of everyone).
JP’s boards have improved significantly
due to the work of guys like Nicolas Prien and Seb Kornum. Watch them improve even more now that Antoine
has joined the team.
Recently a new phenomenon is taking hold. Single
athletes are breaking away to launch their own board brands. I wrote some time ago about Dany Bruch’s new
board brand (Diamond Boards – now re-named Bruch Boards).
In the race arena, we
have Arnon Dagan’s Future Fly boards and Finian Maynard’s FMX range. I wish both of these guys every success but I
am uncertain about whether their business model is going to succeed.
These endeavours are
one man affairs so budgets for team riders, travel, product development etc
will be really thin. You need to sell a
large number of boards to keep afloat and my concern is that it will prove difficult to attract buyers when established companies have such good products now.
Anyway here is some commentary on the two new brands:
Arnon’s slalom range is the Dark Horse and Finian’s is called
Invictus - the names reflect the personalities of the respective founders I
suppose.
Arnon – a bit playful, a bit disruptive, a bit subversive
Finian – No nonsense, totally mission-focussed
Arnon’s team
comprises Arnon and Taty Frans.
Finians
team is Finian and Maciek Rutkowski (four awesome sailors for sure).
Arnon’s shaper is Aurelio Verdi, Finian’s shaper is er
..Finian.
On seeing this, my thoughts
were that Arnon’s boards would probably be superior (I am a huge Aurelio Verdi
fan).
I awaited the first slalom event
with interest.
Anyway, here are the boards:
Arnon offers his boards with the option to include a Z fin
(the actual model and size used in the board’s development). Nice touch.
Finian’s boards have 2 footstrap plug rows and removable
cut-out blades. Nice!
Each brand professes to offer superior construction (compared
to established brands) and each claims faster bottom shapes. I have to say, both boards look sensational
but performance is what matters of course.
So-how have the boards been doing?
The first round of racing was in Marignane.
Arnon and Taty dropped out in their first
heats with Maciek going shortly after.
Who did we see in the winners final? -
Finian! His boards work!
The second event was windless but the third slalom event in
Ulsan had wind and produced the following placings:
1.
Mateo Iachino
2.
Jordy Vonk
3.
Tristan Algret
4.
Antoin Albeau
Arnon, Finian, Maciek and Taty were placed between 17th
and 29th.
The Defi Wind has been held and Arnon came 6th in
the first race and won the second race.
He was disqualified in the second race for not signing some piece of
paper but as far as you and I are concerned, he piloted his board to first
place in that race.
Defi is far closer
to the type of sailing that most of us do and a Dark Horse ran away from
everyone on that field.
What the above facts tell us is that the two new board lines
work. Depending on your style and
specific requirements you could get exactly what you are looking for from one
or other of the two lines.
My impression is that Finian’s boards will be
more race-focussed and Arnon’s, slightly easier to sail for the average
sailor. I think that his straps are slightly more inboard (?).
Would I buy one of them? Absolutely. I
would buy a Dark Horse 117 if pushed, but would ideally need to test it against
a few alternatives before signing actual money away.
I said that I was going to discuss the racing but I have
been waffling on a bit so I will end now.
I will talk racing and some product news in the next post.
Good winds
Phil
