Some Reader/Rider Feedback

Hi

Here is some feedback from readers and riders and a small rant to end off with.

·      Joos has acquired two Zulu fins for his Severne Fox 105.  In strong winds last week he sailed the board with the new 34cm fin and his 6.0m NCX.  He tells me that the fin has turned the board into a perfect high wind blaster.  Carbon fettled by Robbie shows its class once again.  

   The standard Fox fin is good but is also really powerful.  Severne say the board (105) will take sails up to 7.8m and I believe them.  The G10 fin will hold a 7.8m sail with no trouble whatsoever.  The problem you have comes with a smaller sail in strong winds.  The same fin can boss you around badly.  Robbie’s 34cm fin is exactly what the doctor ordered – fast, easy and rock steady in rough conditions.

·      I reported on Severne’s new race mast in the previous post and I stated that the new masts were lighter than the outgoing model.  Well quite a few of you e-mailed me to correct this.  Most of the new sizes are lighter but the 490 Apex-pro is actually a bit heavier than the outgoing 490. Sorry – I did not look properly.

·      Eric Kamminga from the Netherlands is an old member of this site.  I recall that he joined up when all of 10 people had signed on.  Anyway we have had many discussions over the years, wrestling with equipment options and choices.

    Eric tells me that he has opened a windsurfing shop in Roden.  If you are a Dutch reader living near Roden and need some assistance, please drop in on Eric.  He is a kindred spirit and his shop offers some nice brands.  He can also arrange repairs if required.   

    Eric's shop is in Kanaalstraat, (a common street name in Holland I imagine).  His website is : www.surf-store.nl

·      Martin Cross queried why the Starboard Kode Freewave was not included in my list of recommended blasting boards.  I have to acknowledge that this board would easily hold its own against anything recommended (just read the reviews – it is one fantastic machine) but I exclude it because its centre fin slot has a US box.  This means that I would be unable to use any of my precious power box fins.  I am also a little unsure of the stability of a US fin under extreme loading.

    If your free-riding is more wave-orientated and your stance more upright, then you should absolutely consider a Kode.  It is invariably the test favorite in reviews and as Martin pointed out, quite a few fast fins are now available with US heads.

In the vein of the last point, I want to express some unhappiness with certain brands within our industry.  I use Severne in this example but other manufacturers make the same mistake from time to time.

The example on my mind right now is the new Severne Fox.  The Fox line represents a landmark in free-ride/free-race board design in my opinion – a really important board.  The biggest Fox is 140l/78cm wide – a light wind rocket.  Note that its weight is the same as the 70cm model.  So far so good!

    

My problem is the fin box.  Severne give us a power box in this Fox size.  

Most buyers of this board are going to be old sailors with good technical abilities.  Such people will have their own fin quivers and such quivers will almost certainly include one or two good 44cm(ish) fins with deep Tuttle heads.

One of the first things one would want to do on purchasing a Fox 140, would be to try it with a variety of fins.  Why on earth would Severne offer such a board with a power box?  No-one has aftermarket 44cm fins with power-box heads.

 

Buy a big Fox but you can only use the standard fin!  Why punish your target market in this way?   The big Fox should be offered with deep Tuttle box in my opinion.  The board’s class and potential are on a level with any good (or even really high end) fin.

Ok – that’s all for now

Good winds                                                         

A Suggested Short List of Rough Water, High Speed Boards

Hi

Before I get into the topic I must mention that this blog has been numbered in the top 10 windsurfing blogs by a crowd called blogfeedspot.  

This is not all that significant to me and is probably less so to you.  I’m not sure of the metrics used to evaluate the blogs selected.  

All that aside, I notice some really good sites on their list.  Please have a look at them on the following link:

http://blog.feedspot.com/windsurf_blogs/

You will note that some of the blogs are fully on Facebook and Twitter (unlike this one) and all of them have valuable windsurfing related content of one form or another.  Enjoy!

Anyway – to the topic of the day:

If your sailing conditions are anything like ours you will experience some days where slalom sailing is appropriate and great fun.  You will also have many days where bump & jump kit is far more suitable due to choppy water and strong winds.

With this in mind, I have been thinking about a short list of non-slalom boards on the market right now which are fast, fun and controllable.

I have chosen two sizes of board – a 70ish wide range and a 65ish wide range.  I further split these sizes into free-race models and free-ride shapes.

Here are the boards I would include in any short list for this type of board.

 

First, the pure B&J schedules:

   

The Fox and Blast boards have been discussed on these pages many times.  I have never ridden an AtomiQ but the styling of the thing convinces me that it is pretty special.

 

The RRD FreestyleWave (V3 – not the latest one) has always been on my radar and pushed, I would probably pick this board from the line-up.  The latest FSW v4 does not appeal.  They have shortened it and it seems far wavier to me.  Give me the old one any day.  Incidentally Tabou have done exactly the same thing with the latest 3S line.

 

The Exocet Cross must be one of the best rough water boards in existence.  Their designs have some weird kind of magic in them so if you ever have a chance to try one, jump at it.  You may never buy from another windsurfing brand again.  You have been warned.

Here is the second schedule.  This is for speed merchants who need some comfort and control:

You will note that the Fox falls into both B&J and Free-race categories.  I have ridden Joos’s Fox twice now, the second time in perfect conditions.  This board is unlike anything I have ridden before (fantastic directional stability, eye watering speed, comfort over chop and a complete star through gybes).  It fits comfortably into both camps – you would only need to change fins.  

The Fox is possibly a bit too business-like for me.  I need something slightly more laid back and a little more old school.  Having said that - offer me a Fox for a good price and I’ll bite your hand off.

Look at the insane weights on the Futuras.  I also like the large width of the smaller Futura - 97 Litres and 67cm wide!  This indicates that it is a flat board and therefore endowed with good control.  Nice!

 

Given the above options, my ideal board quiver would be:

·      iSonic 117

·      One of the 65ish boards above.  Can’t decide which!

·      A Fanatic Freewave 96l/61cm wide (Textreme from 2015)

The last board I like because it would give me the opportunity to use 3 fins in the swells to play but also to close the side-slots, fit a fast fin into the power-box, and blast in strong winds.  It has a centre back strap but also screw holes for four outboard straps for blasting.  Very nice!

That’s all for now.  I may give you my idea of my ideal sail quiver to go with the above boards.  I don’t want to bore you however so I need to consider whether or not to do this.

All the best

   

              

Local Racing and some New Equipment

Hi

I know I said that I would be discussing the costs of some of the new technologies but this needs some quiet thought and there is too much going on right now.  We have racing on our lagoon and some high powered internationals have turned up.

The racing is to begin today and our winds promise to be ballistic.  Not so good for the free-sailors and to be frank, not so good for the racers either.  Anyway we will see how the top guys handle the wildness.

 

Joos finally got his hands on a Severne Fox 105 board which he is considering buying.  I clipped my North E-Type 6.6 onto the board and took it for a spin in light, squirrelly wind/ demon chop.  I planed all the way out and all the way back but was scratching at times.  Not ideal conditions then, but what a machine!  When powered up the board is absolutely composed regardless of chop levels.  Good speed is reached quickly and easily.  The front of the board cuts through the chop and the back seems to dissipate any remaining bumpiness giving a totally settled ride.  Gybing is super easy as I suspected it would be.   The standard Fox fin is great.  I would invest in one or two smaller sizes for overpowered sailing but as your main fin, the G10 36cm blade supplied is excellent and bound to become a close friend in time.

Joos asked my opinion as to whether he should buy the Fox.  Yes, yes, yes!  I would buy this board in a heart-beat.  It seems to have been made specifically with our local conditions in mind.  Even with my weight being more than that of Joos, I would still opt for the 65cm wide size.

   

If I were ever to buy a Fox 105, my ideal medium wind board would then be an iSonic 117 (light version of course) and between these two boards I could cover most of my sailing (with a few sails and fins of course).  For the time being I would hold onto our T-Rex and Bic FW 1.3 for the really light stuff but keep a keen eye on all the latest developments in foiling which I am convinced will become the light wind solution of choice for all of us.

Raffi from Surf n Curve (Severne agent) is here for the racing and brought the new Severne Reflex-8 sails and an exciting new range of Severne racing masts.  These are the Apex Pro line and promise to be something very special.  They are SDM at the base with a slim, whippy top section.  This is not a new concept of course but Severne seems to have taken it to new levels.  The slim top softens the sail but has super quick recovery rates so you have some softness without losing any stability.  Please look out for these sticks if you are serious about slalom racing in 2017.

Erik Beale was out on the water yesterday hitting speeds of 38k on slalom equipment.  He had a really interesting slalom fin proto-type on the slalom board.  I will not describe the shape to you in case it is secret but this is not a slow fin!  When he was done on the slalom stuff, Erik took out his speed board (Patrik on Gasoil fin) for some “proper speed”.  I don’t think I have ever seen anyone going as fast across our launching beach before.  Civilians were frightened!

OK, I think that Ellie and I will make our way down to the beach to watch the racing. The skipper’s meeting was scheduled for 09:00 but knowing windsurfers as I do I am willing to bet that nothing will happen until mid-day. We may rig some freeride kit, have a short blast and maybe sail alongside the racers to get an idea of their speed.



Talk to you soon

Some New equipment Feedback

Hi

Sorry for the long delay between posts.  My time has been split between sailing and being exhausted from sailing.  No energy for anything else!

Anyway, Raffaello, our Severne agent, arrived with some awesome new Severne stuff on Saturday (hopefully a Fox in the near future) but also with some boards (PC2) we have not seen on our shores before.  They are by Phil Carbon – the well known (and aptly named) speed-board maker.  

Phil has teamed up with Anders Bringdal and they have produced some very tasty board ranges.  Raffi, being a hard core racing man, brought along a few slalom sizes from the new partnership.

Charl (Karo’s husband/master sailor) and Raffi were absolutely rocking these machines with Severne Reflexes/Zulu fins.  Very impressive.  

Charl tells me that the 71 is much easier to control than Joos’s Manta 71 (which he knows quite well).  I would really like to try a PC2 - 75cm slalom and report back on it.  The boards feel slightly heavy in the hand but not excessively so.  PC2 give no weights on their site.

The testers are here and have some really interesting boards.  When they are not at Swartriet, (our local wave venue), testing wave equipment, they have been testing free-race/fast freeride boards.  

They have Fanatic’s Blast, Severne’s Fox, AHD’s Freerace, Patrik’s Freerace, Lorch’s Glider and JP’s equivalent.  All the boards are around 70cm wide.  Very interesting.  

I asked about the Blast and the Fox being the two most interesting boards to me.  They recon the Blast is an absolute hoot which does exactly what Fanatic claim – fast, stable, good over chop, fun to jump etc.  They stress however that it is not a freerace board like the Patrik.  

The Fox too performs exactly as we would expect with blistering speed over all conditions and a cork-like ability to float through gybes.  One of the guys said that there seemed to be some small discrepancies between the shapes on the left and right underside of the board when they brought the straight edge out but that these seem to have no effect on performance.  If there are manufacturing anomalies, I’m sure that Severne will remedy them going forward.

  

I have been riding the old F2 T-Rex I spoke about a while ago.  The board is taking names!  The lightness and length of the thing make it compatible with a 46cm fin and soft sails down to 6.6m.  A miraculous buy which is spreading alarm and despondency among fellow windsurfers in lightwind conditions.  Very nice!

I have been using camless sails with the T-Rex but a while ago Joos (Karo's dad as regular readers will know), let me click on Karo’s Reflex 7.8 to see how it would go.  I was concerned that the old board shape might not mesh with modern race sail architecture.  The T-Rex handled things as if it had been specifically designed for the Reflex - no problems whatsoever.  

I have to say that the Reflex surprised me with its lightness and ease of use.  I’m not sure how they are going to improve on this model.  If you are considering a 7.8m race sail you could wait for the version _8 to come out and get a good price on a version _7.  You will not be disappointed.

In the next post I will say a few words about some interesting developments in our sport which we all need to keep an eye on.

Talk to you soon (I hope)

Phil

 

New Severne Kit and a Comment about the new iSonics

Hi

Sorry for the long break but I have been having computer problems.  Anyway – all is back in working order now so here is the post about some Severne stuff and a comment or two regarding the new iSonics from Starboard.

Severne

Severne have taken two models from 2016 and combined the best characteristics of both to create a new super blasting sail.  Great work from the masters.  The new Turbo GT combines aspects of the old Turbo with the Unit I wrote about some time ago.

On paper the 2017 Turbo GT is is one great machine for the non-racing blaster.  It is light, forgiving and promises to be really fast.  All things we enjoy.

My belief is that Severne discovered something when developing the Unit – they opened a door to new possibilities for improved stability by moving the power down and forward in the sail and this is what they are offering.  The Turbo GT is one sail I would dearly like to be trying in the new season.

 

You will no-doubt have seen these shots on the Severne website.

  

A fine looking machine and I note from the specs that they increase the number of battens and cams as the sizes increase.  Very cool.  They have not posted dimensions and weights but please keep an eye on the site for these.

  

One nice thing with these pictures and those showing the new Gators, is the inclusion of the Fox blasting board.  It looks absolutely perfect on the water (imo).  Where the guys are jumping we catch a glimpse of the fins the boards will come with.  They too look like proper equipment (you may not need to buy after-market fins – bargain!)

The new Gators look great as well:

No annoying overhanging batten!

The Convert is a sail I would usually ignore (disliking “intermediate” equipment as I do) but I will bet that this iteration is faster and more stable than any of us thinks.  

The Dacron panel is a master stroke allowing the foil to breathe slightly for increased comfort and as we keep saying “comfort = speed”.  If you believe that Dacron is an old redundant material just go to the Hot Sails Maui site and see the awesome products Jeff Henderson makes with the stuff.

  

I wonder where this particular venue is.  Cross shore winds, clear, warm water, nice accommodation and plenty of shade for equipment between sets.  I want to live there!

Speaking of the Fox, here are some perspectives I had not seen before:

What more can one say.  Perfection!

Starboard

The new iSonic shapes look great as usual.  This season they offer the boards in UltraCore Reflex which results in some crazy light weights.  

They have rounded out the tails of the larger slalom sizes to give more power – a good thing in my opinion.  

The previous 114 (my favorite) remains unchanged and has become the new 117.  They felt that adding a rounded tail would over-do the power for this size.  

Incidentally, the light version of this board comes in at 6.3kg.  Awesome for a board of this size.  

Nice work SB!

Talk to you soon

The New 2017 Severne Fox - Specifications

Hi

I have found some specifications for the new Severne Fox board.  Severne is extremely secretive about its new products and will only post details on its site when it is absolutely ready to do so.  I’m sure that you all know this.  I searched high and low for anything about the machine but could only find the bare minimum.  

Anyhow, the seriousness of the situation caused me to mobilize some secret abilities I possess to help us.  I speak of three powers which I unleash in times of extreme anguish - namely:

•          Ninja skills
•          Jedi powers
•          General sneakiness

I hasten to re-assure you that these powers are only ever used in times of great crisis and only where they will improve the lives of others

Anyway, by deploying my three gifts, I managed to unearth this material from a tiny, unguarded corner of the Internet.

I’m sure that it will all be posted on the Severne site soon but it is fun to present you guys with an early view.  

Enjoy

       

2017 Severne Blasting Board

Hi

I have been keeping an eye out for promising 2017 blasting boards.

 

The last post dealt with Fanatic’s Blast and I think the subject of this post is equally exciting.  

Severns’s Fox has broken cover and it looks the business with parallel rails, nice volume under the feet.  The bottom shape is reportedly extremely fast, being comfortable and controlled in wild conditions, allowing the rider to keep on pushing for greater speeds.  Nice!

  

If it does what it says on the tin this is going to be a board which ticks all the boxes.  It certainly looks the part

http://www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/Review/Severne-Fox/

The pictures are from the above site where the writer also discusses his experience with the board on the water.  Please have a look at his comments.

The boards come with G10 power box fins specially designed for them.

This is an exciting product from the masters.  I think that the board is manufactured in China by IQC, a composite manufacturer which in itself represents an interesting development – a mainstream board to be made outside of the Cobra factory.  Price war? - I think not unfortunately.

So far I have only seen images of the 105 litre model (105/65/239).  There are bound to be other sizes in the pipeline.

Good winds

First PWA Racing of the Season, New Equipment and a note about Free-Race Boards

Hi

PWA

The first PWA event took place recently in Japan.  

The slalom heats were few because the wind was extremely unsteady but there are a few observations to be made.

The first observation is that the foiling side of things seems to have come of age.  It is closely fought and quite entertaining to watch.  Gonzalo has emerged as the guy to beat having dedicated himself to the discipline over the winter.

 

Gonzalo is on Starboard/Severne and is flying.  The new Severne Hyperglide sails seem to be pretty much foiling state-of-the-art at this point in time.

  

Many of the riders prefer sails other than pure racing designs for foiling (Julien Quentel uses Tempests – not the new Machine M-6 race models for example).

Interesting though, is that the Pryde sailors have no problem with their new race blades – foil or slalom – bring it on.  This attests to the user friendliness of the design and to underscore this, Antoine won the slalom racing and came second in the foiling – on the same sails.

  

When Pryde launched this model with its fresh shaping and reduced batten count, I predicted that it would prove to be something special.  It is still early days but watch this space.

New Equipment

RRD is getting serious about foiling at the highest levels and is about to release their new foiling board.  They clearly wanted to give Antoine the best chance of winning and so, made a proper, light, purpose built, foiling machine.  Nice!

Fanatic has released the Jag Ltd, a freerace board which looks interesting.  The Blast is more of a high speed freeride machine I suppose, so the new Jag makes sense as a useful addition to their line-up.

 

I note that the construction of the Jag is the same as the Gecko so it might be quite heavy.  I’m not sure why they would not have a textreme option for those of us allergic to heavy stuff.  

The weights of the new boards are not shown on the spec sheet which makes me extremely nervous.

The boards come with Choco Black Pearl fins which are decent blades.  You could easily take the supplied fin as your middle size and supplement with something like a Tectonics (Phoenix or Falcon) for your smaller size and a full on carbon fin for the larger size.  One board/ three fins/ job done.

Besides the concerns regarding the weight of the Jags, I would only say that the straps look too far back for me.  This is a 100%, sitting - in - armchair opinion of course but I just have the feeling that the straps are too crowded towards the back of the board.  This is better for speed I suppose but I don’t know.  

I would need to sail a Jag to get some sort of feel.  Buying one blind would definitely not happen whereas if I were to get a good deal on any of the other boards listed below, I wouldn’t hesitate to take it untried.

The Free-Race Board

The new Jag is one of many free-race designs on the market right now.  Off the top of my head these are the models I would be looking at if I needed to choose one:

• Severne Fox 
• RRD Firestorm Ltd 
• Patrik F-Race 
• Starboard Futura 
• Goya Bolt Pro 
• Fanatic Jag (need to try first)

Severne’s Fox is the only power box board here which is not a problem in the smaller sizes but in the bigger sizes I would definitely prefer Tuttle and deep Tuttle boxes.

Why I fancy these designs in the appropriate size, is because they:

• Are longer than their slalom counterparts 
• Have inboard strap plugs for those of us tired of stepping into the water trying to get feet into slalom straps. 
• Can be sailed very happily with freeride, free-slalom or full race sails 
• Can be sailed with a range of fin types – from wild water shapes to full carbon race blades 
• Are so much more enjoyable to sail than slalom boards in all but the flattest conditions.

For my weight, I would order one of these boards of around 70cm wide.  Anything bigger would need to be pure slalom and anything smaller would be a fast free-wave board.  

I may share a few thoughts about some fast free-wave shapes in an upcoming post.

OK, that’s all for now.

Good winds and stay sheeted in   

The Bigger Board/Smaller Sail Initiative - Some Thoughts

Hi

I will ramble on in this post a bit so if you are not up for wading through random musings –please look away.  The post is also aimed at non-racing recreational sailors so will not be of much interest to racers and speed demons.  

My topic has to do with board shapes and plan forms.  A huge thing that I discovered when trying smaller sails on bigger boards, is the importance of the width of the back of the board.   A wide rear deck provides leverage over fin and sail of course.   When sail and fin are smaller than envisaged by the designer of that board size, the leverage over the rig is really significant.  What this allows one to do is to ride the big board into conditions you would normally change down for.  Neither the sail nor the fin was built with this extra leverage in mind so by exploiting these factors you enter unfamiliar territory for most of us.  If you allow yourself to explore this realm you can open a door to something new and exciting.

 

My own trials with big old formula boards and with our old Falcon 124 have been a revelation in this endeavour.  The 124 is 76cm wide and can be sailed with a 40cm fin and 6.6m soft sail.  The ride this combo gives is simply awesome.  The board is light enough to shoot onto the plane and continue to plane through lulls where the 71/110ish slaloms are falling off (even with bigger sails).  The soft sail and compliant Zulu fin tame everything down to make things easy, fast and fun.

The whole small sail big board process has caused me to decide that I no longer need a pure slalom board less than 75cm wide.  I weigh 90kg so if you want to try the concept you may go down to 71cm if your weight is less than mine.

When I am finally overpowered on the 124/6.6 combination, I easily change down by keeping the sail and clicking on the 3S 116.  If I receive a windfall from the kind folks at the lottery, my slalom board would be the iSonic 114 and the step down would be the Severne Fox 105 mentioned in the previous post – two boards for most of your sailing as long as you possess appropriate fin and sail sizes.  

   

The wide rear is obviously not the only factor in determining performance but it is certainly important in my view. I had been toying with the thought of getting something like a JP Supersport 125 to move away from slalom boards altogether but on comparing the rear sections of the JP with the iSonic 114, I have to say that my preference would be the iSonic

When you look at the Starboard rear strap positioning, it is clear that they are placed for maximum force against the fin.  The JP’s straps are simply too close to the centre in my opinion.  If they had maintained the width just a bit further back I may have been swayed but not this year.  Sorry JP – a pity  because I suspect that you have nailed the under shape of this new Supersport – easy, superfast, light, not too short etc.

On the new Starboards, one thing you hear from everyone who tests the iSonics is the insane wind range they are capable of sailing in.  This tells me that they are easy and confidence inspiring.  This confidence comes from comfort and control which I believe is largely due to the rear strap positioning.  A soft 6.6m sail is totally outside of what you would expect to sail on a 76.5cm wide iSonic but if you ever have the chance to try this combo  – screw in a 38cm fin and give it a go.  It may set you on a new path!

As an aside, I notice that many recent board cut-outs have become longer, thinner and pushed to the outside edge more than in prior years.

iSonic

JP SSport

Severne Fox

This seems right somehow (it seems to fit with the flow of things) but I would need to do a comparison between an iSonic and one of Patrik’s boards to reach an honest opinion.

Failing that, I would really like to test Patrik’s F-Race 75 against JP’s Supersport 125.  That would tell us such a lot about so many things!

Good winds