Freerace or slalom

[MarcoM]

Hi Kevin,

I'd like some advice from you.

I am an intermediat/advanced surfer. My weight is 95kg and I'm approx. 1.95m. tall. I own a Futura 133 and I want a new board for speed-surfing. (100 or 111?)

I have a very hard time choosing between a Futura or an Isonic. I have 3 sails North RAM F10 9,0 RAM F11 7,0 and RAM F11 6,3.

My point is: I like going fast and smooth. All over the forum I see that the Isonic is very fast and very hard to ride. And well driven the Futura will be nearly as fast

I know that you ride both of them. Could you give me some advice?
I surf on a big lake with average waves (between 0,5 -1m)

Thanks in advance for your reply,

Marco

[hans kleingeld]

Hi Marco,

If you want to get the most fun out of your day and go smooth and fast I suggest that the Futura's are the answer. These boards are extremely fast. Maybe not as fast as an iSonic on a slalom course, but downwind these boards are almost unbeatable. Control in chop is very good and jibing is easy. With the low OFO and volume in the tail it feels lively and small. Nice feature is the behaviour of the boards if you don't want/dare to take max speed out of it: the board stays in control on the water.

I have had 2 session with my FU 93 and scored avg pr's both times. Max speed went close to 40 Kts with a lot of more potential.

I will surf the FU 93 with 6.2 and 7.0, but I think the FU 101 will also be a very nice board for these sail sizes.

I don't have experiences with the iSonics, but after 5 years of surfing with pure slalom boards my switch to Futura boards gives me much more fun and better speed.

I hope Kevin can confirm my opinion or may add some extra insight.

Hans Kleingeld

[MarcoM]

thank you for your answer Hans,

What kind of sails do you use? full race? fun race? becaus I have heard that full race sails don't work that well on the futura. do you agree with this?

I like to know becaus I have the North Ram as sail.

thanks in advance

Marco

[hans kleingeld]

Hi Marco,

I use Severne reflex 6.2, 7.0 and 7.8 on my Futura 93 and 122. This sails work great on the boards. Maybe the boards like powerfull sails like the reflex, but In never tried other sails on these boards. Both freerace as full race sails must work very nice.

Maybe Kevin can add some information about how the boards behave according to more or less power in a sail.

Greets, Hans

[jasoncatchpowle]

used by a skilled rider, the isonic is faster than the futura in all conditions. however i did manage to push my 93 futura to 32.86 knots. the isonics really arn't hard boards to ride, and i dont see why people create this phallacy that they are. for an advanced rider (ie planing gybes on both tacks with good consistency) the isonics are great boards and are more fun for gybing than the futuras because they carry more speed throughout the turn and tend to 'slice' through the water than carve like a futura. if you have a quiver of race sails or 'recreational' race sails (eg a neilpryde rs slalom, 3-cam) the isonics match much better than the futura for those sails. once up to top end speed the isonics literally get to a point where they just fly over chop instead of going through it, because of the lower noce rocker, but you need to be able to get there though. the isonics can point higher upwind and keep more speed at that angle than a futura.
the futura does have some advantages though. for people learning to carve gybe for the first time the futuras tend to keep going a bit better at slow speeds and are more forgiving of dodgy technique. the futuras have a softer ride over chop going at normal crusing speed. with the futura you dont have to be as foccused on the chop going at slower speeds because of the slight extra nose rocker wheras with the isonic you do have to make sure the rails up front dont catch.

[hans kleingeld]

Jason, I made some quotes out your message to keep things more clear.

Originally Posted by jasoncatchpowle

used by a skilled rider, the isonic is faster than the futura in all conditions.

I guess this may be true on a slalom course, but most people who go for topspeed on GPS never see any buoy on their way. So for speedsurfing other rules exist than for slalomsurfing. Here a freerace board like the futura may get advantage and even beat a slalomboard.

Originally Posted by jasoncatchpowle

however i did manage to push my 93 futura to 32.86 knots.

Futura's are very good in different conditions. They however excel on half and especially downwind courses. My personal records at the moment:

Futura 122 with 7.0 reflex: 34+ Kts both flat and choppy conditions
Futura 93 with 6.2 reflex: 39.6 Kts flat water and 32 Kts gusts

Both boards have potential to go much faster, especially with good riders (but most good riders surf iSonic so we don't know:-( ). Also the board perform very well with race sails, with the outboard straps it feels like they really need the power which a race sail gives them. This spring Erik Loots and I are planning to go testing and interchanging Futura's and iSonic's. Erik is a very experienced speed- and slalomsurfer and I hope he can make up his mind about pro's and contra's between iSonic and Futura:

- up-, down-, halfwind speed
- control
- jibing
- slalom

I'm no pro so Erik may find out these things;-)

Originally Posted by jasoncatchpowle

the isonics match much better than the futura for those sails.

At this point I disagree. I can't compare with the iSonics, because I don't have one, but I have going out speedsurfing with slalomboards for 5 years. After my switch to futura's I never had the feelling slalomsails like the severne reflex doesn't match with these boards. They work great with the futura's. Als slalomfins like select SL7, S07 and S10 perform very well together with the Futura

Originally Posted by jasoncatchpowle

the isonics can point higher upwind and keep more speed at that angle than a futura.

Yes, this is the part an iSonic must be good at to win the race

Originally Posted by jasoncatchpowle

the futura does have some advantages though. for people learning to carve gybe for the first time the futuras tend to keep going a bit better at slow speeds and are more forgiving of dodgy technique. the futuras have a softer ride over chop going at normal crusing speed. with the futura you dont have to be as foccused on the chop going at slower speeds because of the slight extra nose rocker wheras with the isonic you do have to make sure the rails up front dont catch.

My current experiences with the Futura's are very positive. Boards which are easy to go around with, but with the potential to win a GPS-event on light and midwind days ( up to around 30 kts). The smallest Futura is 93 ltr and 61.5 wide (ofo 40 cm) so for strong winds smaller Futura's may be needed.

So which board suits better is very personal, but a Futura maybe a very good alternative at least to test once.

[MarcoM]

Thanks for this inside information from experienced people.

What I read is that it is very personal how/what you experience from the different boards. Thanks for that.

If I read this I also see that the futura is still closer to me then the Isonic. I like the freeride without paying to much attention how to take the chop. In this fase I go for the futura. In fact I just bought the futura 93 and 111 . With the F133 I have a nice quiver to go from 10kts to 30+kts.

Maybe you can add for me the best fin size for these boards. I will use 6.3 on the F93 and 7.0 on the F111. For the F133 I have a C3 Venom 44 and the one which came with the board.

[MarcoM]

Hi

I just read the test for the new Futura 122 Wood.
http://www.star-board.com/SpringSumm...threadid=10750

In this part they say that the Futura is faster and even moved closer to the Isonic..

Quote: The 2011 Futura moved even closer to the iSonic without demanding more from its rider.

Jason wrote

Originally Posted by jasoncatchpowle
the isonics can point higher upwind and keep more speed at that angle than a futura

.

Is the higher upwind also better with the Futura 2011? and does he keep the speed more at that angle?

Marco