Light wind boards

[agrelon]

Bigger board and bigger sail, must have been a pretty s*** build/design. Would be interesting to know the brand in order to stay away from it...

[Ken]

Agrelon,

I am not ready to name the brand, since it looks like the 2010 model may have fixed the problem (from what I could see from the photos on the web site). I guess the board was designed for novice sailors to begin the freeride experience, but if it won't plane without a ton of power, then what a blunder.

I guess it is incumbent upon the buyer to know something about board design before buying, but in this case, most novice or intermediate sailors probably would not notice the soft rails or be aware of the impact.

It's also hard to believe that a major company with years of experience would design something like this, but to keep all of this in perspective, this is just my opinion and others could disagree. Therefore, I think it's best to not identify the brand.

[GURGLETROUSERS]

Ken. I think that when you state what you claim to be fact rather than just opinion (your original post) you ought to name names.After all, if the fault has been rectified on this years model but the older ones are still being bought second hand, people have a right to know .

Presumably the board was tested by some magazine or other at the time. couldn't you at least point us in that direction? We ought to be able to read between the lines if the test has any credibility, otherwise what is the point of testing!

[Ken]

OK, here's the deal - I haven't been on a big freeride board for about 8 years. With ample wind, my iSonic 111, Formula 160 and HiFly Move all get on plane quickly and accelerate very fast with a clean water release. My last freeride board was a Techno 283 and it planed up nicely as well.

What I found in the short time I was on the 2008 Naish Freewide 130 was NOTHING like my past experiences on my boards when it comes to planing and accelerating. It just felt like it was stuck to the water.

Others may have a different opinion, but this is what I found.

[GURGLETROUSERS]

Thank you Ken. Now I know it wasn't another make I was wondering about.

[agrelon]

I think they introduced this shape in 2010/09 so I guess it's still quite new. I don't know how much cheaper Naish boards are than SBs but they certainly don't seem to undergo as much R&D as SB... or maybe that's just because SBs marketing is insane, not really sure.

[pwindsurf]

does anyone have a copy (.pdf) of this article about the planing thresholds of different setups? if not, is there a link to a back issues page for surf magazine so i could purchase a copy of the article?

is surf a windsurfing magazine or a surfing magazine? this is an article that all the windsurf magazines should have tested on years ago .

thanks for the help

cheers

SURF is a German windsurfing magazine. You can buy the article online in their website
www.surf-magazine.de
Go to : Test & Technics
Got to: Tests
Search for: Material für Leichtwind.

The article is all in German though.