are these boards the new thing in lightwind? even with fins are they better in 8kts than your ave. 'aircraft carrier decks' twin tips? which is faster between the two and overall performance
some of the claims by the newer lightwind/raceboards are pretty impressive..."8knots and you can do 15... you must have an efficient kite or you kind of overtake it. "
One of the most popular..
kiteforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2360923
You can't ride a normal twin tip upwind in 8 knots... Full stop.
In 8 knots riding my raceboard and 17m kite I can usually cruise at 10-13 knts board speed and go upwind better and with more pace than 'most' poleys on the water at the time. The RSX/ formula guys with big rigs get me in the real light stuff.
Have done a few races round triangles with the local poleys and you'd be suprised how well a I went, suprised myself.
The next mission is leaning to duck-tack properly.
Really loving my 2010 north race with the big quad fin set. Would love to try a full blown race board as the numbers are even more impressive.
JP.... The fins are massive and bite way more than a board edge without the inefficency of pushing all the water that a twinny does. You must ride them flat. If you try to use your edge you just slow down.
Kitenutt said; "JP.... The fins are massive and bite way more than a board edge without the inefficency of pushing all the water that a twinny does. You must ride them flat. If you try to use your edge you just slow down."--that about just answers my question regarding edging so in retrospect huge platforms will be a thing of the past for lightwind kiting and the evolution of raceboards like the north quad is still in it's infancy? I saw an ad for a Airush Monaro with only 2fins however..so 's again-is this one more of a freeride board as compared to the quads which would be more like a 'formula' board in windsurfing? I am asking this cuz i might get stuck with a 'dino' instead of the newer breed designs as Briskites has mentioned..regards
Hey JP,
Yes the newer faster stuff seems to be heading 4 fin.
This is of course at the expense of being "allrounders" as they don't turn so well and are super techy to ride.
There will be a mix of race boards this year with some aimed more light wind freeride and some more cutting edge.
One brand will offer 2 boards and another brand is offering both inboard and outboard strap options you can adjust depending on how you want to ride on the day.
I think it will get to the stage where there will be 2 classes.
http://www.kitepower.com.au/catalog/product_17699_Underground_Race_Board_cat_412.html
That board is the latest design from Underground who are having great success with it in international races. Its available now.
The fins in this board are the most advanced that I have seen in a production board.
We saw the Cabrinha boardS in Maui and Rhys from KP Qld actually rode them in the very windy conditions. He rated them below the Underground, but above another well know brand that he has ridden. We should be able to release pics of that board soon, but if you go into any of the Kitepower shops you can see pics of all the 2011 products, including the race boards.
The Underground board has been produced to the highest standard, to compete with all the other custom board brands in the international racing scene, and it has Tuttle fin boxes, which are regarded as the strongest in the windsurfing boards.
Tuttle does seem to be the best option, they have a massive base with 2 screws and this also means that owners of boards with these boxes can try a huge variety of windsurf board fins.
Race boards are a bit techy to ride, I had a disaster the first day much to the amusement of the peanut gallery lol's.
They need to be ridden flat and not edged like a TT, so its hard at first to stop old habits. Anyone that has windsurfed or rides a surfboard seems to get along with them fine from the get go.
Put the twin straps on the back! No wonder you can't ride it :-D
I've been having a ball on the Underground the last few days in the light stuff - nothing more surreal than flying around on a 17m with no white caps...
A note on the Cabrinha Boards - I rode the smaller of the two, they've got smaller fins, and are designed for reaching rather than beating upwind... This makes them easier to ride for the twintip riders at first.
If you put some bigger (powerbox) fins in, i'm sure it would get close to the Underground upwind... It's much wider, and with high aspect fins I reckon it would have a better top end speed.
Put a course board against a light wind twintip and there's no comparison... it's gotta be 3 or 4 knots better bottom end, you ride twice as fast, and can point twice as high upwind... Riding DOWNWIND becomes a chore on the race boards in light wind...
Hmmm yeah well....
Seems like nothing new in inovation here !!!
Except kiters have tecnically 
learnt how to ride a poley course race board 
In the begining they said it couldnt be done untill someone proved otherwise...
my 20 years of poley wave n race sailing already showed me this
I have had a bit of a go on the underground board in very light winds.....initially maybe 8 knots then fell away to nothing.(couldn't even keep the kite in the sky). It picked back up to 8 to 10 again so had another go with alot more success the second time . So for my comments ....Compared to a twin tip.
1. a lot harder to ride , very twitchy. A few of us had a crack on the same day, all very experience riders, the ex poly's handled it better than the guys who hadn't pole danced. We all fell off it. Some worse than others, ask Evan haha.
2. definitely faster than a twin tip.
3. able to point ALOT higher upwind than any twintip.
4. bloody hard work on your legs.
5. how do you turn the thing ???
6. difference to a twin tip????.....night and day.
Josh Porter (kitepower) then got on it using my 2010 13m Edge, and showed us how it was done. He was riding upwind parrallel to the beach while the fly surfers could achieve about 45 degrees to the beach. (He is only half my weight though.) Then he shot out towards Morton Island till he was a dot on the horizon, he caught up with some polys gave them ait of a flogging and returned.
If you plan to get into this sport start building some leg strength(wall sits) your gonna need it.
As a light wind option ... shorter fins might make it a bit easier to ride while still getting the upwind advantages. It was quite cool to be kiting along with speed and holding good upwind direction and not a white cap in sight. For someone at my weight 96+ kgs this is not a comman experience.
Tip for your first attempt on one of these boards. Head down wind until you have good board speed before turning upwind keeping your kite high. If you bear off similar to your twin tip when to start, you are going to just get dragged over the front edge. Treat it like landing a jump.
hey everyone..it's begginning to morph into a formula poley board! thick hard rails, longer fins and the lot..just bore a hole in the middle strap on a mastfoot and should be a speed board..anyways maybe tech advancements hasn't reached it's peak yet for raceboards..looks nice tho Kitepower..would this be considered an all around directional raceboard or is there a freeride version for chop and swell and of course flattish waterbtw i just noticed the Underground has just one footstrap at the back isn't it supposed to be 2 to ride it flat?
The Underground is an all out race MACHINE... It's hard on your legs, fast, but nothing keeps up with it... for $1400, it's cheap as...
Cabrinha are making 2 course boards this year - a big one (180ish) for racing, and a smaller one (170ish) as a kind of free-ride light wind option... but at $1700 a pop, big bucks...
Are the new raceboards faster downwind than previous models?
We put in a heap of time on <insert popular name brand here> and while they were fantastic upwind, surfboards and TT were much faster on all other points of sail.
I ended up opting for riding strapless on a 7'3" 7S Superfish quad fin surfboard as a more fun, versatile and more cost effective option. It's close to the raceboard in powered upwind conditions and way more fun.
While a raceboard goes upwind better in lighter winds I still prefer my TT for very light conditions. I can hold my ground and it's much easier to ride and much easier to deal with lulls. I've been riding with the raceboard crew and been able to ride back to the beach when their kites have dropped out of the sky due to the effort of managing a barely flying kite and a difficult to ride board.
Will the Cabrinha boards come into production? My spies tell me that due to the constant advances in design they are staying with producing prototypes for the moment.
How is the footbalance on that board compared to a TT?
Do you have like 60% on the front leg, wheareas a 135 x 41 TT has say 60% on the back leg?
I reckon as long as the footbalance is not more uneven one way or the other, it is more a matter of getting used to it rather than having something that is absolutely harder to ride.
or is there a freeride version for chop and swell and of course flattish waterbtw i just noticed the Underground has just one footstrap at the back isn't it supposed to be 2 to ride it flat?
looks like a sailboard!
$1700 for something that is brand new and evolving....in two years you wont be able to give it away and the boards will be completely different.
I think you can learn a lot by looking at the parent sport of windsurfing. You can have the fastest, raciest gear, but it's hard work to ride and at the end of the day most people are all about fun. Much better to have a detuned freeride style board and compromise slightly in performance unless you are racing.
i'd have one if someone gave me one but.
I have a stonker directional which i cut off 25 cms off the tail put 4fins on 2 front ones are 20 cms rears 24cms.It is 180 cms long 50cms wide tail 34cms wide.Alex from Stonker said it was a good base for for a race/lightwind board.
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=59342&SearchTerms=airush+sector
The airush sector 60, described in the above post sounds like it would be much more suited to the average punter. Not that I have ridden one or a race board for that matter, but as you would expect the race boards seem to compromise comfort and useability for outright performance.
Yeah Airush are onto a winner with the s60 - shame they sold out so quick! One of the local guys managed to score a used one at the end of the season - apparently it's super easy to ride.
The main difference seems to be the rail shape, straighter rails = harder to ride
hey Rhys where will you go next time it's windy in Brisbane? Can I give you a few beers for a turn on your raceboard?
It's a demo - that's what it's for!!! Wait till we get the Cabrinha race boards in, then you can have a ride on both and compare the freeride board to the racing machine :)
Or if you're the impatient sort, drop into the shop anytime and pick it up
We just need a photocopy of a credit card and drivers license for all our demo gear.
For anyone else who's interested in trying something new - *Begin shop plug* We've got everything from race boards, surfboards, twintips and even a 2011 Cabrinha Caliber XO for demo... Same with Kites - C4's, RPM's, XR's, Zephyr 17m's - you can even take a Slingshot Key for a spin if you really want!
Ok plug over - bring on race board discussions
A couple of points/thoughts:
- Raceboards are not particularly hard to ride, they're just uncomfortable. Lots of loading up your legs and stuff to get the board sitting right and tracking the way you want it. If you're a competent kiter with some surfboard experience you won't have any real difficulty.
- We found them a touch fragile. One contact from the harness hook punched a little hole in it.
do you get spinout (like on a windsurfer?)
am thinking it would be harder to recover from kiting
