I agree - thats why I asked what we were debating - ease of use or speed. I need to try it as well.........can't wait!!!
Sure the wind on that day was awesome.. But it was very gusty.. (Steady 30 is much better than wind gusting 25 on minute and 45 the next) and it was constantly swinging from NW to NE.. This gave us a NW swell heading towards shore and super strong NE gusts trying to blow us into the middle of the bay.. To play it safe we stayed together.. We rounded the end of the breakwater wall and paddled behind it to come out into the wind again much closer to the shore.. and we followed the coast line much closer than we normally do.. The problem is with such strong wind blowing with so much off-shore direction you don't get the good DW waves.. and it gets very messy.. At times we had an almost side wind making it very hard to hold our line.. We could see much bigger waves further out into the bay but decided it's not safe to go too far from the shore.. Once we rounded a Green Point the wind went so off shore in direction we both struggled to hold our line towards Sandy marina.. So we both kneel paddle for a while in self rescue mode to avoid getting into trouble.. So not a great test for this new shape board.. One thing for sure is.. It's fast.. Very fast.. I almost fell backwards a couple of time the acceleration was so great.. It felt like someone had pulled a rug out from under me.. You can really hear the concaves working and there doesn't seem to be a max speed like most boards.. It just wants to go faster and faster with very little drag.. and with very little slope on the water it feels like you can paddle it onto the plane.. Moving to far back on the board does seem to put the brakes on.. but at times that can be a good thing.. 
Select to expand quotePeterP said...laceys lane said..AA said..
Lacey are you talking about the 14' Lahui Kai Manta? Not many people have tried this board as there has only been a 12'6 production board readily available (unless you ordered a custom). I tried the new 14' production carbon Manta a few weeks ago both up and down wind in the ocean and I was pretty impressed with its speed and ability to pick up runners. I was also impressed with the Jav 14 x 26 but I only paddled it on flat water in light wind.
imo its or they are the best all round boards on the market. yes it dw s very well. now im absolutely nit picking when i say its not the best of the best dw boards.
more to the point. i don't believe any board with a reverse nose is going to be a top notch dw board whether it be a lh, naish sb or so on.
that's because no matter how well they go under' its going to be a touch slower doing that and when the nose is under is good bye to steering the board into bumps because the board is locked into the line where the nose went under and for me what just not on
The previous generation Javelin LE also had reverse nose and to my knowledge that is one of the most successful downwind boards ever made in the 14ft class - it has the Molokai course record, won the Gorge, the Cape Town Dwd series etc etc. None of the Unlimited boards used in Hawaii have boof noses (nor reverse)
What happens when the nose goes under has a lot more to do with what is going on behind the nose - ie the rocker, volume and bottom shape. The 2014 Glide is also reverse nose and it is one of the most forgiving dwd boards I've ever ridden. The question is whether we are debating the same requirements, easy of use is often fast but not necessarily, just as hard to use is sometimes fast, but not necessarily.
The key to being fast is a board that can utilise as much of its waterline when catching a run without bogging the nose, once you bog the nose you are going to be slower whether its a boof or reverse nose. I concur with Jackos statement about this - you want to go over the bumbs and with the required widths of SUP's you cannot go through the bumbs like the surfskis do. A boof nose might feel more forgiving when engaging, but its going to be slow if it engages, a reverse nose might want to steer the board to some extent but the narrower entry means the loss of speed is reduced - hence recovery might be better and you don't lose the bump.
The best downwind paddlers hardly ever bog the nose as they anticipate it happening and correct in time by getting back on board.
Noone has managed to go fast in our dwd conditions with a boof nose - not sure if that is because only Starboard and Fanatic has them, but Dylan is one of our quickest paddlers and he never uses the Ace - also possibly because we have more surfing 25knot plus conditions where a wider tail seems to be more important than perhaps the shape of the nose.
It seems in your mainly lighter downwinds the Ace and Fanatic boof design works very well - my guess (without having tried one yet) is that the new 2015 Javelin is going to be an excellent allrounder and should match the boof designs in lighter downwinds no problem.
The difficulty with downwinding is that it is so technical that a good rider will beat an average rider for speed on pretty much any board out there.....so it can become really hard to pin down where a board is quicker. Forgiving is a little easier to ascertain.
Finally someone with sense in this thread!
Based on those photos I'd go the LE every time.... if I could stay upright on it.
No photos of tail rocker DJ?
