Board Opinion

Hi,

Opinions on this board - jp-australia.com/p/windsurfing/boards/super-ride-2020/

It's the Gold edition 116 - 68cm wide.

I am intermediate still falling off a bit. Is it silly to invest in a new board at my stage of progression considering I may damage the board with the mast etc? I can get the above model for $3000.

Alternatively, I can buy a Naish GT Sport from a fellow windsurfer, it's a 2012 for $500. It's beat up but solid. It's a 120ltr - 69.5 wide.

I am 72kg, 5'11 tall. 40 yrs old.

Naish is cheap but I could put that $500 towards something better?? I am on Norfolk Island, so we have expensive freight costs, if I am going to pay the freight I would want to get something new or near new.

JP is a great board but I'd go for the Naish.

The Naish will gybe well and if you do have the odd accident, which you will, then you won't regret it as you can just whack in a bit of Dr Ding where as you would want to get a professional repair done to the JP.

There again if you have the money to splash etc get the JP.

If you can afford it and are planing to stay in the sport for many years, then buy both. You may not use the Super-ride too much initially but it it may end being your favourite board. Choose carefully, they are not cheap. On the other hand, don't think that you can just go out and buy the board you want when you need it. The supply chain has been somewhat unreliable in recent times. At 40 years of age you have at least another 40 years of time on the water, so it is likely that you will end up with a number of boards and sails to suit your conditions. Buy the gear that gives you the maximum amount of time on the water with the maximum amount of fun.

Here are some photos of the Naish. Just went and had another look.
No soft spots that I could find. Other than tge mst foot area there are some flaky bits of the deck where there is superficial damage, doesn't seem major

To me it looks like damage is going down into the divinycell layer. It should be fixed (sealed up) in order to avoid water getting into the board. Nothing structural though, just needs to be watertight.

I agree that getting an older board for the early learning stages is a good approach, there is going to be lots of falls and risks of especially nose-damages. You can put on a nose protection foam, but stay away from the earlier mentioned deviators, they can pull out pieces of the mast-track (or lift out the whole track). I have seen that close up with a beginner who was trying to protect his newly invested board, it is not a pretty sight and cumbersome repair.

That is a really good size to progress in light to medium winds. You can learn to sail faster than the wind, which will improve your gybes and windsurfing in general. The 60cm board is much too small, unless you live in a place that has predictable medium and strong winds.

As your skills improve the 70cm should cover you from 15kts to the low 20s. Those bigger boards while easy to drive in light winds are quite a handful to gybe full powered and need a lot of commitment in the gybe.

Even if you become a dedicated wave sailor that scoffs at boards bigger than 90L you still may enjoying blasting on a medium size slalom board (i.e. 70cm or so wide)

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Mark _australia said..
Its cheap but I really can't see you will notice any great difference to the 104(?)L mistral you have.
That 120L is still much less wide than the Titan.
learn to waterstart the Titan, then use the 104 on the windier days, as you won't be uphauling it so the current problems will sorta go away. Throwing money at this might be fun, but probably won't help.

You don't need to step down in 10L increments, otherwise we'd all go thru 6 boards from learning to 'sinker' but we don't - we do maybe 3. You need to master what you have (Titan) and then find it too big sometimes and so you get onto the small board with the same skill set (waterstarts and basic gybe ability). It will be challenging in some ways but better in others (planing in hi winds - control due to less volume)

Thanks Mark
Your correct for sure, I need to commit to learning the skills at a more competent level.
We have 2 sailing spots, one safe, inside a bay, good in a S - SW wind.
The other spot is out in the open ocean, good in an E - ENE.
I do need something more open ocean friendly for when I can venture out there. I have only sailed in the bay so far.
The local guys have said my Titan will be unruly in the chop and the Mistral may be to narrow if the wind drops and there is ocean swell, you can get into trouble out there on a smaller board.
Hence looking for something in the 115 - 120 range with a few more litres that should also double as a progression down to the mistral for windier days inside the bay.
Here's a vid of the local guys Windsurfing on Norfolk

The first half is ocean, at about 2.45 it shows the bay.

Really nice video. it's looks a pristine environment.

Thanks everyone much appreciated