2010 JP 102 L FreestyleWave

The friendly folks at Windsurf and Snow were kind enough to lend me one of their 2010 JP 102L FreestyleWave demo boards. There have been a few emails from people here in the past asking about the 102/ 92 FreestyleWaves so I through I'd share my experience.

First about myself... I am on the other side of 100kg at the moment at 6.4"... which puts me on the slightly fat big boned side of things as Dan Berry keeps reminding me. I usually use a 100L Evo XL for light wind wave sailing... on the bay and once the wind goes to solid 15 knts I jump down my fave board the 92 JP FreestyleWave... also got a 82 JP RWW for when I am sailing 4.7/ 4.2 .

But back to the JP 102L.

1) Build quality: The board is a pro Edition version and incredibly light and stiff. It seems the extra money for getting the pro Edition might actually be worth while... after years of having to replace my FSW at the end of each season due to soft decks the first pro Edition version I bought back in 2008 is still going strong.

2) Performance: In a nutshell the board feels like a larger version of the 92 FSW. In the past I found this wasn't the case. I always found the characteristics of the 102 FSW were more focused on free riding rather than having a good mix between wave and flat water ability. Not so the case with the 2010 models.
This means the board planes early, turnes on a dime or as wide as a semi trailer (up the rider really) and even is happy in small waves. It's a bit more relaxed of a ride than the 92FSW or even the 84FSW... the later almost feels like a rodeo horse to me. This relaxed ride results in the board feeling "slow". It's only once you fly past people with bigger sails that you realize how fast board really is.

I had a chance to sail it out on the bay in winds between 10 and 28 knts on two different days. On one day when it was blowing a marginal 15 knts I was doing little races with another guy who was on a 7.5 NP Race sail and a 102 L JP 2010 slalom board. I was on an old 6.0 wave sail... He tried really hard to beat me and on one occasion after about 1km he was 25 meters ahead... at which points I slammed in a duck jibe while he struggled around the corner with his wide board and cumbersome sail. Yes he got planing a little earlier but I put that down to the extra sqm of sail.

All in all I am pretty impressed with this board.

So who would like this board?

I think anyone that is ... cough cough... a bit heavier and is looking for a fast, fun board that will work equally well in chop as well as a small waves but wants the extra assurance of not having to swim home once the wind drops to 5 knts.

Also, if you are a lighter sailer this could really be a good choice as an intermediate board helping you to perfect your jibing and doing your first hops over chop.

On the other hand, if you are a heavier rider and are looking for a light wind pure wave board this is probably not the best option.

Pro:
- fast and comfy board to sail
- works well on both flat water and small waves
- will please for the heavier rider looking for a fun light wind board as well as the intermediate light weight sailor.
- usually a good resell value compared to lesser known brands/ board models

Con:
- The fin... oh why does JP insist to cripple these awesome boards with mediocre fins?
Don't get me wrong. I think the current fin is better than the junk they gave you in the past but I would recommend anyone to get a couple of decent after market fins from companies like MFC or North Shore. The stock standard JP fin is trying to do everything but sadly it does nothing really well. To the point that when I used an 8 year old North Shore Freewave fin the board got noticeably planning earlier, felt looser and turned better... even though the base of the fin wasn't properly flush with the fin box.

BTW, if you are listening Starboard designers... the same goes for you. The piece of junk that came with my EVO XL is probably the single worst fin I have ever screwed into a board.