See build details windsurfing general forum:
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=32156
First tested by the board's shaper Mike at Scabs, I'll leave it to him to post his review. There was another bloke testing a similar board but didn't look like it went as well as mine:
www.seabreeze.com.au/gallery/gallery.asp?imageid=6971
Has since been tested by several sailors at Woodies, their comments in brief:
Neil(excellent freestyle sailor 95k rides JP 95FSW)said. Feels good, very smooth ride. planes quite early, top end feels quite slow(but could be because of comfort/control). turns quite tightly loose feel underfoot. Quite poppy/grippy. wants waves.
Natalie (competent bump and blast 55k rides 62 euphoria) She liked it and was surprised by the comfort and smoothness of the ride, felt stiffer than her euphoria, slow at top speed (checked her GPS and it was actually faster than her board!!)enjoyed the feel carving. Planed earlier than 2001 88 acid. wants one for light wind waves!
Andrew (experienced speed/blast/jump 84k rides JP 85 FSW) said it had little grip from the fins and spins out easily, quite slow to plane. loose smooth and comfortable. Said it felt a bit like his previous full-on waveboard which he only enjoyed on v.high wind days.
Moira (58k competent bump and jump rides JP RWW 74) said it was smooth, felt skatey but she couldn't get it to turn.
Will (80k competent bump and jump / wave. rides Goya fw 85) Said it felt great, skatey and loose, "like there's no fin" ..!? V smooth, soft, forgiving ride. requires constant mast foot pressure. Said getting it onto the plane was more of an an effort than his board but it feels totally controlled once on the plane and with light back foot pressure. Wants one!
The comments were pretty much what I expected given that sailing at woodies is a blasting/jumping/speed venue. Particularly stoked about everyones agreement that the board feels 'smooth' on the water.
Following discussion with Mike I think this is a result of the large single concave making a bit of an air cushion under the board when planing.
Nobody mentioned the boards pointing ability, but watching from the shore i noticed that when they hit planing speed they all pointed up higher than other sailors around.
All in all very happy but won't be able to post my own review for a while!
Hmm It's a bit hard to review my own shape as I'm going to be very biased......
When I hopped on it it felt like one of my boards in it's feel, meaning I get to try out a lot of boards and what I have noticed is boards shaped by say person A, have a definate feel to them as compared to boards shaped by person B which have that particular shapers feel to them and shaper C's boards would have their characteristic feel to them and so on.
Sinkers board planed quite early and had a very smooth feeling ride as in it wasn't slapping and bouncing on the water, it trucks upwind with ease, I tried to really load up the fins with my back foot to try and make it spin out which it didn't. On the wave face in onshore conditions it felt very responsive to heel / toe pressure and maintained a lot of drive (if I kept mast foot pressure on) to get back up the face of an onshore wave. On jumping the small twin fins release very cleanly from the water. I didn't push the board too hard as it is a prototype for a mould and has been glassed for that purpose and I didn't want to damage Sinkers new board, I know how much effort he would have put into glassing it etc.
I was more than happy with it and would gladly use it as my own board.
It feels very similar to my current twin fin board, If any one wants to try out my twin fin board at Scarborough your quite welcome to, just let me know before hand so I can bring down a spare board for me to use. (ideally it is for a 80 to 90 kg person)
