I have taken this board out a few times recently on the Mandurah estuary and although the winds have not been all that good being (on and off) I have found this board to be extremely user freindly and fun to ride.
Once on the plane this board does not feel anywhere near the 80cm width, handling nice and easily, the nose Vee and rocker handle chop with ease.
As this is quite a short board (240cm) it takes a bit to pump it onto plane, but once its there....Wow!! when a gust hits you point your front foot to level the board out and it just accelerates with ease whilst still handling well.
The layout of the board is excellent, my feet just naturally found the footstraps straight up.
Did I mention this board was easy to ride? Whilst doing runs of 5km's @ 20+knots using a 7.5m sail the only pain felt was minor cramp from my seat harness, no leg pain at all. Sailed 44km in this session overall.
Data for session can be seen at
www.gps-speedsurfing.com/default.aspx?mnu=user&val=6010&uid=376
Overall it's an awesome board, It's easy to make it go quick and which given a bit more wind will be fun to try and find it's upper potential.
Bring on some more breeze.
Alby
Makes me want to go and get one, after reading this. Sounds like you had a top time.
Took the SX out again yesterday for the last time (Gotta give it back
)
This time it was totally different, previously I'd been using this beastie in it's lower range, Yesterday the wind was there for it
Had a good 16-20knots, some gusts were higher but I don't know by how much.
Rigged up my 6.2m RS4, 2 pumps and awaaaaaaay no trouble getting up and planing today
The chop was a bit nasty and all over the place, but the board just flew over them, quite literaly at times as I got some nice high speed air at times hitting the edge of chop with generally no real problems.
This session the board was hammering along and started showing it's true potential, if I was brave enough to use the slalom fin with the board instead of the Weedies I used it would most likely be even quicker, unfortunately I'm a bit scared of slalom fins in the Estuary after a bad prang last year.
I did have one incedent on the board when about 1.6km of shore, a good gust hit, belting along hit some chop got some good air but unfortunately I clipped the next bit of chop which ended up throwing me. IMO I probably would have come quite close to stacking it on my freeride board anyway due to the angles of the chop. Other than that made all but 1 gybe and had a ball.
After this event I thought descretion was the better part of survival so I put the board in the car and got out my Freeride which I would generally use in this type of conditions (it's also the board which I have achieved my highest speeds) and only managed 0.1kmh quicker than what I got of the SX, needless to say I was a lttle surprised by this.
This session indicated to me that even though I have had an absolute ball on this board, It's potential is greater than my skill levels. In the hands of a Racer this board would be amazing. If I kept using it it would only help improve my sailing to a higher level.
Details of this session can be seen at.
www.gps-speedsurfing.com/default.aspx?mnu=user&val=6349&uid=376
My final comment is that if it wasn't for financial constraints this board would not be going back but would be a very welcome addition to my quiver!
Instead I'm depressed at the thought of returning it to the shop.
Alby
