I had a brief run on a couple of the Exo boards at the demo day on the weekend. Had about 15 mins on the Cross 111 94 and a few runs of the Slalom 91. So here are some impressions.
Conditions around 15 knots give or take, S E breeze so typical southerly swell chop and a lot washing machine stuff from too many dic*s on jet skis.
I used a 6.2m NP Saber on both boards.
Cross 111
The first thing I noticed is that it felt small for a 94L both in slogging conditions and when planing. So I would suspect that it would do well in higher winds.
It took me about 1 run to feel comfortable on the board, it had the nice Exocet even balance (I have two Exo slalom boards).
Nice and easy to trim and good on my dodgie knees in the chop. It planed up fairly well considering the smallish stock 27cm fin. Easy board to do a nice jibe on and it slashed around well in the small sloppy southerly swell. I thought it was a good improvement on a previous Cross I'd tried which felt as bit flat and stiff.
I'm not sure that it would be a free stylers favourite as it didn't seem to have a lot of volume up front.
All in all very good all rounder and I'd definitely put it on my shopping list.
Slalom 91
I had a brief run on this was and was comparing it to my older Exocet TB62 (90L 62cm).
This board felt very crisp and stiff on the water, the tail was a bit narower than my TB62 but the rails felt sharper. Having said this it sailed nicely in the rough stuff and my knees approved.
All I needed to do was bare away a little on take off and it was up on the plane. The board felt quite free of the water (slippery) and rode higher than my TB. It was happy to keep accelarating as I pulled on the power. I wasn't though as the straps were set small and very new and stiff(not sure if the board had even been in the water) . I was carefully trying to wiggle my toes in the back strap and at all times thinking I don't want to catapault this new board - wouldn't be popular.
The jibe was nice, it didn't need the level of input I need to give my TB62 through the arc. I like boards that make me look good in a jibe. ![]()