Naish All Terrain 85
This is one sweet little board. I was thinking of getting a full on slalom rig and board to blast around the bay on this summer, but two days of rigging cambered sails and sailing in straight lines changed my mind on that. So I started looking for a fast board that I can also jump and do some freestyle on.
I would say that this board is more of a bump and jump/wave than a freestyle/wave. It seems really fast for this type of board and while it won't accelerate like a slalom board it has a really safe feeling top end speed that just makes you want to push it harder and no matter how powered up I got, I just felt in control and wanted even more. It carries speed really well through turns and carves easily. I've only used it in flat/choppy conditions so far, but it would probably turn enough for some wave use. It's not the easiest board to do freestyle on though. My freestyle is pretty limited, but my old Mistral Synchro Fish 86 was easier to do slidey stuff on. Part of that feeling might be because I was sailing a bigger sail than normal and when the wind picked up, instead of changing down I was having so much fun blasting around flat out I just hung on.
The board has a power box which makes changing fins from my cut down freestyle fin to a normal fin really quick and easy to do on the beach.
If most of your time sailing is spent in flat/choppy conditions and you want a board to just do some jumps on and blast around racing people, this board is definitely worth a try.
I am now the proud owner of a 95 lt model which I got for when we do have some real good wind,have now had 3 real good sessions on it and I absolutely love it.It planes early,gybes beutifully and is one sweet little thing to spend time with.I normaly ride a 115 lt freeride but this All terrain has opened up a whole new world for me.
So far I have only used a 6.0 and a 6.5 [Ezzys] and both felt very comfortable,looking forward to the day when I can get down to a 5.0.
