Wave Board History

I didn't sail this weekend, but word on the street is that we had a nice NW breeze on Saturday (Hi Laura!). I have owned a lot of boards over the last 8 years. In particular I have turned my wave boards around pretty often. It's actually quite interesting, for me at least, how my boards have changed. Here are the boards:

2004 JP Freestyle Wave 84
2006 Fanatic Freewave 78
2008 Fanatic Allwave 82
2009 Mistral Twinzer 84
2010 Quatro Quad 75
2011 Quatro KT 83

Some of my babies

JP 84 - my first short board. Did the job, didn't really see much action in the waves to be honest.

Freewave 78 - I bought this one based on a glowing test report in windsurf magazine. It was fun, fast, planed early and was great for jumping. It worked nice in the waves if you weren't going fast but it got really stiff as you got faster. To be honest I was surprised it did so well in a waveboard test. The conditions where it worked well for me, I would have been better on a bigger freestyle wave. As my wave sailing progressed I started looking for my next board...

Allwave 82 - windsurf magazine described it as having "Awesome carving performance" and "radical waveriding performance for less than perfect wave conditions". Sounded perfect for Texas. I had to have it!! Did it have awesome carving performance? Oh yes. It was really really nice for down the line riding and excelled at Port Aransas. It was really drivy in the bottom turn. I could push HARD. Problem was it took a lot of wind to get going and so I struggled with it in side-on North Packery. I also thought the top turn was a bit stiff. Then I read the boardseeker twin fin test and apparently there was a board that did it all!

Mistral Twinzer 84 - it does do pretty much everything they said. Planes earlier than the Allwave, turns really tight especially off the top, big wind range. I love it with my 5.6 and I love it with my 4.2. It is perfect for making the most of Texas wave sailing conditions. One thing is missing though, whilst it turns tight it is missing the drive of the Allwave that I found so enchanting.

Quatro Quad 75 - hangs on the wall looking beautiful. Too small for me and Texas wave sailing.

Quatro KT 83 - OK I admit it. I don't actually have one of these!! But I did ride one in Punta San Carlos and Maui and it is on another level. Combine all the best things about the Allwave and Twinzer and you have the KT. It is FAST on the wave, the harder you crank the bottom turn the better it feels and the top turn is nice and loose. I'm guessing it will be a bit sticky and slow to plane in 5.3 side-on conditions, but I could keep the Twinzer for those conditions, right?! You may be asking why I don't have one... I know I am... just need to find a home for that beautiful tiny little 75 first...