The products we cover in this report are for serious high performance, high-wind windsurfers. In fact, if you’re not living in a place where you can windsurf at least 15 days a year in solid 15-mph winds or more, you can browse these pages, pick up the lingo,  get a feel for the stuff the hotshots use, but you should put off buying - at least until after you read our next issue (on the stands in April) about boards and sails for the rest of the world.
Among serious windsurfers, we’ve identified six basic types: Control, Bump, Style, Speed, King and Surf. Each type has its own needs and requirements.
Control - You love sailing in a good breeze and flat water or chop. 15-, 20-, 25-mph winds, even more, are no problem, provided you have a small enough sail and a controllable board. You like speed, but speed with control is what really does it for you. You can waterstart with no problem, sail in the straps, and can make at least a few jibes, but you tend to pass on jumping opportunities. You don’t care much if your board is super-light. As long as it’s tough and doesn’t ding easily, you’re happy.
Top boards for this, the typical high-wind windsurfer, come mostly from long-established companies like (in alphabetical order) Bic, F2, Hifly and Mistral. These companies not only focus a lot of attention on designing boards for regular folk, but they also have the machinery required to make boards with ding-resistant thermoformed skins. Among these we really like the Bic Saxo 270, F2 Ride 277 and Mistral Flow 276. The inexpensive Hifly 255 FX can give a smooth, controllable ride in murderous chop but takes a good breeze to get going.
Top sails for the control sailor emphasize low weight, stability and easy handling. We particularly like the Aerotech Freeride, Neil Pryde Zone, North Sails Rave, Sailworks Revolution and World Sails Taylormade Wave.
Bump - You’re an enthusiastic sailor. You can chop hop and jump, and you love getting air. You can jibe, but you’re not concerned about the extent of your trick repertoire. You don’t necessarily get many good windy, choppy days, but you’re out there when it happens.
 Top boards for you come from all different manufacturers, but the ones that earned the most praise from our testers were the AHD Free Carve, Bic Saxo 264, Drops Freeride 269, F2 Axxis 267, F2 Ride 277, Mistral Custom & Flow 266, Mistral Flow 260, Naish 8’11”, North Shore Maui 268, Seatrend 56 Allstar AVS, Seatrend 262 ATV, and the Star Board 272 Free.
Top sails emphasize speed but also power and handling. This suggests the A.R.T. Rip Wave, Aerotech Freeride, Hot Sails Slide, Naish Koa, Neil Pryde Zone, North Sails Volcano, Sailworks Revolution, Simmer Style Onshore Wave and Windwing Catalyst.
Speed - You don’t race in organized events, at least not often, but you like to go fast and drag race. Jumping, jibing and riding waves may be in your repertoire as well, but only if you can do these things at speed.
According to testers who tried it, an obvious place to start is with the Seatrend 56 Allstar AVS. Other good options include F2 Axxis 261 and Mistral Flow 260. For lightweights the JP Australia Wave 245 and Kinetic Wave 8’3” are good calls, while bigger sailors should look at the AHD Free Carve, F2 Axxis 267, Mistral Custom 266, Naish 8’7” and Seatrend 262 ATV.
The best sails for this group are, simply put, fast, so we suggest you look at the A.R.T. Rip Wave, Aerotech Freeride, Naish Koa, Neil Pryde MPR, and Windwing Interface Air.
Style - You don’t really have to be into doing tricks to fit in this category. All you need is a high-performance attitude and a less than windy home base. You like to go fast, jump, slash jibes and learn tricks. You even get out into some small surf from time to time, but you don’t have all that much wind to work with.
You need a board with power, speed, a lively ride and loose turning. In short, you need a freestyle board. The favs in this group are the JP Freestyle 260, Kinetic El Nino 61, and Mistral Score V104. For something that works in a little more wind and has better ding tolerance, check out the F2 Air.
Freestyle sails emphasize power, handling, low weight and even more power. For that we look to the Aerotech Light Wind Wave, Hot Sails Maui Spiderlok Wave, Neil Pryde Core, and North Sails Volcano King.
 King - Gorge King, Rio Vista King, Chrissy Field King, Oleander Point King, and, well, you get the point. You can be found where there’s consistently big wind and serious chop. You’re a hotshot bump sailor who thrives on big winds. You sky your jumps, nail your jibes and work on some tricks. You may not get into the surf all that often, but you love it when you do.
Your board has to be strong, quick, fast, light if possible and reasonably loose in the turns. We suggest you look at the F2 Axxis 261, JP Australia Wave 245, Mistral Flow 260, Naish 8’7”, North Shore Maui Wave 254, and Seatrend 56 Allstar AVS. If you need a particularly small, controllable board in seriously high-wind conditions, consider the Kinetic Wave 8’3", Star Board Wave 253 or Tiga Wave 251.
In this kind of sailing, handling, stability and weight are the prime concerns. So we recommend you first look at Neil Pryde Zone, North Sails Rave, North Sails Volcano, Sailworks Revolution and Simmer Style Freezone.
Surf - You live near the coast and sail a lot, mostly in the surf. You live for deep bottom turns and hard, slashing cutbacks. You want a board that planes up quickly, hits a decent top end and has the ability to break into a hard turn without hesitation.
Just about all the wave boards and many of the freerides in this test work well in the surf, but our testers picked out a few that were particularly accomplished. There’s the most popular board in the test, the JP Australia Wave 255, followed by the AHD 259 Wave, Drops Wave 8’3", Naish 8’5", North Shore Maui Wave 254, and Tiga Wave 267. For big riders there’s the Mistral Wave 265 - second most popular board in the test - and the Naish 8’6".
Hard-core wave sailors tend to need heavy-duty sails. Sure, sails with average construction, work too, and if you’re careful they can last a long time, but if you’re really going for it, you should consider going with something bomb-proof, like the Naish Hokua, North Sails Voodoo, Windwing Catalyst or Windwing Interface Wave.
Contact American Windsurfer to find out about joining us at upcoming tests. |
