well I guess it's the best way to develop a reallly good board, take it to different places and test it !!
I'm looking forward to the day when I can watch a 2 min video of a board sitting in a shop and conclude its the best board ever
This might be a dumb question. Other than manufacturing efficiency, why don't board makers simply make a Tuttle and Powerbox version of their boards?
I don't know the first thing about board making but it would seem like a fairly minor part of the whole process that seems to potentially reduce sales of the product. Kind of like the changes over time movie distribution. There was a long period where they released movies on VHS / beta and then VHS / DVD /Bluray etc. IT made no economic sense to choose to reduce the size of your potential market.
Is cost to make two different lines that significant or is there another reason that is obvious I am unaware of?
Of course, having an industry standard fin box would be ideal. But coming from an IT background I am used to accepting that is wishful thinking and not to hold my breath.
A quick look at Tabou, Fanatic, RRD, and JP suggests that the Powerbox is the industry standard for freeride boards. It would be hard for an entry board brand to go against what must be a EU standard despite the advantages of the Tuttle box. I am sure that the sales in a big French or German board retailer would eclipse the whole Australian market.
I have a full kit of tuttle race fins for my Slalom boards but my rough water boards are FSW and I have PB Freerace fins for those. I'll always have both sets of fins so the PB Tuttle debate isn't really an issue for me. There are some good fin brands in both PB and Tuttle - Select S1, Vector EX and Freeride and BP.
Speaking of exciting new freeride/race boards/chop munchers like this one, what happened to the new Mistral flapper design?
Lots of exciting options are appearing in this fast chop/ocean free ride/free race bracket like the Goya Bolt & Fanatic Blast & JP All ride
Starboard carve circa 2004 with a different paint job, old is new again. At least the carve had tuttle box.
Had my first go on a Fox 105 yesterday..after all the talk there is nothing like time on the water to see what it is like. 12-15knots on Rowes Bay which has a horrid short chop and occasional larger lumps in the water. A few bigger gusts to maybe 16, so not screeching wind but fun.
My impression was that this is a really, really fun board to sail. Plug and play with it being super easy to just jump on and enjoy. As a board designed for managing chop it is great. Slides up onto the plane easily like a slalom board would, but the shoulders stay clear of the chop so it is much less technical to sail and the vee makes getting through chop efficient. After an hour the lack of fatigue was notable compared with sailing a slalom board in the same water ( and I use Patriks mostly which I think are pretty nice on that front for slaloms). Gybing was fun and easy, and I am very far from a gybemeister! Living in box-jelly-croc- world, ability to uphaul is important to me and this was fine ( I'm just short of 80kg)
So for a design brief of it being an efficient, fun board in choppy conditions it has a big thumbs up from me. Cant wait to get it on the water again. Will see how it goes with more ToW and experience.
Here's another board that looks interesting and designed for rough confused chop that we tend to get in bays.
www.atomicwindsurf.com/masterblaster
Thanks for sticking that up Jman but I am not going to Hijack this thread. I had a really good look at a Fox quite a few months ago...it,s a different board to what I am doing with the Masterblaster, the Fox has massive V and is more "fast freeride", mine is a Slalom board. The Fox looks great, I was very impressed and I think it will be an awesome board for Port Phillip Bay. I reckon guys that have been enjoying boards like the Tabou Rocket should seriously take a look at the Fox for sure.
If somebody wants to start another thread to ask about my little project I will be happy to answer...however as I said I will not discuss it in this thread.
Thanks Martin