Starboard 87 BLACK BOX Review

I have been riding the Starboard 87L Black Box for a year now and thought I can post a thorough review as it is different…very different! Even the marketing spiel points this out: “The Black Box is not a wave board for all conditions. It is not about top speed. It is not about jumping. The Black Box is the board that excels in small, mushy waves and light winds.”

So now we know what this thing is not good at - but WTF is this short, stubby thing with loads of junk in the trunk actually good at!?: Well first up, it is short …very short at 215cm and it is wide…very wide @62cm and has a tail width of a whopping 42.3cm! It has a flat deck and a wide stance that is really nice for wavesailing. It has a mono concave feeding into a flat double concave in the standing area for lift, quick acceleration and speed on the wave with Vee in the tail for a responsive feel when engaging the sharp rails and a fish style shape. (It is like the midget bastard lovechild of a year 2001 Starboard Fish waveboard and an old HyperSonic slalom board!?…see photos of the 87L Black Box next to its Dad the 90L Starboard Fish circa 2001) So how does it sail?...

Onshore: For on-shore wave riding in crappy gutless waves this thing does something a bit special – it generates loads of drive from the big concaves in the hull and the wide tail and ‘twin + trailer’ fin cluster. It gets really vert up the face when going up clew first and lets you unload all that torque off the top with a fast whippy top turn that is also rewarded with a unique weightless sensation, as the COE in the rig doesn’t have time to pull you over the front. So where other boards get bogged down in the top turn, on the BB you can crank turns so hard that you can end up sliding backwards off the nose on the wave at the end of the turn, but then the twin + trailer fins re-engage back on to a reach again - without needing to wrestle the rig around! Cool sensation and as close as I'll ever get to freestyle slides or Takas.

Side-shore: Finally got to sail it in side-shore, 20 knots and half-mast in Taranaki and was stoked with how it sailed in great down-the-line conditions. The BB is not designed for classic waveriding but coped well and the bottom turn was solid and the top turn was pretty slidey – but that was really fun in half-mast waves. Changing the front fins from the upright MB fins to a set of K4 Ezzy Asymmetric fins would really improve the DTL riding ability of the Black Box.

Blasting: Sailing in a straight line it is like a loose twin fin rather than a tri-fin and while it is quick to plane the top end is pretty slow and it’s not that exciting or engaging to sail around on. It sails like a freestyle board in a straight line and you have to sail it hard off the front foot as it so skatey off the back foot. It goes up wind ok with good technique. It has a few quirks like I find you can kind fall into 'holes' in the water where the nose will bury and get you hoisted over the front. In fact I haven’t been catapulted as much for a long time.

Jumping: The Black Box is ok for jumping but in dead onshores and into the wind I find it doesn't generate as much lift in the air compared to longer boards. Looping is fun when you get more side shore conditions as the compact shape really whips around fast with a reduced ‘swing weight'. So for me it is not a jumping board but with a decent ramp and more side shore angles it is fun.

Comparisons: Compared to a twin, tri or quad fin waveboard the Black Box is very different in the way it sails as it is basically designed to ride waves down wind and clew first in onshore conditions. It sort of surfs effortlessly on top of the water/wave rather and requires less effort and technique to do front side turns in onshore waves compared to standard waveboards that often need speed to bury the rail to really generate any drive in turns.

Verdict: It aint a plug'n'play board or very versatile like most waveboards these days as it is not designed to do a lot of things and for high wind bump’n’jump/blasting conditions it is rubbish. It is a specialist ‘quiver’ board for good sailors who prioritise wave riding but have to put up with wave riding crappy waves. If you only wavesail in onshores then it could be a good option but it also could be really fun for light wind days at sideshore spots but it has too much tail width for hardcore waves and/or high winds.

So overall, the Black Box makes onshore feel more sideshore and you look like ‘Brawzinho’ throwing buckets of spray…well makes me feel like I look like ‘Brawzinho’. Anyway…it does some very exciting and surprising things on mushy waves that you don't expect and that opens your mind to new angles of attack on the wave and it really does create new possibilities for onshore wave riding. In fact I have done turns I’ve never experienced before at onshore spots I have sailed for 25 years!

Check out what Danny Bruch can do with a Black Box in light winds and mushy waves which look more like Auckland than Maui!

The Black Box is a radical board for ****ty conditions! As they say, once you go black you…

Cheers, Stev-0

(By the way, I got the Black Box second hand while in the UK as an experiment, I am not a Starboard fanboy, just obsessed with waveboards, fins and new design concepts that keep me stoked on windsurfing – always something new to learn!)

Below are photos of the 87L Black Box 2014 next to its Dad the 90L Starboard Fish circa 2001...

Die hard seabreezers will remember I built this thing back in 2010. Much to the amusement of the local sailors, 215cm long, twin weed fin - black... I had a bit of a chuckle when I saw one of the Black Boxes in person..

It was about 107, and was perfect for sailing in 14cm of water. No nose meant there was nothing to smash into the sand while rotating through freestyle moves. Didn't cross my mind to try it in waves..

I ended up sanding the crappy stripe off and spraying a big CCCP? stencil.

Select to expand quote

barn said..
Die hard seabreezers will remember I built this thing back in 2010. Much to the amusement of the local sailors, 215cm long, twin weed fin - black... I had a bit of a chuckle when I saw one of the Black Boxes in person..

Hmmmm...Barn could be on to something here……oppps, Starboard reinvented it!

Select to expand quote

IWB said..
Great review Stevo,
There is not a whole lot of write ups on this BB 87L or 107L so great to see your solid input. My main interest if for messy onshore waves. How do you find getting back upwind after riding the waves in planning and non planning conditions?

Thanks. I have read every review I could find before getting the BB and know from my experience they all agree on the abilities of the BB which is good. I sail it in very onshore crap and I'm always hunting for a wave wiggle so need to sail up wind a lot. The BB sails up wind pretty good but you need good technique as it is so skatey. I have been sailing a Mistral 2009 twin fin for ages so used to sailing up wind hard off the front foot. The BB needs the same technique - but this is important - because you can ride front side in on shores better than ever you also end up downwind further than you are used to so you need to haul yourself back up wind harder than before! I have done a few 'walks of shame' as I got too excited about hacking front side hits in parts of the wave and beach I'e never managed to do before and then run out of beach or got mowed down and washed in - but as I trudge back up beach I have a big grin on my face as managed to do a ride I've never done before at a beach I have been wavesailing at since 1984!