I've been lucky enough to be testing an Atom IQ 100 recently, something I have wanted to do for a while, I'm probably like most people and get a bit defensive about 'big claims' or 'brand new' things that promise much, especially if on appearance they look quite 'different'...and with this board not a lot of info on tests or reviews were out there to be found.
What can I say about it after a good 4 or so hours of sailing it in very different conditions?
Well...occasionally just occasionally you get a new bit of something that 'really' makes you go 'wow', my first carbon RDM was one such moment, Carbon boom another...and now this board!
Why wow? It's not the fastest to plane, there are faster boards for top speed, quicker boards to accelerate, but none of them are fun to sail in the ocean! and that's where I spent the first two days testing, 12-25knts straight off the beach small swell/chop, small waves, very gusty winds...its was just buckets of fun, and conversely to the above statements about speed etc...this is where the wow was..it was fast, easy to sail, punched over the small breaking waves easy, loved the open water and actually produced speeds pretty much the same as I'd get a Slalom board to in those conditions...but it did do easily, comfortably and actually it had me wanting more wind to push it harder!
But it was still chilled and relaxed yet at great speed, with no hassles, I felt totally in control and just wanted to let it loose for a big offshore blast...the BIG difference between this and a Slalom board...GYBE'S , TURNS call em what you want, I was able to blast into shore, in with the waves, gybe smoothly quickly and fast between the breaks and power out again, no hassle and the hole ride was so much fun and fast still.
There is plenty of tech stuff on the SB website you can read to get all that info, rails. concaves etc etc, but I thought these comparison photos next to the Isconic 107 really shows the main differences, and also some of the same similarity's, next to the well known model you can see its not that radically different.
More volume up front meant that it was really stable in low/no wind situations, more tackeable than a slalom board, no recess deck either, something old school about that.
Straps are nice and solid, I had them set slalom style. Pads...these are a big Key to the board success, nice and fat and absorbing , no carbon jarring, yet the board felt stiff. I used the factory stock fin which was OK ish..but I could feel it holding me and the board back, good fins would lift it another notch. It's not a 'light' feeling board and the weight seems to be down the back more, maybe stronger reinforcement for bump water blasting? Don't know.
I found after my first day I ditched my seat harness and went to a waist...and for whatever reason the board loved it even more!..it just felt even easier to control, I also moved the mast track back just past centre and this let it 'fly' more.
After a couple of days 'offshore' I got some 'gust sailing' on the lake and again it excelled, possibly not as wow in this situation as the water was more flat and control wouldn't have been an issue on any board...but did get some speed up and pushed close to 30 with pretty beat up ol sail...so its quick...right fin/sail it's a mid 30's capable board I have no doubt.
I'm 85kg, the board floats me easy as, uphaulable, very important around these parts as wind often drops out on windy wet days, ideal sail size...I rode it with a 7.0, and I'd say that to a 6m would be its sweat spot, .5m either side possibly, id go out on a limb and suggest you could even go 'down' .5m a meter on your normal sail size, as it's not like a slalom board where you need some good HP to lock the board down on the water..I would have had the same blast on a 6.5 I'm sure.
I was buzzing for a good week after the ocean sessions, but also confused...I could of easily sailed my wave board in those conditions, (but would have had to work hard on/off the plane), could of blasted a bit faster on Slalom kit on a flat water spot...or even had a kite...but the experience wanted me wanting more of that ocean/open water blasting and this was the board that excelled in this area..and I'd forgo all of the above possibly just to get more of that, so at what point would I want to go for my other gear,or at all?
If you sail less than perfect flat water, and want to up your fun and enjoyment I'd thoroughly recommend looking at an Atom to suit your size, you might not win the PWA or a GPS challenge but you will have a big smile on your dial, and you will find gybing so much easier, paired with a couple of good No Cam sails and you could easily have a 1 board solution to everything except serious DTL wave riding or freestyle.
It's a great Freerace/freesail/blasting board. It gets a Five green smiley face review from me...
Do I have to give it back?
Quite fast board, good in the chop, gybes easy, mast track back from centre, weight in the tail - I told you so, luckily I don't have to give mine back 
www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/Review/2015-Starboard-Atomiq-100/
Had my Atom100 for about 6 months now, fantastic all round board, bit slower in flattish water than slaloms but the bumpier it gets the closer it gets because it is so forgiving. Only problem is the powerbox because I cant use my slalom fins in it, am currently running a Dynamo 34cm Flying Objects freestyle Fin which works well across a wide wind range, 15-30 kts with 7.0 mtr Reflex down to 5 mtr Blade. Am waiting for some slalom fins to come in to see what sort of speeds are possible, best so far with Freeride Fin is 33.8 kts with 7mtr Reflex in approx. 20kts wind.
Another Atomiq100 user here, although I have only had it out once due to not having any larger PB fins for it. Waiting on one of the new Select G10 slalom fins to arrive. initial impressions are good while using it with a 5.3 in rough conditions even though I hadn't intended to use in those conditions but more so for 5.8m and 7m range.
Hroar and anyone else how does the Atom compare to the Carve in rough and choppy conditions for 1) comfort and 2) speed ?
Bit more time on this board over the weekend. Bonbeach northerly, 18-20, more in the gusts. Rough-ish conditions. I find this board sits somewhere between my Tabou3S and previous Starboards as far as comfort in chop goes... a good compromise between feeling too dull or too harsh. Used with a new Select G10 33cm Slalom fin and KA 5.8m Kult rigged on a Ezzy430cm RDM, which felt like the perfect match for the conditions on the weekend. Really happy with that setup. I'd rate this board a close second to my Tabou3S.
I recently purchased the AtomIQ 110 along with an Ezzy Cheetah 7.5 (rigged on North Platinum SDM).
I have 2 days on the board and it is everything I asked for - EZ to use, light wind kit for summer duldrums here in New England, USA.
Me - 5'10" // 170 #'s. Well powered in 16-20MPH.
4 u "lightweights" that's fine
what about heavyweights like me - 230 pounds/ 105 kilos
if 100 liter is okay 4 u - 130 for me ??
always figured on the 120 - thoughts ??
I took my Atomiq 100 and Koncept 7.3 to Mauritius as a 1 board, 1 sail fits all for 10 days to sail in the lagoons. Previous trips had wind of 15-18kts most days, so I had expected more of the same. last year I took a 136 litre board and was quite frustrated with the dull feel of it, so I wanted to take the atomiq even if it meant only sailing a few days out of 10.
By some luck we had 10 days of 20+ kts and my mates really struggled with their big boards in the medium sized chop and small swell that made it over the reef. Not so with the atom - although the 7.3 was too big for the conditions, with lots of down haul I was able to have a good sail every day.
On the lighter days I was using a 40cm slalom fin and the 25+ I used a 32 wave fin. At no point did it feel like the board was out of control, just too much sail. I found myself looking for ramps to launch off and riding the rolling swell, having a lot of fun. Gps speeds were not great (24-28kts) as there were very few flat areas to sail.
i think I would have been better off with a 6sqm. Everyone had a go on the atomiq 100 (85kg - 95kg) and even when the wind dropped out, no problems sailing back non-planing. I would guess with these wide boards you only need about 5 litres above your body weight to stay afloat when there's a small breeze. Of course you'll sink if there's nothing.
Hi Sav. Sounds like a good trip! What type of fin, ie. brand and model were you using with your 7.3? I'm after a good fin for my 7m and AtomIQ100 for our lighter seabreezes. I was thinking about 40cm.
It's a 40cm carbon Zulu fin, more detail here www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/Review/ZULU-FINS/
I've uploaded a short go pro video from the trip with the 32cm MFC fin, hence the spin out at the beginning when I sheeted in too enthusiastically. It's very raw other than running it through Hyperlapse on my phone to stabilize.
Disclaimer: This 7 and a half minutes of your life are non refundable.
Do you think you can make an atomiq more akin to a Futura with a bigger, stiffer slalom fin? Would there but much between them? So you could push the slalom option if you wanted?
Northy, I don't think the atom is going to be as fast. I sailed a 144 futura and a 130 something supersport in the same conditions and they felt like they were going much faster.
Tried the Atom 100 with a 7.8 Reflex & Drake40 Ready to Race on the 29th July, managed to get 31.9kts 2sec out of it however 7.8 was fine on a reach but just felt to big for the board going cross & upwind. A slalom fin definitely livens up the board by lifting it out of the water more & giving more drive as you would expect, I would recommend don't go bigger than a 7.5 sail & 38 fin.
I doubt that the Atom could match the acceleration of the Futura but I would have thought the top end speed would be pretty close. I don't carry a GPS so I have no objective measure. I would agree that a 7.5 is probably the upper end in sail size.
I've got a 115ltre Exocet Xcross freemove- is it a similar style of board to the atom?
( 75cms wide - potato chip shape with thin side profile , pin tail gybes like a dream , handles gusty conditions and chop great - not fast but fun..)
Took my new AtomIQ 110 out at Wynnum today with a 7.5m NCX. Went great. My mate was on a isonic 80 wide and cammed 7.8. He was faster but not by much and I was smoother in the gybes as the AtomIQ is so nice to gybe in the chop. Took him a bit to catch and overtake me. Great board and sail setup for easy plug and play fun.
Select to expand quoteTheRayHunter said..
Took my new AtomIQ 110 out at Wynnum today with a 7.5m NCX. Went great. My mate was on a isonic 80 wide and cammed 7.8. He was faster but not by much and I was smoother in the gybes as the AtomIQ is so nice to gybe in the chop. Took him a bit to catch and overtake me. Great board and sail setup for easy plug and play fun.
What us your weight ?
The Atom 100 (now that I own one! ) is already increasing my TOW (time on water), today was a bonus light late seabreeze, 12-18knts, bumpy incoming high tide.
I had a spare 1hr and bit to my name this arvo..straight down to the beach quick rig 7.0 Cheetah and 1 Hr of quality sailing off Mudjimba Beach and Old woman island..
Would have been crappy on a Slalom board..too bumpy..no decent waves and too light for me to use a wave board, didn't need to drive anywhere to find flat water, years gone by I may have persisted on/off the plane with a 5.8 and wave board...no patience for that these days, dare I say it..was a better buzz than my 11m kite!
One thing I notice with this design of board is they are better for doing crappy gybes/safety gybes if you like...sometimes you get wind shadowed or any other excuse will do (but mine is sailing too close to an island!) and when you do your crappy gybe the nose doesn't tend to come around full circle like it does on a dedicated slalom board, so its kind of more or not pointing closer to the direction you want...ready to take off again. With Slalom boards and the no volume in the nose, if you do a crappy gybe they point upwind hard and its a big effort to point them away again..many do the fall in backward thing.
I also did nail some gybes coming in on waves making the transition over the lip of the wave, nice...have tried that on slalom boards and its an epic trip & fail each time!
So it's already paying it's way...looking forward to some more TOW with it & some decent fins to pimp up the ride a bit, cant wait to do a big down winder on it!
I am now the proud owner of a 110 Atomic. Wind was barely 15knots today at redcliffe and i managed to get planing and have fun on my old 7.5m. Even the kiters were struggling. The board does not feel that big but just get's going with the slightest puff of wind. Agree with your sentiments JonesySail, TOW is what counts. No one got better by sitting on the beach!
yeah same sort of light winds here recently, but the Atom 100 with a 7.0 has been still making it fun, nothing radical or fast but planning along in comfort at sea is the blast, especially with this afternoons sunset.
Have turbo charged mine now with a Black Project 37.5R and makes a big difference in the light winds.
Got a good hour plus sailing in again today late, if I had to drive to other flat water locations it would have been 15minutes of sailing...so having a board that handles open water is gold in increasing TOW.
I have the same setup as you JoneySail - Atom IQ100 and 7m Cheetah. Having used mine now with my 5.8m and new Select G10 slalom fin I'm really happy with this board and new fin. Feels nice and the best I've felt on my gear in ages. I just recieved the new Tribal G10 Freerace fin for the 7m and can't wait to try.
It's a great combo, agree (the 110 and 7.5 would be great also I'm sure) the 7m Cheetah covers such a massive wind range, can hold onto it in winds that I shouldn't be able to, adjust the outhaul and you can sail in light winds also. The 16 model is coming out with only 6 battens!!??
The Cheetah's and other No Cam Sails also increase TOW , more time sailing less time rigging.
I'm still learning the Atom somewhat, playing around with different gybing and tacking styles etc. Those runs above included some really light patches (back of island) really liked the stability it offers to plug through them...then out the back the wind kicks and some decent wave swells, so much control off the tops, great fun without getting the bones rattled!
