I just had a 1st sail on my new 135ltr Radix at Melville. The conditions were patchy 16 to 19kts and some gusts to 22kts. General average about 18kts with some glassy dead patches. I was running a 40cm Tribal S1 and an older KA 7.9 race sail. The water conditions were typical of Melville with chop and a bit of boat wake. The board absolutely killed it and was effectively unstoppable even as it glased off below 10kts for intervals of more than 80m. In the gybes boat wake and chop were a total non event and the board planed through every gybe way to easily. Board speed was excellent with significant periods 15 to 17kts over wind speed. Up wind was very good. Downwind felt like it was an unstoppable sled. Cresting boat wakes and chop had no apparent impact on board speed. The ride quality was amazingly soft - I have no idea how it can do it so well. I bashed out 55km on the plane almost the whole time and barely feel hammered. Basically so surprised by this beauty I have decided to name it "Party Trick". Righto happy sailing.
How similar is it to the Lockwood designed Mistral 137? The double concave, rail chines and cutaways look identical.
I will ask Chris next time I see him. The Mistrals have a legendary rep and when Chris was sailing them he was always fully fangin. I remember one winter at the pond he pulled ~48kts on his much patched 137lt Mistral.
I expect there will be plenty of design cues from those boards. The new ones should be more durable as benefiting from better foam and carbon/resins. Time will tell.
As an update I had the 135 Radix out on Sunday in marginal conditions of gusty/holey 13 to 16kts in a fairly sheltered part of lucky Bay. I ran a vector volt 48cm fin and my older KA Race 8.7 sail. It was light enough that I also took an uphaul rope.
In those conditions it was pump onto the plane and or wait for the better gusts. Once on the plane I was generally able to stay there by gybing on gusts and pumping as required. The board was great despite the oversize fin in the back which is quite dragy and tends to force the nose down. Despite that I had heaps of fun and was generally on the plane. My best 5 x 10 sec run was just under 29kts and top speed was a ~31kts which feels like pretty good performance given the light winds available. As for pumping it gets going really easily and it feels like less drag than my old 134ltr 84cm wide tabou manta. Definitely a good board for higher and lower winds.
As an update I had the 135 Radix out on Sunday in marginal conditions of gusty/holey 13 to 16kts in a fairly sheltered part of lucky Bay. I ran a vector volt 48cm fin and my older KA Race 8.7 sail. It was light enough that I also took an uphaul rope.
In those conditions it was pump onto the plane and or wait for the better gusts. Once on the plane I was generally able to stay there by gybing on gusts and pumping as required. The board was great despite the oversize fin in the back which is quite dragy and tends to force the nose down. Despite that I had heaps of fun and was generally on the plane. My best 5 x 10 sec run was just under 29kts and top speed was a ~31kts which feels like pretty good performance given the light winds available. As for pumping it gets going really easily and it feels like less drag than my old 134ltr 84cm wide tabou manta. Definitely a good board for higher and lower winds.
