Considering a smaller ~95L board - Need your advice

[U2U2U2]

oh, the difference in 115 Rocket and a 95+or- FSW
is a lot, a lot more than the liters, it is the overall board design.

a 95 in the Delta is your bread and butter.

plus a smaller for those ballistic days

[noshuzbluz]

[isobars]

Why used (or closeout)? Simple: $800-$1,500 price difference for the same or very similar board. These guys have suggested a dozen boards for you, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. SURELY you can find some great 90-something-liter boards in the Bay area, or at Windance
(see example at http://www.windance.com/92-L-Mistral-Syncro.html), or Big Winds, Isthmus, etc. They grow on trees at Gorge swap meets.

If you were an expert all-around 95-liter freestyler/racer/B&J 5.0 WSer, highly experienced with MANY styles of boards in that range, you might know enough about them to perform meaningful first-hand testing and narrow down your choices to a mere half-dozen boards in a season of test riding. (It can take many days or weeks to test ride a specific board in specific conditions; I gave it up decades ago even living in the Gorge with nothing to do but WS all year long). You aren't that expert, you have school or a job, and $1,000 matters to anyone we haven't heard of, so to speak.

The first thing I notice about a 96-liter board now (after decades on much smaller boards) is how it turns and rides in rough water, but the first thing you're likely to notice about dropping 25 liters is that 25 liters, not shape and performance nuances. You'd love just about any 9x-liter, user-friendly FSW, real/global wave, B&J board you got yer hands on in some solid 5.0 winds, so that frustrating season of trying to match up Brand A Model B with Conditions C would result in roughly three things: A) more work than play, B) a board you like, and C) a board you're likely to want to change soon because of your improving skills and preferences. In the event of C, now it's YOU who are eating rather than benefiting from that $1,000 new-board-depreciation.

I could scrape up the cash for any WS board ever made. Hell, I spend enough on WSing gasoline alone to buy several new boards each year. But as hard as I've tried (and I test and/or buy several boards each year), I haven't found any specific board worth four figures to me in the last 15 years ... and some of those cost me $100 or less. I can't imagine paying new board prices without knowing for a FACT that a $400 board won't light my fires just as brightly.

And watch out for those PMs. In a bulletin board venue, they circumvent the review process. Remember, one man's dream may be another's nightmare.

Mike \m/

[U2U2U2]

a little light reading here

http://forums.boards.mpora.com/showthread.php/62413-Quest-for-a-New-95-Litre-Board

[U2U2U2]

their are several things to watch out for

[kmf]

Here is a good discussion about the FSW boards in the 95 litre size.

http://boards.mpora.com/equipment-tests/tested-equipment/freestyle-wave-test/freestyle-wave-mega-test-march-09.html

KMF

[noshuzbluz]

"And watch out for those PMs. In a bulletin board venue, they circumvent the review process. Remember, one man's dream may be another's nightmare."

I'll post the private message for your approval if you like.

[isobars]

It's not up to me; it's the recipient's call. Many times a PM is appropriate, but many times it can lead a recipient astray. Here, only money or technique or major vacations are at stake; in the cancer and medical forums I visit, it is sometimes life and death. It's nothing personal; I get a little paranoid about it, partly because some inquirers value PMs above peer-reviewed comments ... often the opposite of what they should do. As you know, some comments belong in PMs, for various reasons. I've sometimes paraphrased PMs and opened their basic message to public comment, while omitting any comments best kept private. It's often a judgment call. I don't know this particular OP, and just wanted to be sure he knew the risks of relying too heavily on unreviewed PMs. "Brand A is inherently superior" and "Drinking one's own urine will cure his prostate cancer" -- neither example fictional -- are not sound advice without some degree of public review or facts to back it up. Aren't you glad you didn't take my PMed (for obvious reasons) advice at face value, despite my 20-year history of first-hand familiarity with the product's problems?

Mike \m/

[jingebritsen]

exocet cross 94 is very good at early planing and smooth riding in chop. most folks that get on exocets also find out they are good at staying comfortable in wind ranges way beyond the stereotypical size usage.

also, exocet offers nano and s-cross.

http://www.exocet-original.com/windsurf.php

http://www.exocet-original.com/nano.php

http://www.exocet-original.com/cross4.php

http://www.exocet-original.com/scross.php

what i've noticed is the width and bottom shape is more important than volume anymore.

if planing is important over comfort, i would stay away from boards that have tons of concave in the bottom well aft of the mast base. those boards tend to sacrifice planing and glide thru lulls and jibes for the sake of blasting comfort thru monster gusts.

the cross series is that all around kind of design emphasis. waves, blasting, bump and jump, or free style.

[windoggie]