From Björn and Liam Dunkerbeck to Lennart Neubauer and the Freewing rookie team: you will almost always meet one or more team riders from Starboard and Severne at boot. The full programme of equipment is also on show: In addition to the windsurfing range of the two brands, APM has also brought many SUPs, wings, foils and lots of accessories to the trade fair. We had product manager Stefan Edtmayer show us the new products!
The Blade and S1 wave sails have made a huge leap in development. Reinforcements on the leech, luff and top have been omitted, with overlapping sail panels providing the necessary stability. "They have become extremely light, and I notice this brutally in the performance, especially in the areas that are far away from the body, where weight has been lost," reports Stefan Edtmayer. The luff track has also changed fundamentally, instead of being made of Dacron it is now made of M3 and in the upper area of M2. "This also makes the sail more durable, the Dacron has always stretched out a bit," Edtmayer explains the innovations. The S1 also has a higher pressure point in the sizes from 4.8 and a deeper profile for more power, which should improve the planing a little.
Sail for foil freestyle from Balz Müller, new foil board
The Foil Freek is a new development from Balz Müller. Instead of five battens like the normal Freek, the new foil sail only has four battens, and a relatively thin Mylar fabric was used to make it very light. Edtmayer: "The pressure point is very high up, so it pulls well upwards for foiling." The long luff is striking; the 5.6 on show at boot is rigged on a 430 mast with a 27 mm extension. The Gator, Turbo, Overdrive and NCX lines have basically remained the same, while the HG6 and Mach 6 racing sails have been optimised in certain areas, as is the case every year.
The Severne Hydro, the Salom foil board, is completely new. "A lot of attention was paid to the aerodynamics, the nose is very thin so that the wind can sweep over it easily," explains Stefan Edtmayer. In addition, the mast base is very low to keep the centre of gravity low, and there are lots of deep cut-outs at the tail for good pumping.
The Psycho has become much more compact
The Pyro and Nano wave boards will be on show at boot, but APM will not be exhibiting the very special models such as the asymmetric Stone and the Scott big wave board. The Psycho freestyle board is brand new; the shape developed by Dieter van der Eyken has become much shorter. "A big step forwards," says Stefan Edtmayer, "it's completely different to ride, much smoother in choppy waves and the short nose makes it super easy to turn!"
Other Severne boards at the boot are the Predator for foil freestyle, the Alien for "normal" foilers and the Dyno freemove board, which is entering its third season unchanged. The freerider Fox with a new shape is also due to be launched later this year, but there is no launch date for this yet.
New shapes for Carve and Futura
Starboard is showing the new Ultra waveboard, which is already available in the surf wave test was there. "It's much more manoeuvrable and we only get positive feedback," says Edtmayer. The Ignite and the freewave board Kode remain unchanged apart from new graphics, while the freerider Carve and the freerace board Futura are entering the 2023 season with a new shape. "The Futura is always preferable to the iSonic for mere mortals," recommends Stefan Edtmayer. The Carve has become narrower and glides better than its predecessor. "It's surprising how smooth and relaxed a 159 can be to ride." Also new is the beginner board Go, which has the same shape as the Carve but is a little thicker.
In the foil sector, Starboard has the X-15 as a race board, as well as the Foil as a freeride all-rounder and the Foil-X as a board for windfoiling and wingfoiling for intermediates.
There will also be plenty of SUP innovations on the Starboard stand as well as the complete range of wings, wingfoil boards and foils - find out more at our Sister magazine Wingsurf.world !
More about boot 2023:
- We One - a portrait of the new board brand
- The windsurfing highlights at boot Düsseldorf
- The trade fair innovations at Tabou and GA Sails
- The trade fair innovations at GunSails
- The trade fair innovations at Point-7 and AV Boards
- The trade fair innovations at F2
- The best pictures of the freestyle show at the boot pool
