The Starboard Carve in 169 litres is 20 centimetres longer than the 129 litre model from the Freeride test. With this leap in shape philosophy, the Carve still retains some of its characteristics, but differs significantly from its little brothers in some respects. As expected, the Carve is also super stable in the water - and now comes the surprise: the slight glide threshold that was previously felt is no longer noticeable. The Carve glides on a par with the Blast and Thommen and does not require any active support to start sliding very early on. There are suitable footstrap positions for very sporty windsurfing as well as for intermediates with slightly smaller sails, in which you can stand very comfortably.
Sporty flying and easy jibing
The Carve also adopts some aspects of the smaller models when planing. The board does not immediately glide quite as freely in the mid-wind range as a Blast for example, but it remains very controllable, sporty and direct. The large width gives it great stability around the longitudinal axis. However, as soon as you are surfing really powered up, the freerace genes come through. With a lot of pressure in the sail and with an advanced rider on board, the Carve can be pushed the most freely and then assumes almost the same extremely free planing position as the smaller models, with which it flies over choppy waves of any calibre and also provides a lot of sporty fun on fast space wind courses.
The Carve also provides sporty fun when entering the power jibe. Here, it also enables tighter radii with comparatively very little foot pressure and can be carved with ease. The board allows very variable radii and is easy to place on the rail despite its considerable length. While the gliding characteristics on the straight are very good, the board loses some speed in the power jibe at the end compared to a Blast, for example. The strengths lie in the easier initiation of the jibe, in the more variable, also very sporty radii, even with less strength and body weight. The Carve combines real upwind qualities with very good planing potential and a very sporty feel. The wind range is wide and the Carve is one of the fastest boards you can get in this size in the freeride class. Suitable sails are between 6.5 and 9.5 square metres.
Surf summary of the Starboard Carve 169
A very successful modification of the well-known carve models for early gliding.
Technical data Starboard Carve 169 Wood Sandwich
- Volume: 169 litres
- Length: 258 cm
- Width: 84 cm
- Weight: 9.55 kg*
- Price: 2634 Euro
- Info: star-board.com
*surf measurement
