Freeride boards and sails 2005
All freeride or what? Not quite: there are also the "freemoveboards", the three-combatants, basically suitable for flat water heating, freestyling and wave riding. Such multi-talents have a volume of between 80 and 100 litres (test in surf 4/2005 and in the download area online). Freeride boards can only be found in the high-capacity "premier classes" with a volume of around 110 to 160 litres. What counts here above all is performance on flat and choppy water, riding fun and comfort - depending on your taste - as well as the best possible jibing characteristics for all variants of this most important manoeuvre and its offshoots such as the duck jibe. You can do without freestyle bells and whistles. As comfortable successors to the difficult-to-control slalom planes of the 90s, freeriders have been the bestsellers in the shop for years. This makes the categorisation of board classes easy to understand: freemove and freeride boards are the all-rounders. Wave, freestyle, slalom and super-wide form boards cater for the specialists. But even the freeriders are not completely uniform: there are performance bolides, manoeuvre boards and comfort boards - and we even differentiate between different variants in the jibe test.
Boards and sails in the test:
Freerideboards 115:
AHD Freeride Type F 116, F2 Stoke 117, Fanatic Triple X 115, Hifly Madd 115, JP Australia Super-X 116 FWS, Lorch Glider L Silver Line, Mistral Screamer 117, Starboard Carve 111 Wood, Tabou X Rocket 64
Freerideboards 130:
F2 Hornet 135 Ltd, Fanatic Shark 129 Ltd, JP Australia Free Race 127 FWS, JP Australia X-Cite Ride 135 II FWS, Mistral Explosion 131 Ltd, Naish Titan 126, RRD SX 135, Starboard Carve 131 Wood, Starboard S-Type 126 Wood, Tabou Rocket Rider 69
Freerideboards 150:
Angulo Sumo 155, F2 Hornet 145 LTD, Fanatic Shark 142 LTD, Hifly Free 155, JP Australia X-Cite Ride 150 FWS, Lorch Breeze M White Line, Mistral Explosion 144 LTD, Naish Titan 141, RRD AVR 145, Starboard Carve 145 Wood, Tabou Rocket 80
Freeride sail:
Gaastra Matrix 6,5, Gaastra Swift 6,8, Gun Sails Flash 6,8, Gun Sails Tempo 6,4, Naish Sprint 6,6, Neil Pryde Saber 6,7, Neil Pryde V 6 6,5, North Sails Natural 6,6, North Sails R_Type 6,5, Sailloft Slam SLE 6,7, Severne NCX 6,5
