My favourite story of 2025 starts with a quick social media post in front of the recycling centre. The backdrop for the old and new boards was just a spontaneous idea. Almost philosophically, but at least ambiguously, the path to the recycling centre is marked as a one-way street. The grey sky has just been wrung out to the last drop, the lonely unloading station, far beyond the last exit of the village, is deserted at 6.00 pm on Wednesday evening. End-time atmosphere. But the upcoming "old versus new" test really makes you want to get started right away. "How do the old favourites - the shooting stars of their era - compare to the new shapes?" I'm excited and curious and want to get out on the water as soon as possible. A week earlier, at the beginning of September 2025: the editorial team decides to find out how the shapes of different board classes have evolved over the last few decades and how this has affected them in practice. I throw my beanie into the round for the chapter "Freeride boards including interview and practical test". Three, two, one: I've been surf-testing for 25 years and maybe that's why I get the nod - an hour later I'm already rummaging through "classified ads" for old treasures. And get lost in the abyss of the windsurfing second-hand market for longer than planned. With some of the offers, it's difficult to tell whether the sellers are acting greedily, naively or criminally. In the end, our test objects find their way into our editorial cellar surprisingly easily and almost of their own accord from the neighbourhood.
One board comes from the neighbour, one from the family. Plus a brand new(!) 25-year-old F2 Ride, which I had already noticed several times outside the Surftools shop. An ultra-slim F2 Sputnik, which had been in the free takeaway bin of a surf shop for years and then successfully celebrated a second career as a children's SUP in U8 races, completes the cabinet of curiosities. As a self-confessed collector and keeper of things, I see this part of the job as an amusing challenge.
Interview with the shape guru
According to the forecast, the weather at Lake Garda will be a bit tricky for the next few days, but the conditions at Lake Neusiedl look good for freeriding and my long-time test partner Frank Lewisch is there and has time. So the logical route to Illmitz on Lake Neusiedl first takes me via Innsbruck. Shaper Werner Gnigler is the first research source for this story (You can find the full interview here). I find him in his rather unspectacular managing director's office at Gnigler Metalldecken GmbH in Innsbruck. Around 12,000 kilometres away from Hawaii as the crow flies, a large part of the F2 and JP shape history is stored here in the form of all the shape data. Werner rolls back an arm's length on his chair, pulls a thick folder from the shelf and unerringly opens the yellowed pages with all the shape details of the 90s Sputnik series. At the same time, he has the latest JP shapes ready on the screen in the CAD programme. This also symbolises the time span between the first Sputnik boards and the current JP Magic Rides, for example. The old Xantos and Ride shapes are based on wooden templates, while the new Magic Rides can be rotated three-dimensionally on the screen. After studying the old documents for a while and spending two hours analysing the shape of our test boards with Werner in the workshop, I set off with my arsenal of boards on the same day. The forecast for Lake Neusiedl is still for good gliding winds.
Test planning with obstacles
But first of all, from now on it pours from buckets all the time, as if the whole of Austria should be submerged. I only creep through Neusiedl in the dark at 20 km/h, I can't go any faster. I put my trust in Windguru and the next two days. "To take the drone with me or not" - that was once again the question before this test. Lake Neusiedl is a completely protected area and an official licence is required. Despite the short lead time, I set about the project. And unbelievably, after just two very friendly phone calls and two emails (in which I had to specify the planned time period and the flight route on a map), I received the authorisation from "Department 4 - Agriculture, Nature and Climate Protection, Main Department of Agricultural and Environmental Law" in my mailbox. That's almost too easy. If you think everything is so bureaucratic here, you should try registering a drone for Tobagoofficially. With less than 20 emails, three personal letters, a police clearance certificate and filling out the same form at least three times, nothing happens. How do I know that? We also went through this for a test. I'm also looking forward to Neusiedl as a change from Lake Garda, where the summer tests usually take place two or three times a season: Dumplings instead of gnocchi, wind blowing from the same direction all day and plenty of space on the green meadow right next to the spot. And simply because, unlike Lake Garda, it's possible here, I would love to park my bus in three car parks across the lake.
On the water: comparison trips and time travel
Once again, Lake Neusiedl lives up to its nickname "Big Brown" with flying colours. Bright sunshine creates a phenomenon: brown water seems to glow, creamy white crowns garnish the perfect freeride piste. We spend two days surfing and taking photos, reminiscing with other surfers about the days when today's old boards were still the top boards of our dreams. We search for the differences in performance in comparison rides. And we enjoy travelling back in time on boards with a nostalgic feel - but surprisingly good top speed. With every kilometre we test, we feel again why windsurfing was so fascinating and so much fun back then. There's no question about it: the new boards can do (almost) everything much easier and better, the boards used to be much more demanding - but it's still fun even on the "old plastic". You can find the complete article "Old vs. new" here.
