I Swiss Army Made Wave Boards

Testing wave boards is never a real hardship, particularly when it is the sector of the sport for which all the testers, without exception, have a true passion for. The difficulty in testing them around the UK shores is chasing down consistent conditions to reach meaningful conclusions. That said, there is significant value in testing these products in ‘real world’ conditions - conditions that the vast majority of the magazine’s readership experience at their favoured break.

- Tris Best, Maurin Rottenwalter, Joe North, Dan Hallam, Dan Linton And Tom Squires

FINDINGS

There are a few trends emerging from the test that are worthy of note. Firstly, several of the brands have looked to consolidate and simplify their board range, making the choice clearer for the consumer - no bad thing in our opinion. To keep the multi-fin options open and mitigate the risk of disaffecting anyone, many boards now have five fin boxes, so that they can be set up in a number of ways, from single fin to twinzer, thruster and quad. The permutations are potentially endless, especially when you add fin styles and stiffness into the mix. Whether we have them on review here or were in our test line up last year, most of the brands here have a five-boxed-board in their range (save for Goya and Quatro who have stuck to offering dedicated single, thruster or quad designs). Onto the question of whether to choose thruster or quad. It is, as with every kit consideration in the sport, such a subjective question that the answer HAS to largely be down to personal preference. We were lucky enough to test in a pristinely clean cross-off day, when the grip and connection to the face bestowed by quad fins was hard to beat. The transition back down the face also had an extra dynamic, enabling you to really gouge and throw spray or use the speed you’ve harvested and project off the section. But for all other occasions, sailing in real world chop (especially the days with strong currents making the sea like a bubbling cauldron out the back), the thruster fin setup was the choice for most.

The second design movement for a few brands seems to be a subtle refinement of the compact wave board concept, to bring it more in line with convention. Starboard’s A.I.R. is comparatively long at 220cm, whilst the Slate from JP is not far behind at 219cm. Parallel rails, rearward stances, low noses and fast rockers - the core principles are still there, but in a more enigmatic fashion.