KODE FSW 94l as a Freeride Board

[PeconicPuffin]

[jingebritsen]

mixing outboard front and center back depends on what you mainly do.

onshore with flat water blasting as an even mix, i do the above. typically i am looking for max upwind power and achieve this by cheating a bit with where i place my foot under the back strap when surf sailing.

keep in mind i sail with max sail power virtually all the time. on those few cases where i want a double back, i am all set up for blasting around by only having to mess with the back straps, not all 4. saves wear on inserts too.

for pure DTL wave rides, inboard is the way to go. BUT, that's pretty rare for most east coast spots except new england (brr) and hatteras.

another note. i sail big stuff in surf: 11'5" x long board, x-wave 129, or cross 114. rarely a 100 liter or smaller. been lucky this past week and sailed 3 days with 105 and 95 liter wave boards.

[wynsurfer]

Here is my 2 cents:

I have been windsurfing for over 30 years and own 3 boards for moderate to sort of high wind, 75 85 and 107 liters. Sometimes i wished i had something around 95 but my 107 can be sailed with a 5.0 and a 22 cm wave fin. The 107 is a Starboard Kombat 2007 which in later years was re named "Kode". It's about 10 cm. longer than newer versions at 244 cm. in length by 65 cm wide. It's plenty floaty for me at 150 lbs. i bought it new in '07 and still sail it often. I have tried it with every conceivable strap position and with a wide variety of fins ranging from 22 cm. to 32 cm. and sails from 4.7 to 7.5. I prefer one rear strap as I do not often sail slalom style on a board like this. This board is not wide enough in the tail and having an A box can't take a big fin anyhow. In short I found little to no advantage to using 2 rear footstraps. One rear strap makes things much easier especially when playing around in small waves and swell. I keep the front straps inboard as well and in the middle as far as fore and aft placement.

This board is a pretty big jump down in size from your 122 Carve which is quite wide at about 75 cm. These boards are two very different animals! My next bigger board is an 09 145L Tabou Rocket at 76 cm. so it is similar to your carve.

You may have some trouble getting used to this board as it will feel so much smaller than your Carve but keep at it and take notes. I keep a journal and write everything down after each session. Sometimes many months go by between sessions and I forget things. You will likely need to do a lot of adjusting with regards to footstrap position, mast track, and fin as all interact with each other. For starters put everything in the middle and change only one thing at a time. Being that this board is so much narrower than your Carve I suggest putting the straps inboard for starters. My board has markings on it for fin positions and came with a freeride fin and a wave fin. wave fins need to be about 1" further forward than more upright pointer type fins. Placing a fin all the way back in the finbox makes all of my boards act like a weather vane and round up into the wind and difficult to bear off. Too far forward and the board will act squirrelly. Hope this helps, and good luck!

[swchandler]

Not many of my boards have a choice of strap positions, but I do have a Mike's Lab Freeride board that is about the same width as the Kode FreeWave 94 (61.5cm) that offers a inboard and outboard choice for the front straps. In the back, its only setup for 2 straps. When I picked up the board, Mike had installed the front straps inboard, so I sailed it that way. I immediately found that the stance really didn't offer much control over the board set so far inboard. So, for the next session, I changed to the outside positions. The difference was night and day giving me much better control over board, and greater speed potential, particularly to windward. Also, with that kind of width, I've found that the outboard straps really improves handling in the jibes.

That said, I have been sailing with outboard straps for many years, and that's my preference, except in my smallest higher wind boards. When you start getting more air time sailing about in rough conditions, that's where inboard straps can make things a bit easier. Also, as mentioned by others, wave sailing is best done with inboard straps, especially with more radical off-the-lip moves and any serious jumping going out.

Lastly, to address all the concern that being voiced that somehow having outboard straps up front and a single strap in the back is a bad setup, I have another Mike's Lab that he calls a Wave Slalom design that has single position outboard straps up front, but a single or double strap choice for the back. Because it's an 80 liter that I normally sail 5.0 and down, I really wanted to go with the single back strap. It sails beautifully in that configuration. Believe me, there's nothing weird going on in the stance department.

[NOVAAN]

I sail both of my higher wind boards (not in waves) single rear and outside back front straps. That said ,for the OP, try it both ways but I would start with the same set up as I use. Just my point of view. I'm 165 lbs. When I'm on my 6.5 Cheetah I use a 38 cm freeride fin. 5.5 I use a 34cm freeride fin. anything smaller and its a wave style fin. Its just a match between body size skill level, board size, sail size and water conditions. Spin out should be the main concern. I have had fins that are huge that break free with the slightest bit of up wind pressure. Some of my smaller fins won't spin out no matter how hard I pressure them. So try the fins you have. See how they work.

[westender]

You will easily be able to tell if you need the double rear straps when you find yourself constantly moving your toes out of the single rear strap to get your heel closer to the rail.

[scargo]

That's the board I often sail in Cabarete, and I like it a lot.

If memory serves, you can put the two back straps close together, so they work like one really wide strap. Then run the straps very loose. You'll get lots of stability from having so much strap thickness, but because of the looseness, you'll be able to get in and out really easily.

Anyway, that's how I sail my Rocket 95, allows me to do pretty much everything I want without having to jack with the back straps.