Freeride or Wide Freeride?

gvogelsang · Joined: 09 Nov 1988 Posts: 435

I am considering the purchase of a Tabou Rocket. But, should I consider the Rocket Wide?

More broadly, are there conditions that would favor the more traditional freeride shape, or are the newer wide freerides better in all/most conditions?

U2U2U2 · Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2016 4:10 pm Post subject:

Yes
No

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

Yes, yes, and no.
For more details, SEARCH the forum using keywords such as stubbies and trads. That's magspeak for wides and traditionals. You'll find a wealth of information and opinions, with fairly good consensus on the answers to your questions plus a lot of useful discussion.

coachg · Joined: 10 Sep 2000 Posts: 3550

I'm not sure searching stubbies and trads will pull up what the OP needs. He would more likely get wave board results with discussions not very applicable to a large freeride.

gvogelsang,

Don't know your weight or what size board you are looking at. The Rocket Wide has a different design purpose than the Rocket LTD. What kind of wind & water state are you looking at for your board? A good discussion on width & volume can be found here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGKdh840M9I

Coachg

dllee · Joined: 03 Jul 2009 Posts: 5329 Location: East Bay

Rougher waters, onshore winds, might favor traditionally slightly narrower freerides, especially for powered up top speeds.
Smoother waters, learning to jibe, perfecting planing jibes, should favor the wide freerides.
For a given volume, narrower freerides can handle smaller sails, but not bigger sails.

jingebritsen · Joined: 21 Aug 2002 Posts: 3371

let's disect what happens when wider boards get shortened.

speed slider 77 was 267 x 77. it is/was a classic free ride. easy to sail, fast, and all that.

i now have a race board that is 230 x 77. it is not so easy to sail. not a bad board, just temperamental.

rocket boards today look pretty friendly to sail. i did not like them for florida when they had all that double concave bottom shape, but that's gone....

big difference? the chopped off 37 cm. short and wide, quite often leaves no fore and aft stability.

joethewindsufa · Joined: 10 Oct 2010 Posts: 1190 Location: Montréal

know of one shop that refused to carry the Rocket Wide
they did not like it
not sure if they tried the other "freemoves"
(hope i am using the correct term Smile

)

here i listed where i found some decent Shark vs Gecko discussions

http://joewindsurfer.blogspot.ca/2015/11/how-gecko-and-shark-should-be-compared.html

gvogelsang · Joined: 09 Nov 1988 Posts: 435

Looks like zirtaeb has nailed it for this discussion.

OK, about me: weigh 210, windsurfing over 30 years, waterstart, make 75% of my jibes. I own a Firemove 122. I am thinking of augmenting my board collection, and I know that I should probably pick up a fsw, perhaps the Tabou 3S 106 or RRD fsw in about the same size.

I was looking for viewpoints on classic freeride v. the wide ones. I happen to enjoy my Firemove, but I would probably enjoy a Rocket or X-Cite Ride Plus, as well.

J64TWB · Joined: 24 Dec 2013 Posts: 1685

I think this is relevant to gvogelsang's post. Why do they design slalom boards super wide?

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935