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fanatic Blast 115 reviews
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NOVAAN



Joined: 28 Sep 1994
Posts: 1541

PostPosted: Thu Apr 19, 2018 10:45 am    Post subject: fanatic Blast 115 reviews Reply with quote

Anyone riding this one? Your input would be helpful..
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kevinkan



Joined: 07 Jun 2001
Posts: 1660
Location: San Francisco

PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 1:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've ridden the 100 if that helps. easy board to ride. planes off easily and has good control. good jumper too. definitely not as fast as a full blown slalom board, but also has thinner, softer rails. the guys I demoed it out to seemed to think it was an easy jiber and a fun all around ride.

i have a 115 on closeout if you're interested.

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Sunset Sailboards, San Francisco CA
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manuel



Joined: 08 Oct 2007
Posts: 1158

PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 1:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

There are some at ION club and the manager took one out with a bigger sail (6.4?) he was doing all kinds of jibes on it. Looked fun!
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joethewindsufa



Joined: 10 Oct 2010
Posts: 1190
Location: Montréal

PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 10:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

buddy got a BLAST 115 after his Gecko 120
wrote a post on that board after ...

http://joewindsurfer.blogspot.ca/2017/03/fanatic-blast.html

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wazenski



Joined: 10 Jul 2000
Posts: 14

PostPosted: Sun Jun 03, 2018 3:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bought a 115L Blast from Ocean Air this spring. Way fun. Glad I bought it.

I own an aging 115L Fanatic Freewave. I consider this board the ultimate light wind wave board - fast , smooth, maneuverable. Compared to the Freewave, the Blast holds a bigger sail more comfortably (due to it's tail width), and edges out the Freewave in pure straight line speed. The Freewave with its narrower tail is more responsive in turns and performs better in waves by design, but the Blast turns with amazing confidence at high speed as it digs and holds its rail at full speed.

Hope this helps.
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alap



Joined: 17 Dec 2007
Posts: 156

PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2018 4:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

so yesterday I sailed my brand new Blast 115, 2017, LTD

I thing this is my first review, if I buy new thing I typically do it on closeout; so review is kinda obsolete. This is probably a really new thing that I bought (although it is 2017, and yes it was on sale)

in my review I'll try to avoid the use of words good and bad. When we say good it actually means better, and bad means worse. All is based on prev experience and on relative comparison.

So, first of all my level is intermediate, may be aspiring intermediate. I wndsrf for 35 years and I enjoy everything from 8.5 to 3.5, jybe being my weakest link. I complete almost all my jibes (well not on 4.0 and stronger) and this week I even started to exit planing (thanks to Peconic Puffin, Coach and Kevin K).

The reason I bought this 115 is that I had
Fanatic Ray 145 light edition, 82 cm wide, 2011
Fanatic Ray 130 wood, 71 cm wide, 2011
Exocet Carve 103 liters, 64 cm wide, I think about 15 years old

Although 145 and 130 are identical shape, 145 is lighter than 130 and actually better. I first bought 130 for 8.5 primarily, but it is a bit small, works nice in the gust with 8.5 but in the lulls it is a bit too small. 145 on another hand is perfect with 8.5 and even with 7.0 it is better than 130

So basically I had two boards for similar conditions, and when it was blowing strong 7.0 this Ray 130 with its width was too bouncy for the chop.

So I wanted to move from 145...130...103 for sails 8.5... 7.0... 6.0 to
145...115...103

The width wise I had 82...73...64

So the Blast 115 with width 66 seemed like a good choice.

(Also notice my absence of experience with other modern brands and trends, like Magic Ride, Ray 145 from 2011 is definitely the latest and the best I have sailed)

Straps are in outboard position, and I started with mast foot in the middle at 130. Later I moved it two cms forward, and this was much better. It was better in pumping on the plane and more stable and also first in the chop there was like a noise of blasting from my fin (no pun). I am guessing it set the board into more horizontal position. I'll move another cm forward next time just to find the optimum.

Wind wise first two hours it was more like an overpowered sailing on 6.0. I was on stock 38 fin (i don't have smaller power box fin, but I'll buy it shortly), but not a single spin out.

Then it died down, I rigged 7.0 and for 15 minutes I sailed it in the perfect 7.0 conditions, with very moderate chop. Then it hit really strong, I was really overpowered had couple spin outs and sailed another two hours on 6.0 again very well powered and sometimes overpowered.

To me in those conditions it was absolutely better than my Ray 130, no comparison whatsoever. In fact I would be using my Ray with those 7.0 only for those 15 minutes. And coming back when it hit would be much more difficult than on this Blast. And using this Ray 130 with 6.0 - forget it!

I am not sure with 6.0 what woulda be better, this Blast 115 or Exocet 103. Very very competitive, even with wrong fin.

For my liking blasting on the reach I liked it very much. Very responsive when you want to "wave" sail the chop. Very stable straight on the reach, ignoring this chop. Very comfortable upwind and downwind. Shlogs upwind well as well.

Uphauling on flat water in the wind shadow with occasional gusts - had no problem on both sails.

Jybes - liked it. As I said, exited few jybes with speed (but also did so on Monday in stronger winds on 103 and 90 liters - so I can't contribute my success to the board exclusively).

I think that the width 66 with parallel outlines serves two purposes. First when blasting the drag is created by the max width, so it is the same as the similar width of more classical shape (like compare to my Exocet 103 l at 64 cm width). On another hand the effective width is actually wider in lighter conditions (like pumping, or recovering from the jybe with no exit speed, or burring the rail when shloging upwind, or uphauling)

I also like the weight, it is light, and this is great feature. The fact that 130 was heavier than 145 was an eyesore.

The only unusual thing is the wide boxy nose that I see all the time when on the reach, but it doesn't affect the performance in any way. It is just there, a bit an unusual view, but I was already accustomed to it by the end of the day. Also speaking about the nose, NSI pad was applied and the one that fits is the widest possible square pad

To sum things up, I am very happy with my upgrade, and at the moment I can't complain about the single thing.
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alap



Joined: 17 Dec 2007
Posts: 156

PostPosted: Sat Jul 14, 2018 10:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I had my second session yesterday and want elaborate a bit.
The forecast and my local knowledge was calling for 7.0 conditions, but when I arrived it was 6.0

I took my Blast anyways instead of 103 and had a fantastic time for probably 1.5 hours. Then it died and I was shlogging doing light air pivots and light air upwind and then even straight downwind for last 100 meters

Then I took Ray 145 thinking if may be I should rig 7.0 as well. But it came back so I went again for a very good hour on the Blast 115 with the same 6.0

Then it died again and I switched boards. First 45 minutes it was very nice light air shlogging, turns, upwind... and then one gust, another, increasing and increasing. Certainly the water was very calm in the beginning and no chop and it required quite a bit of pumping to get going. First time actually sailing 6.0 on 82 cm board, but it was fantastic. In jybes it was a bit more drag that needed, but the extra stability for not falling. Then the wind was even stronger with a chop back, so I quit.

I must say it was extremely nice combination of one sail 6.0 and 145 and 115 complementing each other.

I have no drawbacks to report on this 115. Easy to pump on, easy upwind when powered and even easier when shlogging, very predictable in the jibe, no spin outs even with stock 38 fin. A very good sensation of speed and very nimble under the feet, and very controllable if you want to ride it in S line, chase some bumps, or turn downwind a bit to sail from the "wave"

Also I recently bumped in the specifications of 2011 Ray. The 115 LTD version has the same weight as this Blast and practically same dimensions, although of course it is not a stubby. I certainly suspect that it woulda be very similar in terms of performance. But there is no way to find out Smile And no reason. Regardless, I have now very nice quiver of two LTD Fanatics, bigger Ray 145 2011 and 2017 Blast 115, that work very good together.
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alap



Joined: 17 Dec 2007
Posts: 156

PostPosted: Sun Jul 22, 2018 8:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

day three, and I am officially in love

Here is quick video review with gopro:
https://youtu.be/g44K9iJc0u4
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dvCali



Joined: 23 Aug 2007
Posts: 1314

PostPosted: Tue Jul 31, 2018 1:22 pm    Post subject: Re: fanatic Blast 115 reviews Reply with quote

NOVAAN wrote:
Anyone riding this one? Your input would be helpful..

There is a bit of marketing cool-aid around stubbies. In the 100-140L Fast Freeride board range the shape has been tilting toward parallel rails, rapidly closing rear and often truncated front for at least 15 years. Just look at the old Hypersonics ... And the idea that somehow the shape of the nose can actually influence the performance in board of this size (or any size, really) is a bit ridiculous. You could build it with convex fronts without being able to detect any difference ...

But I am sure it is a good board. You cannot really produce a "bad" board nowadays. I tried the 100 (thank you Kevin!) and it is was nice. It can't keep up with a slalom board, although it can probably surprise with a different fin and a big sail.


Last edited by dvCali on Thu Aug 02, 2018 10:13 am; edited 1 time in total
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boardsurfr



Joined: 23 Aug 2001
Posts: 1266

PostPosted: Tue Jul 31, 2018 2:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I had a chance to ride a Blast 100 with a slalom sail and a decent fin. The board felt every bit as fast and exciting as a slalom board, but a lot easier to sail. I had sailed my freestyle gear the rest of the day, so I did not get a direct comparison to a slalom board, but the speed gain over the Skate was about what I would have expected from a slalom board (+ 4 knots, some of it from the faster sail). The guy who owns the board does not seem to have a problem keeping up with fast slalom guys, and has done 31 knots in conditions where I would have been quite happy with 30 on full slalom gear.

From first impressions, the Blast is a winner, at least for our typical conditions. Nor am I the only one with this opinion - a couple of local windsurfers who tried it bough one (or two) very shortly after trying it the first time.

Interestingly, though, the Blast did not stand out in a comparison test in the German Surf magazine. It did well and had some points where it did very well, but so did several other boards. Just goes to show that personal preferences and local conditions factor in, too. The only way to know for sure is to demo! We are currently working on the final details to have demos at the ECWF Cape Cod on September 15-16 (no-wind/rain date one week later), and on a second ECWF event at a different East Coast location in October.
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