Fanatic Freewave 75 TE 2020 review

GuyT · Joined: 13 Sep 2002 Posts: 182

I have had every Fanatic Freewave shape since 2005. Each board has its personnality, but they all had one thing in common: they were all plug&play boards; you set a foot on the board and you fell immediately at home.

There was an exception introduced in 2017 with the Freewave STB. Different look, different feel. People loved it or hated it. To make it more personal, I love my FW 2018 STB, but my wife hates it. The fact that there are still on the market new STB's suggests Fanatic didn't meet the success they anticipated with the STB.

Don't get me wrong the STB was a great board, but it's not the typical Fanatic Freewave most people expected: it shines in swell and freestyle, but it is a poor freeride performer and I would say more technical, being very sensitive to too much pressure on the back foot. I never do spinouts, except on the STB.

So, even though Fanatic talks about a refined STB for 2020, there is no doubt in my head that the new Freewave shape is a far departure from the STB. We're back to the FW we always loved.

(FW86 Classic 2017, FW75 2020, FW95 STB 2018)

Also welcomed, the 75L is back in the lineup. This is the one we got, the Freewave 75 Team Edition. Sylvie (my wife) was the first to try it on a 4.2. Full planing jibe on her first reach, 360 degrees smile on her face.I did get to try it a few days later on a 4.0, this board rips: quick to plane, fast, beautiful carver and very playful.

In fact, we love it so much that we already ordered the 95L.

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

Big guys love small stubbies.
So if you're small, you'd hate big stubbies.
At 155 lbs., I'd love the 75 stubbie and can almost uphaul it.
An 85 would compete with a 95 liter freeride board.
Width of tail and footstrap area determine the ride.

wdsurf · Joined: 22 May 1999 Posts: 335

Guy fanatic must have listened to you Question

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

Tabou had the same "problem" 2 years ago.

U2U2U2 · Posted: Tue Jul 21, 2020 8:26 am Post subject:

When you contact Fanatic again , tell them other colors exist aside from blue.
Lol.

Nice post.

GuyT · Joined: 13 Sep 2002 Posts: 182

wsmtbskate · Joined: 09 Jun 2010 Posts: 124

I have a 2008 Fanatic FSW 104 L as a back up/wave board.
Looks very similar to your 2017 shape, funny how the swallow tail made a come back Smile

cookie · Joined: 27 Aug 2008 Posts: 3

I sail on a 2018 Fanatic 105-liter STB (my first Fanatic board after years of Mistral Flow 276).

The Fanatic STB planes easily but is slower (top-speed) and spins out easily (I use only 1 fin). Perhaps I need the other 2 slot fins.

It does two things really well:
1. Handles a very wide range of wind conditions (I can be on a 4.5m to 6.4m sails)
2. Handles chop in Coyote/Crissy/Sherman Island really well. I feel more in control than my previous board.

If it had a bit more top-speed (and was less prone to spin out), it would be perfect.

GuyT · Joined: 13 Sep 2002 Posts: 182

mark · Joined: 10 Apr 2000 Posts: 181

If you have fin spinout issues with the Fanatic Freewave stubbies I highly recommend contacting Dennis Parton at Tectonics. He made several fins for me with the fin set forward in the base. He offers both wave with thrusters and single fin freeride fin setups. He did not even charge me an extra set up fee for the fin location change. His fins are more expensive than stock fins, $160 for a wave fin and $195 for a single freeride, but the performance is well worth the extra cost.

For more detail go to the Fanatic forum and read the thread "Fin Setup for the Fanatic STB to prevent spin-out". There also are several other threads regarding his fins posted by Dmilovich. While I don't need them for where I sail, he also apparently makes really good weed fins.

As I said to Dennis in my opinion the Fanatic STB is a great board. It just needs a really great fin. Or fins if you like a trifin setup.

I have the 2017 STB 105 liter. Because of spin-out issues Fanatic did move the power box forward on the 2019 models by about 11 mm. I verified this by measuring one at my local shop.