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Gear you've used for years and still love
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d0uglass



Joined: 28 May 2004
Posts: 1286
Location: Bonita Springs, Florida

PostPosted: Tue Mar 29, 2022 2:47 pm    Post subject: Gear you've used for years and still love Reply with quote

I have an Exocet Cross II 106 liter freestyle wave board that I've just used and used and used since buying it new in 2009 because it works so darn well for like 90% of my shortboard sailing and it hasn't broken or gotten soft or anything. Another thing that has given it staying power has been finding a 26 cm Maui Ultra Fins wave fin for it. That board/fin combo is like perfectly suited for bump and small wave sailing with like 4.7 - 6.8 sails. It's like the board has grown with me, from when I was first getting my jibes dialed to now getting fairly OK at wavesailing. I love it.

Anyone else have a similar piece of gear that they just keep using and loving year after year?

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isobars



Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935

PostPosted: Tue Mar 29, 2022 6:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I research boards thoroughly to cull the herd before buying them.

I then try them out to further cull them.

If they don't perform they way I want, and require any thinking when riding them, I quickly sell them. They take up too much space to let them gather dust, and it's easy to find buyers whose criteria differ from mine.

After this double culling process, the keepers are exactly what you're talking about: boards that work for ME in their and my sleep. The best of the best, as all my keepers are, seem wired to my brain and seem to do stuff before I'm consciously aware that I wanted to do that. The keepers get ridden every season (at least did, when I was healthier).

The only ones that didn't get ridden every season were the backups, the ones I want never to have to do without, my Cold Dead Hands boards. For a board like your Exocet, for example, I'd have a couple of backups snagged from swap meets for peanuts. That has paid off several times when a board died for any reason.

Even after all that culling and having sold most of my backups and many "only" boards in the face of reality, I still have something like 15 fantastic boards that feel like extensions of my own feet. i.e., take your feelings for your Exocet and apply them to a whole, large quiver of very carefully chosen boards. I'd be very hard pressed to pick just one or two favorites out of them. They're all some version of waves boards, with exceptional rides at speed in chop, back foot in-the-straps turning, very loose yet with precise tracking, and light for their size (most are sinkers).
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swchandler



Joined: 08 Nov 1993
Posts: 10588

PostPosted: Tue Mar 29, 2022 11:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've had so many outstanding boards over the last 30 years. Actually, I still have them. They are all custom made boards from Mike Zajicek (Mike's Lab) and Brian Hinde (Open Ocean). I was so lucky to have found these two phenomenal designer/builders back in 1992.

My first Mike's Lab was a used 1990 8'10" slalom board that I bought untried 1992 from a SF Bay sailor who moved to Santa Barbara. I bought my first new slalom board from Mike in 1993, and I bought another used one, an 8'8" 1991 high wind slalom, which was Larry Herbig's board. Ultimately, over the passage of time, I acquired 10 Mike's Lab boards (2 used and 8 new ones).

In 1992 I bought my first new board from Brian Hinde, an 8'4' high wind board with graphics that I designed. I took the board to Maui two days after receiving it on an outrageous 3.5 day. It was insane how immediately dialed in I was in big wind right out of the box. On another trip to Maui with that board, I solo sailed upwind from Sprecklesville to Hookipa, made a number of fantastic runs on the water with Robby Naish and his friends, and then did a downwinder back. It was an epic adventure that I will never forget. After that, I bought three 8'2" and one 7'10" of Brian's Tri-fins. Very trick boards that could handle anything.

My Ferrari's of the windsurfing world.
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skyking1231



Joined: 10 Jul 2000
Posts: 280

PostPosted: Wed Mar 30, 2022 5:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

although its gear you used to use and still love... i have gear that i used to use and DONT love.

I actually had the opportunity to use a board from the late 1980's....my very first short board. (the exact board). An Obrien Epoxy Lite 9.9. Although it is not in great shape...heavily used, it still works/floats. And all i can say is wow....what a POS. just everything about it sucks...its amazes me that i actually sailed that thing let alone got it planing. It makes you appreciate all the tech/design changes over the years.
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PeconicPuffin



Joined: 07 Jun 2004
Posts: 1830

PostPosted: Wed Mar 30, 2022 11:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

My JP Freestyle 109 from 2004...now 18 years old. An early "freestyle" design before everything FS became about spinning, it carves jibes like a dream and is my lightwind waveboard (it's the board I'm on in my avatar image.) Sails with a full sail size smaller than comparable litered boards. Will keep it as my big planing board until it breaks.

My 1983 Superlight still does its longboard thing, and remains fun in subplaning conditions for cruising, but truthfully I haven't taken it out in two years.

Aside from boards, every Naish wave sail I've ever owned was golden until it turned to dust.

I still have and use the first EZ rig I bought in 1992. 30 years!

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swchandler



Joined: 08 Nov 1993
Posts: 10588

PostPosted: Wed Mar 30, 2022 7:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I thought that I would indulge a bit more, just to give some dimension to my earlier post.

The following earlier thread pictured a few of the Mike's Lab and Open Ocean boards that I talked about, but most importantly, it highlighted some of the concept changes in board design that happened during that time.

Given two notable designer/builders, I think that it fairly documents how the design revolution affected their product.


http://www.iwindsurf.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=34556&start=130&sid=098cfce70283da186c463887ce3defc7
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NOVAAN



Joined: 28 Sep 1994
Posts: 1544

PostPosted: Fri Apr 01, 2022 1:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have three that come to mine.
My first planning board: Fanatic Bat. I think it was around 160 liters. I learned so much on that board and a ton of fun using it.
Tabou Rocket. I had 3 of them. Just a fun fast easy freeride board.
Tabou 3s early edition. My higher wind bump and jump board. For me I like easy in windsurfing. This board made high wind sailing easy and fun..
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ctuna



Joined: 27 Jun 1995
Posts: 1125
Location: Santa Cruz Ca

PostPosted: Fri Apr 01, 2022 6:01 pm    Post subject: Original Exocet Cross 117 Reply with quote

Original Exocet Cross 117
Did everything pretty well . (Early planning , good in turns and will jump, absorbed chop to)
Deck went soft two years ago .
Still nothing as all around for this big guy.
I think maybe the newer boards have gone to short.
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akrausz



Joined: 19 Sep 2008
Posts: 158
Location: FL

PostPosted: Fri Apr 01, 2022 10:42 pm    Post subject: Re: Original Exocet Cross 117 Reply with quote

My wife had a good experience with her Mistral Malibu. That was the board she progressed on the most and worked best for her in the bay.
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dllee



Joined: 03 Jul 2009
Posts: 5328
Location: East Bay

PostPosted: Sat Apr 02, 2022 4:42 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just sailed my 19 year old RRD FSW L, with a Hydra 5.5.
Really smooth and very fast, nice jumps both directions at Berkeley in gusts around 22, easy uphauler too.
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