I’ll be the first to admit that my initial reaction to the “rediscovery” of the Twinser style of waveboards was sceptical to say the least. I felt we’d been here before with no great success and as such that the “reinvention of the wheel” wasn’t necessarily a good thing for windsurfing.Well boy was I wrong !!
The reason for my change of heart is my newly arrived (and already well tested) Fanatic New Wave 86 Twin.
Thanks to WOWI (who are celebrating their 10th anniversary) I was lured to Kerry over the weekend of the 10th & 11th of September and on Sunday evening Gowlane delivered with a good swell and force 4 to 5 cross off conditions. The first thing that was apparent was the ease with which the board cut through the gnarly chop on the outside gybe. Once committed nothing seemed to make it bounce out even at full speed in long planing turns. I’d expected the board to be very back foot sensitive but although there is a “soft” feel when heavy backfoot pressure is applied this rarely lead to spin out. Upwind performance was actually very good once the board was up to speed. If you own any relatively modern short board you’ll know that driving off the front foot is the norm anyway so no real problems there. What absolutely stunned me was the willingness of the New Wave to turn onto & on the wave. I’m no great wave rider but after the smooth bottom turns I found myself getting vertical on the wave before cranking off the top to initiate another bottom turn & then another ! I felt like a superstar ! Whether it looked good from the beach was totally irrelevant .... it felt great ! You really have to try one out to see what I'm talking about !
I’ve since had another 10 or so hours on the board in different conditions in Magheroarty , Donegal. This involved much more upwind work to get to the reef break and some long open ocean blasts out towards Tory Island. Using my Loft 5.0 & 5.7 Lip Waves the board performed immaculately even when well over powered.
My apologies to Oisin and Dave G for being so sceptical about this “new fad” over the last twelve months.
Oisin has been raving about twin fins since he got his first one from JP shaper Werner Gnigler 18 months ago, and Dave was blown away after his first sail on his Fanatic 84 twin last year. Now that I have actually sailed one, I can see what all the fuss is about.
I’ve yet to try Oisin’s new 2010 JP’s, but can hardly wait. In the meantime I’m ordering the Fanatic New Wave 72 Twin for those stronger Autumn days ahead. I’ll let you know how that goes at a later date but you could ask Stephen O’Brien in the meantime as he’s been out having fun on his one !
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