We recently got sent this great review from Kris Vermeire, a visiting surfer from Belgium who took a couple of our boards for a ride. Check out his thoughts below!
” Last November, I had the opportunity to try out the Carbon Art windsurfing boards designed & produced by James Dinnis in New Zealand, .
It was a privilige for me to testride the Waveboards “AHU” and the “KINA”. AHU is named after a local spot and KINA basically means sea urchin.
We surfed at a spot just north of New Plymouth, near the town “Waitara”. The conditions we had were quite windy, blasting L-side off 25kts all over the place. The brownish water from the river mouth mixed up with the ocean thereby no longer allowing to see the rocks within the ocean. Caution advised …
The sails were Mauisails 3.8 & 4.2 and fully loose leach.
The AHU I used had 82l and was with only 222cm quite short. With its thruster configuration, it quickly planned and even though there was a lot of wind, control during jumps was easy. I’m used to surf with my Goya or RRD quad that easily make it upwind but I have to admit this board did a very good job here too. It was very FAST and felt quite loose under my feet. The waverides were incredibly smooth and a little bit of pressure with my feet was ok to turn the board sharply. Probably because of the V tail.
As the wind picked up and the waves got larger, I tried the KINA, 74l and 2cm longer. It was heaven to surf this one in the waves, sharp turns, quick responses and allowing me to go deep in the
turns without any spinout. I did not have any spinout with these boards, not even when I was pushing hard to get more upwind. Compared to the AHU, the KINA made me work harder to push upwind but with its thruster config it also gave me a very quick ride.
The footstraps were custom made and the footpads were soft. Yeah, that i really enjoyed.
As I mentioned, there were boulders all over the place and the boards have a special layer at the bottom to protect against these “rock” hits. Luckily I didn’t had to experience this.
My overall conclusion is very positive. These boards are made to rip, there are VERY light and highly performing and I’m sure we will see more of these in our Belgian regions in the years to come.
..and of course a big thanks to James for the opportunity to test these and the friendliness with which you treated me. ”
greets, Kris
