It’s no secret Phil McGain has been behind the design of the infamous Carbon Art Slalom boards. Up until now the process of getting the latest model into production has included the following development phases:
- Phil carries out testing and design on Maui then sends the testing data and information through to CA.
- Data is interpreted into 3D CAD drawings
- Test prototypes are built and sent up to Maui for further testing.
- James frequently travels to Maui to test alongside Phil.
- Final changes are tuned and confirmed and then locked into the latest production shapes.
This has worked well to date, but the process can be long winded, time consuming and costly.
Phil has his own board factory and did an apprenticeship in boatbuilding, which he transferred to windsurf board building in 1990 when he first setup his factory on Maui. Building and racing his own boards in the PBA/PWA World Cup for many years has given Phil a great advantage. With a complete understanding of board design dynamics from planer to gybing round the mark, Phil’s wealth of knowledge on how to build world class boards is unsurpassed. James himself originally learnt the art of boardbuilding from Phil in Maui before he went on to set up Carbon Art in New Zealand.
The next logical step to take the Carbon Art Phil McGain Slalom program to the next level was to get Phil more involved at the grass roots of design and development. This has led to the introduction and complete set up of the Carbon Art Maui based factory enabling Phil to carry out the whole design/shape/build process for the prototype Slalom board.
How does this benefit you? A faster turn around of prototypes and testing means we can pack even more R+D into each year’s board release. Which of course translates into further refinement of more speed, more control and an even better ride under your feet.
“I’ve always enjoyed building boards and racing on them, so i’ve cleaned up my factory and started to get my hands dirty again, draw up a bunch of curves and templates and I’m ready to go.” Phil McGain
“It’s been great to have had Phil on board over the years and we’re really stoked to have him working more hands on. One of the tricks to better product and performance is in the R&D and this definitely moves our R&D programme up a notch” James Dinnis
This move complements the exciting new CA board shaping feature coming on line in the next few months. Be sure to keep checking back for more info on that soon!
