For the past 30 years Boards Magazine has conducted product tests within most of the monthly printed magazines.  For 2012 the format of Boards Magazine will change and so too will the way that tests are delivered.

The quality and volume of tests provided over the year will remain unchanged, but the delivery will be focused online (although some will still feature within our Bi-Annual publications).  The tests will become more interactive, will be free of charge to read, more accessible (everything will be archived) and more up to date.

Testing will continue in 2012 with Adrian Jones remaining the test editor and as always, he will be assisted by his Clone test team.

For the time being, we have uploaded a selection of the main tests that were covered over the past 18 months in Boards Magazine printed and linked through to our sister site Boardseeker, where the full test can be read.  In the future, all new tests will be available right here on the Boards website in a new and improved online format.

We will continue to deliver regular group tests, but will also be increasing the number of ‘first impressions’ and ‘new concept’ reviews that we do.  This style of review will allow you to get more up-to-date reviews on the very latest kit to hit the market as well as more niche and specialist products.

As always, we will continue with the same methodical, unbiased and honest approach to testing that both Boardseeker and Boards Mag have become renowned for.

We frequently hear comments about why we shouldn’t bother testing these boards: they’re too small for most people; most windsurfers aren’t good enough to sail them; the shops don’t sell enough of them, etc, etc… We hear these comments, and do you know what? Quite frankly we don’t give a damn, because despite the perfectly practical and sensible statements above, these are the boards that define and showcase windsurfing to most people. These are the Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Astons of our sport, and the boards for which common sense is allowed to be thrown out of the window.

This is a collection of the most high performance production waveboards on the planet. You might not all have the ability to sail them yet, but we bet you’re still interested…

Full group test available on our sister site, Boardseeker.com

The Clones being ever-so-patient...

Making the Effort

My cameras don’t always make it out of their box, and while sometimes it’s because there’s nothing happening, on this occasion it was a case of guilt as I’m in the air once again (not that Sally noticed my sacrifice as I was stuck on the computer all week). So I thought I’d pop up a few pictures from the last months to show that, in between the travel and trips we try to put in a little effort.

Some of the pictures have made it into the pages of Boards magazine, but with the help of the team more often than not there are too many pictures to use. Still, at least it gives our design team room to work their magic. Now I’ll admit that all I have to do is press the shutter release, but I also feel for the team when I see another option for a pic just as they think the day is done.

The first six pictures are a perfect example of the “Hey, what about over there” photographic wanderlust that afflicts many snappers when they’re on a mission. Okay, five different locations that spanned 14 hours just for the one pic may seem a little over the top, but the wind failed to show up for work so what else were we supposed to do? (Good job they can’t edit my blog as we added a host of other stuff in between.) The second and fifth pictures were really the first pix we took, but then it all seemed too easy – after all we were about to unleash the Clones into our pages so our shoot evolved into this:

Evolution

All done, we hiked back up the floors of the hotel to the pool bar for a drink. Did I say all done?

“Hang on guys, can we just try them over there?”

Oh well, that didn’t really work, but hey, we tried.

Plan B

“Sorry guys, but I think we could do something at that other pool, you know, the main one…”

Now to be fair, no complaints came my way until I said “Beam in the Clones”.

“Do you know how ****** hot it is?!”

If you think standing around is easy, just imagine how long they had to stand in the greenhouse style lifts while we got all the boards and Clones in place.

“Are we done now?”

“Hmmm… I don’t like to ask, guys, but you know that restaurant four floors down?”

All we had to do was carry a board each and walk down there. How difficult could that be? Except that the only way to get the boards there was lower them down on a roof rack strap from the pool in the first pic, wait until it got dark, and make sure we didn’t piss anyone off in the restaurant. But check out  this pic and I think we got it.

The other pool

Well, the next pic was a lot later. With no one around by now we trudged all the way back up to the main pool, and we had a little time to play. Obviously there were no Clones for this one (they had to go back to the Clone Farm), so I’m left with a couple of mobile flash stands for a shot that won’t even be used, which I kind of knew when we took it (sorry boys).

Much later...

I’ll own up to one other pic from that night, and for me personally it’s my best of the year – possibly ever – but I’m saving it for the mag first. We haven’t had the opportunity to use it, but with winter approaching I’m sure we will.

Someone pulled me up on the use of Photoshop after a shot of the RRD TwinTip appeared in a mini test in the mag. Sure I touched it up a little, but this wasn’t about what I put in but what I took out. Fishing line is a great thing – particularly when you add a couple of masts and lads into the mix. We suspended the board over the water, but in the gentle breeze the board kept swinging around. Patience paid off eventually and we got the perfect shot, but it was a little too perfect as I could see on the screen it just didn’t look real, so we dipped the board in the water to make the ripples. Unfortunately we never did get that perfect flat board angle again, but it was close enough.

RRD

No need to tell you how the JP shot was done then, but if you’re still a doubting Thomas just take a look at the rail. I’d never add in water droplets. Plus, once I was home I realised we should have shot it the other way around to read it. As for the rest I won’t bore you, but let’s just say we wanted to say thank you to Neilson for looking after us in that next bunch, and a personal thanks to the Clones as I really did put them through it.

“Keep still… It’ll be perfect if you wait another five minutes…”

Scott McKercher with the end result

Scott McKercher, head of wave board development, was loving the power being generated by the first generation Quads. For example, he talks about the boost out of the lip that is pretty much unequalled in any board the team has ever tried. But it didn’t have as good a vertical pivot in the lip type rotation. All it wanted to do was boost. Another was the fact that all the bite it provided through a turn didn’t enable the release type new school maneuvers like Takas and Backside 3s.

So from this starting point, Scott’s stage one was a smoother outline without hips utilizing the same fin configuration. A trip to Sumbawa was the test track for this with some pretty heavy waves out at Lakey Pipe. What the team discovered there was that taking out the hip with this rocker stiffened up the board too much, so some added rocker between the feet was needed to counter that.

It was back up to Bangkok to alter the rocker of prototype 1 before the next trip to Reunion Island. After a couple of sessions there with Scott, it was still feeling a little stiff. Looking at the curve and relating to how it felt, the next rocker cut was made in order to try to achieve that elusive combination of Power and Drive, whilst also being loose and smooth through an arc.

Scott’s hunches were correct, but then the feeling was that the tail was too wide in between the feet and back. Once again it was back to Bangkok for some outline modifications. This was where Scott felt that he was starting to get really close to a sensation that that people were going to appreciate. Boards that allow you to rip with ease.

It was on this test trip to Australia that the R&D team also started to mess around with fin placements and began to appreciate that different fin set ups were adept at doing things differently. Big fins forward were suiting onshore type conditions, providing better upwind performance and more explosive driven turns, while switching this around was feeling better down the line, providing a smoother sensation to the carve. Tiesda started to get busy trying to find a box system that was going to allow fin adaptability.

Up until then, all R&D was with a board that was 82 liters. The next stage was to apply all that was learned to be scaled into other sizes. No small feat by any means. This started the cycle of testing driving and flying between Bangkok Perth and the North West of Australia. Being Sept/Oct, it was necessary to drive 13 hours North to find wind and waves. It’s hard to remember how many times this was undertaken, as it became a bit of a travel blur. The number of long hour drives for R&D trips were countless.

The Quad IQ in action

But it was totally worthy as testing at Gnaraloo provides a couple of different waves in the one wave: upwind at Centre’s, it’s quite sideshore, requiring a lot of drive to make it back on yourself to hit the lip. Further down the line past the Bubbles/Tombie section, it becomes more side/off down the line.

Jaeger Stone came along to help out with driving and testing which was invaluable. One thing Scott has been learning most with the IQ adaptability concept is that everyone and every spot are different. What works for some people isn’t the same for someone else, so you have to involve a multi/person point of view. Svein Akerboom from Holland was also along for a couple of trips, as well as Severne product manager Simon Hurrey. All very accomplished sailors that had valuable input to provide.

Approaching the end of the Australian summer with further testing at places such as Margaret River and Esperance, the Starboard R&D team was finally getting all the sizes down. “A complete range made up of pretty damn fine boards”, affirms Scott. It was at this point that Ben Severne started to get into the mix asking if they wanted some help with playing around with different fin combinations. This collaboration ended up being the icing on the cake with a sensation that really blew the testers away down in Esperance. The board was now coming around so fluidly that Scott was 100% happy with what was going into production.

At this time, the Quad IQ 74, 77, 82, 87 and 92 were signed off. This was when Phillip Koster and Iballa Ruana Moreno were down in Oz for possibly the worst run of conditions in the history of Western Australia, right in the middle of our photo shoot. However, this resulted in the team ending up at a little sailed beach that looked incredibly like Vargus in Gran Canaria. Philip got to use the Quad IQ 82 to devastating effect. Back side and frontside 3s with full lay down bottom turns in onshore to vertical punches. Spectators were pretty much blown away, and the R&D team was ever more confident now that the new concept truly works in all conditions

This momentum was further confirmed at the photoshoot in Maui in the Spring. Team riders were incredibly happy with the boards, the new fins and the results.

Missing in the range was the smallest Quad IQ: the 69, which came right at the end of the process through a board that Swedish wavesailor/designer Ola Helenius left behind for the team to test. The smaller sailors in the team (Boujmaa and Anne Marie) fell in love with this board, and when Iballa and Daida put in a request for what they wanted to see in the smallest version of a Quad IQ, the little 69 designed by Ola ticked all the boxes. Available later towards September, the Quad IQ 69 completed the new line up.

Scott Mc Kercher wrapped up the year’s incredible R&D journey with this, “I’m pretty sure we’re going to make some people really happy once they get these under their feet”.

The Quad IQ: Starboard’s new adaptable wave board concept. Sizes 74, 77, 82, 87 and 92 are available from July 19th onwards. The Quad IQ 69 is available from late September onwards.

www.star-board.com