What’s the definition of a freeride windsurf board, and how should you choose?
A freeride board must be easy to use, cover an extensive range of conditions and be suitable for progressing riders of different abilities.
Freeride boards are the most common and popular type of board that you see on most beaches. But with so many different styles, sizes, shapes, and constructions, choosing the right freeride board can be confusing. In the following article, we will look at the different types of freeride board available at Starboard and what rider and ability each board will be best suited to.
The Ideal First Freeride Windsurf Board: Starboard Go & Go Windsurfer
This stable board is perfect for learning to plane use the harness and using the footstraps confidently.
Who is it for?
The GO is ideal for riders who, after having learned the basics on a beginner board or Wind SUP, are ready to test their skills on something shorter and more manoeuvrable. Who want a board that can accompany them on their windsurfing journey and want to accelerate, start planing with control while easily sailing and staying upwind, even under challenging conditions.
The Go is available as Starboard GO Windsurfer & Starboard GO; the difference between the GO and the GO Windsurfer is their sizes and the daggerboard/centre fin option.
The GO WINDSURFER come with a foldable daggerboard and the GO BOARD with a removable centre fin.
GO
The Go’s are available as 122l,133l, and 144l. They are more responsive and reactive to the rider’s movements, and their shorter length helps the board feel more manoeuvrable and turns will be quicker and easier. It’s designed to be highly stable, hold a good course, and go upwind easily. In the beginning, the centre fin helps and later, when the rider has developed their skills and confidence, allowing for more planing performance, it’s easy to remove the central fin.
If you are looking to teach your kids and get them hooked on windsurfing, our smaller GO Board sizes are ideal as a beginner board for smaller riders.
GO WINDSURFER
The GO Windsurfer is available as 165l, 175l and 195l and comes with a daggerboard system that can easily be positioned and closed while sailing along. So you will have it there for confidence when you need it and can easily remove it for more speed and planing whenever you feel like it on the water. The broad outline of the board will give the progressing rider plenty of stability, and this will also help spread the weight of the board across a larger area of water. The board, therefore, sits higher in the water and allows the equipment to plane early and easily.
The GO will plane early, give the rider that exhilarating feeling of skimming across the water while being forgiving to use and give the rider plenty of control so that they can experiment and develop the planing technique, learn to use the footstraps and build confidence while the board is planing. This board is ideal for riders transitioning from a beginner board to a freeride board. Perfect for learning to use the harness, your first time planing and getting to use the footstraps. Its high volume combined with a wide and long outline will really help in non-planing conditions giving stability and good drive upwind.
What do we love most about the GO?
While you can learn all the basics with it, you will also enjoy riding the GO for years and years after! Also, the soft deck of this board makes it a joy to climb on when you are still not 100% comfortable waterstarting and are often kneeling on your board.
Progressive Freeride for when you have nailed the basics: Carve Starlite Carbon & Wood sandwich
Who is it for?
The Carve is for you if you have the basics like sailing upwind, holding a course and using the harness down and are ready to take your freeriding to the next level. Learning to jibe, riding faster and simply having a good time on the water.
The Starboard Carve has a sporty shape that favours planing conditions. But due to its length, it will still cruise through the water and point upwind nicely even in non-planing conditions. The Carve’s design makes the board very stable and comfortable to use. When in planing conditions, the width helps the board get on to the plane very early; as the board’s shape narrows towards the tail, it helps the rider maintain control and manoeuvrability at top speed and choppy conditions.
Matteo Iachino carving a jibe with the Carve 155 Starlite Carbon edition
Different footstrap positioning options on the Carve are well thought out to aid the progression of the riders. The inboard straps are easy to find with the feet but crucially, still outboard enough to give the rider control of the board and fin whilst planing. When the confidence in the footstraps builds, you can push your speed and performance by moving the straps firstly to the inner outboard straps and finally the full outboard straps. Like this, you will start feeling ready to race around on the water with maximum speed and control.
The Starboard Carve is an all-around freeride board, giving a softer, more comfortable ride for those of less experience but allowing more advanced riders the option to tune the board for higher speed performance. Perfect for learning carving gybes and those looking to sail in mainly planing conditions. So if you are ready to take your windsurfing to the next level, the Carve will be your best friend for a long time, and who knows, you might never look for anything else again!
You can check out all the details about the Carves here.
What do we love most about the CARVE?
Jibing on Autopilot, yes, you guessed it, it’s in the name the CARVE loves to carve, and that’s what we love most about them! Lean into the turn and let the rails do the work for you.
GO TO GO AND CARVE TO CARVE 😉
As the names of our two freeride boards suggest, the Go or GoWindsurfer is the perfect first windsurf board to start ‘Go-ing’, and the Carve is a great board to step up your planing game and start carving. We hope his article has helped you with your choice. Let us know if you have further questions at lena@star-baord.com.
