After purchasing a Tabou 3S 86 and enjoying it lots I decided to get its larger sibling the 106 as my Port Phillip Bay seabreeze board. However unlike the 86 which I instantly liked the 106 and I have had a rocky start to our relationship. Why?..... well frankly the board felt very draggy, stuck in first gear and you had to really push it hard to get it to free up and fly. First 3 or 4 sails I was not a happy camper…
So I measured the board to see if there was any reason for this sluggish performance and the shape looked very nice to me. Has some tail rocker but not enough to really slow the board down, I could see no reason here for the board feeling sluggish and draggy. It,s not a slalom board but should feel faster and more engaging than it does. Has to be the fin!!!!
The 86 comes standard with a g10 freewave fin and it seems well suited to the board. The 106 comes with a moulded freeride 32 cm which certainly does not appear to be a particularly hi tech piece of equipment. So I have grabbed a couple of new fins for the board, a Black Projects 30 cm freewave G10 and a Tribal 32 cm Powermax G10 which I already know is an awesome fin, the freewave for windier, bumpier conditions and the Powermax for bigger sails and “blasting mode”
The weather gods conspired against me and I had two pretty crap sails with the Powermax in it, barely planning conditions and although I had glimpses of better performance the conditions were just not good enough to make a judgement. Last night however we got a good solid 20 knots at times up to 25 so had a chance to really try it out. Put the Black Projects 30 in it as it was pretty rough and matched it with KA Kult 5.8. Well as the tittle to this review suggests…..what a difference a fin makes !!!! The board instantly felt more free, gone was that draggy feel that it previously had which at times had me wondering if I had weed on the fin. The board started doing what I had hoped, getting up on its tail and using that generous V and concave to slice through the rough water and deliver a respectable speed. I started passing people something that I has previously struggled to do. Ah!!!! Big sigh of relief…. I have not made a mistake, this is a nice board. I am now looking forward to trying it with a 6.6 and the Powermax in good powered up conditions.
So the message here is….. Board brands. You spend countless hours testing, testing and refining to give us fabulous boards, why then throw a sea anchor in the bottom of them and destroy all your hard work? I am a professional designer and know all the cost balancing that happens bringing a product to market but compromise something as critical to the overall performance as a fin to save a few Euro???? I struggle with that. If you want to avoid frustrated customers coming in from the first ride on their new board and throwing it onto the beach claiming it to be a piece of #$%^&* then put a decent fin in it.

End of rant.

I will do a proper review of the board now I have the fins sorted when I have had some quality time on it.