Have been using the Axis Free MV (125 x 45cm) lately after seeing them and the other Axis gear at Merimbula last month. Spoke to Adrian Roper about his design features and was impressed enough to order some Axis gear to sell. (Disclaimer)

The deal with the Axis MV is that it's a minimal volume board, hence the MV, but still very stiff and lightweight. there are two other boards in the MV range one at 145cm and one at 105cm. The main reason I am using the board is, apart from seeing if it's any good, is that trying to kite with a board with some volume makes strapless foiling really hard to get started as the board moves and bobs around in the chop. Marco, one of my kitesurfing friends locally, has a home made paulownia board with minimal volume and makes getting up foiling strapless look easy, so rather than make my own I took the easy way out and bought one in.

So does it work? Yes A minimal volume board makes strapless kiting easy. The board stays in position in the water half submerged, just stick your feet in position, power up the kite and you're up and foiling. I am currently using a Moses 633 surf foil on a 91cm mast which is buoyant enough to float the board on its side indefinitely if you come off with the foil in the air. (More about that later)

Not having a footstrap/s keeps the deck uncluttered and encourages manoeuvres which are often testing my foiling skills resulting in more frequent crashes. Still it's easy to just grab the board, which even with a large foil, is light and easy to position and get back up again. Even though the board is extremely thin, it has a slightly raised spine going along much of the stance area of the board which gives a lot of rigidity which would normally be absent on such a thin design. The rocker is sweet, making touchdowns easy to recover from and making the board feel well balanced. With the swing weight being so minimal, it makes the board very responsive. The deck has a soft and grippy EVA surface over its entire area and there are plenty of footstrap position options. So overall a great board which I am really enjoying riding.

However there is a strange behaviour with this board and foil combo which foilers with high volume surf style wings need to be aware of. If you have a wing which enables your low volume board to float on its edge pointing into the wind and the foil floating on the downwind side of the board, the board will start moving at a reasonable speed into the wind Often much faster than you can body drag upwind Also the action of chop on the board seems to cause the foil to pump a little as well making the whole kit shoot upwind out of sight! Needless to say, expensive foil kit heading out to sea amongst a whole lot of pleasure boats hooning around is somewhat upsetting. First time this happened a sea kayaker happened to be passing and he turned the board around for me. The second time the wind was dying and body dragging upwind wasn't cutting it, so I body dragged quickly to shore in the hope of running up the beach, upwind of the board and body dragging out ahead of it. Unfortunately the wind continued to die, and it was problematic just keeping the kite in the air. So I had to drag a dad with a SUP board away from playing with his son and get him to paddle me out to my board and swim it in.

Bear in mind this doesn't happen every time you come off the board, but is most likely to happen at the furtherest extremity of your run a long way from shore. Murphy's law and all that. The whole kit, pictured below, will comfortably sit flat on the surface too when it feels inclined and head gently downwind which is easy to catch. So until my skills are perfected or I use a smaller less buoyant wing, which I have a couple, I've attached a footstrap which makes for a few less crashes but mainly gives me an attachment point if I need to clip the board to me if the wind dies or I have to relaunch the kite.
Interested to know if others have experienced this. I've read of it happening to some people on kiteforum but didn't take much notice until it happened to me.

If you'd like to have a demo of this board and various foils feel free to contact me. I know how to catch it if it runs away
Have fun, Dave

How does that spine feel under your feet Dave? I have never been a fan of them on my deckpads mainly because I have super flat and fat feet. The board looks great though, and even getting caught out in that southerly change can't dampen the feeling of how good it is to foil.

Board looks really nice.

The layout of the attachment points at the front mean you turn your front footstrap sideways. This means you have a grab handle or toehold for launching, but can ride without the interference of straps over your feet.

I'm using a Slingshot foot hook up front. Absolute game changer for getting a board on the rail and far less clutter when moving your feet. Interesting what you say about the boyant wing taking off upwind when combined with a MV board.

Sure there's not a rip current type thing going on where you are?

I've had the foil turn around into the wind, which puts it a little more upwind than when it came to a stop, and then bob upwind on the swell a little, but retrieval has never been difficult.

Usually, when it's floating foil down, it just catches a swell and buggers off downwind

Select to expand quote

Kamikuza said..
Sure there's not a rip current type thing going on where you are?

I've had the foil turn around into the wind, which puts it a little more upwind than when it came to a stop, and then bob upwind on the swell a little, but retrieval has never been difficult.

Usually, when it's floating foil down, it just catches a swell and buggers off downwind

No rips on the bay, just a combination of factors which when the foil floats to the surface causes spectacular upwind movement.
If the foil is submerged it generally turns downwind and goes downwind with the swell/chop. However not as fast as a more buoyant board.

Have fun, Dave

I actually have a 125 mv in transit at the moment, I am frothing for its arrival

I am riding strapless as well and I reckon it's going to be perfect for what I want out of a board.

I also like the stripy pattern as it matches my stripy wetsuit and it is scientifically impossible for sharks to bite stripy stuff

I will let you know how it goes

Select to expand quote

drsurf said..

Kamikuza said..
Sure there's not a rip current type thing going on where you are?

I've had the foil turn around into the wind, which puts it a little more upwind than when it came to a stop, and then bob upwind on the swell a little, but retrieval has never been difficult.

Usually, when it's floating foil down, it just catches a swell and buggers off downwind

No rips on the bay, just a combination of factors which when the foil floats to the surface causes spectacular upwind movement.
If the foil is submerged it generally turns downwind and goes downwind with the swell/chop. However not as fast as a more buoyant board.

Have fun, Dave

That sucks :o we have quite a side current at the local, and TTs and directionals go shooting down the other end of the beach, while foils go downwind faster than across...

Got out on the mv125 for the first time today, I am stoked it is definitely the right board for my foiling needs. (Bought second hand no disclaimer)

I've got it attached to a zeeko spitfire xlw and it floats with foil down as normal.

The board is very tough solid twin tip style construction which seems like it will be really durable. There is some thickness added around the mast plate and a center spine gives it a bit extra float and makes it really rigid. I believe some carbon has been used in the build and the weight is really good, not crazy light but quite good weight.

I am liking the deck contours, it's mostly flat around the rear foot with a curved spine that is pretty mild under the front foot and deeper through the middle of the board. The deck is slightly concave. The spine gives a really good point of reference for strapless riding, it really helps you to feel where your feet are.

A good bit of rocker and chined rails so it's good on the touch downs as well.

Also worth mentioning it is stripy both on the top and bottom of the board. Not only are you fully protected from most shark attacks which come from underneath but your also protected if a shark decides to launch an aerial attack or perhaps attack mid backroll

Found it a bit hard under front foot added a bit of deck grip. Great board.