hi fellow kite boarder racers
my dilema is what type of board to buy to start my kite board racing career.
From what i have seen the overall shape of the boards is pretty much the same but it appears that there is two ways to ride and i may be wrong with what i am seeing but
option one seems to be that you use really large fins and sail up wind with the board flat the trade off for this is that reaching dwon wind is really unstable and prone to wipe out

option two weems to be that you use smaller fins but rail the board up on its leeward rail there by giving more edge for upwind legs and so you can use smaller fins the trade off is that you need more technique for the up wind but the down wind leg is more stable and therefore you can go faster

have i got this right or do you need massive fins irrespective of upwind style or board???

anyhow any thoughts are appreciated

cheers ken

personally if you are starting IMO get a sector and ride that for a year or so . get used to how they ride, gybing, tacking etc and then sell it (no problems selling these) and get a proper raceboard

Get a good race board. Buy some nice fins. Then spend 15 hours learning to stay on the board.
then Spend another 200 hours learning the advanced-(gybing/Tacking/pointing/Control down wind)
Dont bother with a sector. Unless you cant ride twin tip.

I learnt on a 2011 quad fin. Hated it.
Best thing i ever did was upgrade to tri fin.

Its all personal prefference imo.

get a full race board, don't waste the money on other halfway boards then put the time in learning how to ride it well. It takes a bit of time on the water, but worth it.

gotta know your ride intimately.
Lot of differences between these halfway house boards and the real deal.

good luck and hope to see you on the water some day.

Cheers
Dale

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Caney said...
Get a good race board. Buy some nice fins. Then spend 15 hours learning to stay on the board.
then Spend another 200 hours learning the advanced-(gybing/Tacking/pointing/Control down wind)
Dont bother with a sector. Unless you cant ride twin tip.

I learnt on a 2011 quad fin. Hated it.
Best thing i ever did was upgrade to tri fin.

Its all personal prefference imo.

There is also the cost factor , ~$1200 compared to ~$2-3K for a race board with proper fins . V3 sectors also have tri fin config and the 66 is even closer to a full on raceboard .

Hey Ken,

Pretty much everyone currently racing is on a 70cm wide 2012 board or newer with 42cm front fins and a 38cm back fin (+/- 1cm). Older boards were narrower and used smaller fins (usually 4) and possibly a different technique to ride. Board shapes now are all becoming pretty similar due to the box rule and I think we will only see minor changes in board design going forward.

If your going to put some time into it I would highly recommend getting your hands on a second hand 2012 designed race board. If you have the option I wouldn't waste your time on stock fins either as you will inevitably upgrade them to nice fins. I started on the 2012 188LX Cab board (designed in 2011) and learnt fine. I upgraded to the 2012 North board with nice fins and regret not starting out on that set up as it is much easier to ride and faster as its a newer design.

If you persevere through the first 5-10 hours of falling and feeling like a newbie you'll have alot of fun :D

This is not the same answer for everyone.
Depends on kiting or sailing experience, commitment to train regularly, if your typically fast or slow at picking up new sports etc.

If you have no kiting experience I would recommend a sector style board or twin tip and two or three kites, this will get you going for the first 6 months or so in most wind conditions and the boards will have reasonable resale.

If you allready know how to kite and are committed to putting in some serious training then get at least a 2012 700 wide board with good fins, after 2 or 3 months you will want to be hitting the course, getting any less capable board is just slowing down your progress towards what you want to achieve.

If you are a slow learner and or cant get much time to practice get a sector or twin tip and progress from there.

After it is all said and done there is only one option atm to win around a course.
That is a 2012 70cm wide 3 fin board
Fins from one of the specialist fin makers at around 42 to 44 for front and about 38 to 41 for the center
And race orientated kites.
If anyone is winning on any other board then the other racers they are up against are not yet up to speed

PS: I have a 2012 north board for sale, same as what Florien won sail Melbourne on

I have similar questions to orrock27, but I am interested in what would be a good design, so that the down wind tack is not so tricky? I totally get the design set at present to allow the up wind advantage. It seems not that long ago (maybe 10 years) the windsurfing formula boards had a similar shape (apart from fin set up of course) relatively short and fat.
Same problem existed with those fanging along downwind. One, the fin would lift you of the water, and then the wind would get under the board and elevate you even further. Next thing you know you'de catch an edge and its all over.
Questions: getting back to kite raceboards

Is there a fin set up (tri or whatever) suited to upwind?
Is there a fin set up more suited to a predominantly down wind race?
Why are the more recent race boards thicker with more volume?
If there was an endless pit of money at your disposal, what board would you want?

husa, the tri fin setup is there for upwind, you are basically using the rear fin to ride off and you side fins act as centreboards, from the testing that we have done on the lake (this is just personal feel) that the more cant on the fins the more the board will lift out of the water and "foil" if you will and making it easier to rail upwind and get plaining quicker but at a trade off of being harder to sail downwind with the same result "foiling" and making it a hell of a lot easier to trip over yourself. so less cant should in theory (and i think ric tested this out) make downwind sailing a great deal easier.

Florien won sail Melbourne on 0 degree cant fins i believe and he was quick in every direction.

the specialist fin company will ask what board you have and recommend the fins for you that they believe are the best suited although everyone has a different feel, we trained yesterday and tried 3 different fin setups on north 2012 boards and all 3 were completely different, none bad but different to ride.

endless pit of $$$ you would try them all and find one that your comfortable and fast with. There has been great results from the mikes lab custom boards although you put those good guys on anything and they would be fast. Florien smashed it on a North '69 2012 out here in Aus so most of the top brands are punching out good boards, the new rule of min 5.5kg will hopefully force builders to make 100% carbon hence extending life of the boards.

Hey guys,

My opinion is that if you want to race then your best bet is to get on a raceboard as soon as possible and get used to riding it.

One of the really key things to going fast around the course is riding the fins and using the leeward (downwind) rail of the board.

Using a Sector or similar slalom type boards don't get you doing this since they ride upwind on the windward (upwind) rail of the board.

The three fin boards are definitely the way to go since they are much more stable going downwind fast. The quad fin boards were arguably faster upwind but that didn't last long and three fins is pretty much all that we see at the racing these days.

orrock27 and husa, since you are both in Victoria, maybe drop in to SHQ. We have quite a few good options including the a few examples of those "if money was no object" boards, and some good in-between options as well.

Definitely come down to the racing at Brighton and/or Sandringham one of these Sundays. You don't need a race board to participate since we run a reaching course for twin-tips and surfboards as well as the upwind-downwind course for the raceboards.

Hope to see you on the water soon.

Definately the full race board.
3 fins is the only way to go.

Start on something second hand, with average fins just to get used to riding. Once you are up and riding and starting to tack then look at bigger and better fins.
Come down to Sandringham Yacht Club this weekend we have our first race of the season. Even if you dont race it is a good opportunity to get to know other racers and check out the different board possibilities.

Hope to see you there, briefing is at 1pm in the Off The Beach clubhouse at SYC.


PS. I also am looking to upgrade my board so an Airush Monaro V4 is for sale.

I agree with those saying just get a proper 70cm wide 3 fin raceboard asap. They ride VERY differently to even a Sector, so if your ultimate goal is to race the sooner you start on a proper race board the better.

If you want the learning curve to be easier, just look for flat water days and don't ride overpowered. A raceboard is still easier and more fun to ride than any other type of board in 10-12 knots! Just make sure there is enough wind to relaunch your kite and you will be flying on the race board!

Get used to spending a lot of time in the water turning your board around until you can tack (or gybe which is much easier). Get some tips from a racer and you will save hours of trying to ride the board the wrong way.

One of the competitive guys in Melb learnt to kitesurf on a raceboard. Obviously kitesurfing experience helps, but its more a matter of different style than harder board to ride in most conditions.

be patient and enjoy learning something new. Start now and regardless as to how good a kiter you are you will be crashing, but in a month or 2 you will be going as fast as the board can take you.

You are lucky that there are plenty of reasonably new, current style / model boards for sale very cheap at present (because those of us that got into racing last year are addicted and keep buying new boards!). The truth is though that a very good rider could probably win races on any of these boards. Buy any raceboard with cheap fins and then buy good fins as soon as you smash a few reefs and learn where they are.

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wdric said...

After it is all said and done there is only one option atm to win around a course.
That is a 2012 70cm wide 3 fin board
Fins from one of the specialist fin makers at around 42 to 44 for front and about 38 to 41 for the center

Ok boys ....nice thread
So does size matter😜

What does the length have to do with - the rider or the conditions?

What length would you suggest to start on

Hey allano,

Fin size depends mainly for most riders at the moment on rider weight. If you weigh 90 kgs+ then I would say go for around 44/41 if your light like me (65kgs) then 41.5/38 is probably the go.

I am currently at the course racing event in Africa and the top guys have a quiver of fins which they test and change depending on the conditions I gather, but as far as I know all the Aussies at this stage just have one set for everything :)

The top fin companies like Tectonics will recommend a cant (angle of the front fins) depending on which board you have as it changes a little bit.