I have seen a few people in the past asking about this product and having been bought one for Christmas I thought I would give a bit of feedback in case anyone else was considering one.

About me: Beginner/intermediate freeride only, learning to get my jumps higher.

The claims:
Get rid of your leash. Flips the board over and makes it sail downwind to you.

How it performs:
Flips your board over and makes it drift downwind to you (fairly quickly).
Makes your board a lot more visible in the water.
Adds buoyancy to your board (not necessarily a good thing)
I can kite longer as it saves me a bit of energy body dragging back up wind.

My comments:
I have only really had 2 situations whilst kitesurfing where I had trouble retrieving my board. Once after a poor landing where I crashed the kite and got dragged 50m downwind whilst relaunching and another time when I fell off in a some chop and struggle due to the breaking chop to get back up wind. The Go Joe would have really helped in both situations. It flips the board right side up and makes the board drift downwind very well. Too well maybe in windy conditions as during testing I always needed to go downwind to recover my board.

It fits very quickly and easily to the grab handle of a regular twin tip (Shinn gintronic in my case) so could be easily removed and refitted depending on the wind conditions / your intended session. It looks a bit weird at first but you don't really notice once you start riding.
I did notice it rub against my calf a little whilst riding upwind but otherwise it was fairly transparent once on the go. Not so much when starting out. The added floatation made getting the board onto your feet a good deal more awkward. With the added float you can no longer just pull the board onto your feet and you need to crouch up tighter and wiggle your feet into the straps more. I suspect I would get used to it over time but it does need a change of technique.
I didn't have a chance to compare light wind performance but I suspect the extra float 'might' help through lulls?

Overall:
Ideally suited to beginners whom I suspect may never take it off. After testing, I can't think why you would even think of a leash using a twin tip regardless of skill level. Is it for everyone? Maybe. The less you crash and the easier the conditions to recover your board the less it makes a case for itself. Personally if I'm not crashing every two minutes I feel I'm wasting my session as I'm not pushing myself to learn new stuff.
The price here is priced towards the type of thing you might put on a gift list for your birthday if you can't think of anything else.

I can't see anyone picking the board up to bring it back to me with this thing on in the future though.

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weebitbreezy said...
I can't see anyone picking the board up to bring it back to me with this thing on in the future though.

Funny you say that! 2 weeks ago I watched a bloke about 400m off quinns come off his board and about 10min later i noticed him body dragging back to the beach...

I eventually found it, grabbed it and noticed it had a go joe. It was still inflated and upside down in the water...

These things do help whilst learning, and work 99% of the time as they are intended to do.

Cheaper options:
1. Buy an inner-tube for a wheel-barrow tyre, remove board handle, slip tube under handle and replace handle, inflate tube.
2. Something smaller - use childrens' arm floatie - you know the orange ones that kids wear on their arms? Install as above.

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LostDog said...
These things do help whilst learning, and work 99% of the time as they are intended to do.

Cheaper options:
1. Buy an inner-tube for a wheel-barrow tyre, remove board handle, slip tube under handle and replace handle, inflate tube.
2. Something smaller - use childrens' arm floatie - you know the orange ones that kids wear on their arms? Install as above.

Even cheaper , learn to body drag properly, products like these are lazy options, learning to body drag improves kite skills, especially when you use one arm as drag,if you don't learn you'll not know how, so 1/2/3 years later you'll still risk losing your board, do the hard yakka you'll be rewarded

Reminds me of Ocean Rodeo Gay Joe. Anyone seen him down at the beach? Flamboyant cowboy fella.

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cauncy said..

LostDog said...
These things do help whilst learning, and work 99% of the time as they are intended to do.

Cheaper options:
1. Buy an inner-tube for a wheel-barrow tyre, remove board handle, slip tube under handle and replace handle, inflate tube.
2. Something smaller - use childrens' arm floatie - you know the orange ones that kids wear on their arms? Install as above.

Even cheaper , learn to body drag properly, products like these are lazy options, learning to body drag improves kite skills, especially when you use one arm as drag,if you don't learn you'll not know how, so 1/2/3 years later you'll still risk losing your board, do the hard yakka you'll be rewarded

Agreed Cauncy, the rewards do come.

BUT think back to most things that you've done that require multiple inputs at once... it's easier if you break it down into smaller components. In this case, kite control, keeping your head above water, angle of body for upwind drag, understanding the wind window, nerves, etc, etc.. Eliminating the need to master all at once can assist you greatly with learning the skills.