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charlieuk said..
i tried the carbon 12'6 x 24 javelin last week on a light ish down wind run (20knots) with a little flat water to start with. i have always liked the look of the board and after trying a few noise a year or two ago was expecting to love it. On the flat it felt fine it has a little wobble to it like you are standing on a very v shaped bottom and fairly high up to which surprised me as i though it would sit a little lower(I'm 78kg with a winter suit i would think) I have no gps data, the glide felt ok nothing amazing it liked to be fully power the hole time, if you slowed the speed dropped of fast.
Turning down wind was interesting, i realise its more of a flat water board than a dw board but normal they still perform well and with its shape i thought it should be some fun. The nose didn't mind going under and coming back up without any issues if it was straight however it did seam to have a mind of its on if it got stuck in cross chop. Very much like on the flat when the board is on plane it goes great and surfed well however it vey much seamed to have two speeds and if you couldn't get it to break fee it just kinda stuck there and you watched the swell go buy.
Expecting to love this board coming from naish i have to admit i wasn't blown away by this board, to me it was quite average and it didn't feel like any giant leap in design and that there were plenty of boards out there that felt just as good especially for the huge price tag that these fetch.
I would be keen to try and see how the maliko compares with its quite interesting shape and rails but it would have to feel like a totally different board to wow me over the javelin.
I would have like you to have a gps to verify the speeds. one of our paddlers had last years 12'6x 26" model and I can tell you he was as fast or close too as any of our world class paddlers in our training group.
planning type boards or even the much maligned dish nose boards can be deceptive because them aren't cutting like piercing bows.
its a interesting world the fw water scene. a planning hull will sprint faster then piercing but the trick with the planning hulls is to get a very good cruising speed.
planning hull types and their variations wash ride better hands down.
wash riding is such a factor in these races . the ability of a board to wash ride without using up energy trying to correct it or stop it diving off all over the place must be considered when purchasing a new board.
for someone like me. im not going to be in front but would be in the running in my age group, well I hope so, so a board that wash rides really well so I can hang onto to younger faster paddlers is what im after.
the maliko is a awesome wash rider in the flats but hard to make a break on someone if they have a dedicated fw racer
I would expect my new jav will be faster, wash ride well, but not as good as the maliko