Has anyone who isn't a sponsored rider paddled either of these two boards yet and can give their impressions of them in relation to other boards?

The new Falcon looks like a useful evolution of the 2016 one, and the Strike-2 looks nothing much like the old Strike, looking much more suited to a wide range of conditions rather than just being a flat water specialist.

But there's a limit to what you can tell by just looking at a board. I wasn't impressed by the 2016 12-6, Falcon although I rather liked the 2015 14fter - at least for downwinding. Last years' narrower 14fter looked to be pretty tippy. Has this year's slightly wider tail helped stability much?

I bought the 24.75 2017 Falcon a couple of months ago and love it. It's actually quite a good all around board. I could only afford 1 board so I wanted something that was versatile. I love downwinding and also paddle on the flat. At 86kg the 24.75 is a little tippy for my ability in big ocean swells, however, for most ocean conditions I encounter it is stable enough. It catches bumps very easily (like the ACE) and surprisingly has been good as a flat water board as well. Obviously it's not competitive against something like the Starboard sprint but I wasn't after that type of board.

At the demo I went to they did have both the 2017 and 2016 Strike. There was a huge difference in stability. From memory the new model has a less dramatic nose and a flatter bottom. I could easily paddle the new model but not the old one. I didn't get it as I want something to ride bumps. A mate of mine did get the wider Strike and he finds it very fast in the flat and is also downwinding on it on large lake downwinders.

The new falcon is pretty stable.

Cheers 2222222, that's very helpful. Have you tried surfing your Falcon?

I have been demoing flatwater boards to upgrade to, and tried both the 2016 and 2017 14 x 24 wide strikes. I found the 2016 very twitchy and did not have enough stability for me to paddle confidently at full effort (I am 5'11" and ~85kg). That being said it's a fast shape, and one of our local paddlers who is ~65kg is very fast on the board. The 2017 strike had much better initial and secondary stability, and the squared out bottom shape made it much better when stepping back. Liked it a lot.
FYI, other boards I tried included the 2016 14x23 wide starboard sprint, and the 2017 14x21.5 wide sprint. I found the 2017 more stable than the wider 2016, and I think the nose shape is also an improvement on an already fast board.

Thanks a lot for this information. How heavy was the Strike, and was the handle perfectly balanced? Did you get to see if in pure flat water the board trimmed best when you are actually standing level with the handle? I've begun to notice this sort of thing as an indicator of a well-sorted design. Cheers.

I carried the board to a flatwater demo spot (about 600m) and found it very light and balanced.That being said its one of the loop handles rather than a inset cut-out type handle. Standing on the board I was either side of the handle and it felt like the board was correctly trimmed. Will report more in 2-3 weeks when mine arrives

I'm interested in the 2017 Falcon and had a few questions for anyone who's tried one:

How much does the 2017 Falcon 14 x 24 weigh? The Fanatic site still says "TBD".

Is there any kind of grippy surface between the white deckpad in the middle and the black stomp pad in back? It's hard to know from the pictures, but they make it look like it might just be the regular painted surface, which I'd imagine would be pretty slick to move around on, especially on bumps when you need to get back a bit.

How "thick" is the Falcon, meaning how much rail or nose is there above waterline to catch side wind and chop?

Any other general impressions or comparisons to the 2016 All-star, SIC FX, or JL Sidewinder would be most appreciated!

Thanks,

BS

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BoardStiff said..
I'm interested in the 2017 Falcon and had a few questions for anyone who's tried one:

How much does the 2017 Falcon 14 x 24 weigh? The Fanatic site still says "TBD".

Is there any kind of grippy surface between the white deckpad in the middle and the black stomp pad in back? It's hard to know from the pictures, but they make it look like it might just be the regular painted surface, which I'd imagine would be pretty slick to move around on, especially on bumps when you need to get back a bit.

How "thick" is the Falcon, meaning how much rail or nose is there above waterline to catch side wind and chop?

Any other general impressions or comparisons to the 2016 All-star, SIC FX, or JL Sidewinder would be most appreciated!

Thanks,

BS

As far as weight, I'm not sure as i haven't weighed mine. Anyone who picks it up comments it's light or comparable to similar models.
Yes there is a grippy surface between the pads. it isn't the sand paper surface on last year's model but is more like the wet grip used on Starboard. It's certainly not as grippy as the deckpad and there have been a few times when I've stepped back and I've felt a little less confident in that area. Pretty quickly though my back foot has been on the rear deck pad and I've been fine.

I wouldn't say there's a significant amount of board above the waterline. It's not something that's ever concerned me or I've bothered to measure. It would be similar to other boards and significantly less than the dug out models.

I've ridden all the other models, however, as I ride for Fanatic I won't comment on the others. My advice is demo. Some of the opinions I read on Sea Breeze about various models often surprise me. My recommendation would be to demo as people commenting may not be as experienced as you, may be more experienced than you, may think they have more experience than they do or may be alighned to a particular brand. The variety of opinion is certainly worth considering but you're the best judge of each board under your foot.

Whereabouts do you live? A good retailer carrying all of those brands should be able to help. In Sydney, WindsurfNsnow carries all of those boards.

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NNSUP - Thanks for the info. Unfortunately demoing isn't an option where I live (New Hampshire, USA). Most shops nearby don't stock race/downwind boards, and the one an hour away that did (mostly SIC and Starboard) just closed this year. That's why I rely heavily on reviews that others provide, especially when they can make comparisons to boards I have been able to demo or am also thinking of gambling on without a demo. Otherwise I end up "demoing" by buying online, and selling used if it doesn't work out.

If you're not comfortably publicly comparing the Falcon to other boards given your association with the brand, I'd certainly appreciate if you'd PM me your thoughts on how it is better/worse/different than some of these other boards. An admittedly biased review can still be helpful where little other information is available.

BS

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BoardStiff said..
NNSUP - Thanks for the info. Unfortunately demoing isn't an option where I live (New Hampshire, USA). Most shops nearby don't stock race/downwind boards, and the one an hour away that did (mostly SIC and Starboard) just closed this year. That's why I rely heavily on reviews that others provide, especially when they can make comparisons to boards I have been able to demo or am also thinking of gambling on without a demo. Otherwise I end up "demoing" by buying online, and selling used if it doesn't work out.

If you're not comfortably publicly comparing the Falcon to other boards given your association with the brand, I'd certainly appreciate if you'd PM me your thoughts on how it is better/worse/different than some of these other boards. An admittedly biased review can still be helpful where little other information is available.

BS

Just saw your post and will PM you. I don't look at Sea Breeze that often so missed this. I'm actually happy to comment publicly but there's a few here who don't like team riders commenting