Anyone have experience with both the Wizard 114 and the Freestyle 115 in a variety of conditions ie flat/swell/waves?

What would be the pro's/con's of one against the other?

Cheers

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They are both great boards.

Wizard pros
Gets going a little easier as wider in tail
Easier to gybe as sail to foil distance a bit further apart
Handles bigger sails better as can stand out on wide tail

Freestyle pro

Old one has Tuttle option, new one has long tracks

Slightly easier to uphaul as mast base further back

Handles swell better because the geometry is more compact (sail closer to foil)

The above day was some of the biggest wind swell i have ridden in, and my freestyle was out of commission so i rode my wizard. I struggled to use my body weight to angle the board down the wave face and was breaching a lot. I felt the freestyle would of handled those conditions much better. But at that time my wizard was set up for more flat water so i could of improved it's ability in swell by altering strap position so that the mast and foil would of been closer together, so you can definitely set up your wizard so it rides more like the freestyle.

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No idea why my post was like that lol

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thedoor said..

No idea why my post was like that lol

Wow, that's some huge swell.

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thedoor said..


Handles swell better because the geometry is more compact (sail closer to foil)

The above day was some of the biggest wind swell i have ridden in, and my freestyle was out of commission so i rode my wizard. I struggled to use my body weight to angle the board down the wave face and was breaching a lot. I felt the freestyle would of handled those conditions much better. But at that time my wizard was set up for more flat water so i could of improved it's ability in swell by altering strap position so that the mast and foil would of been closer together, so you can definitely set up your wizard so it rides more like the freestyle.

That's wild. I have only been in conditions like that with a fin and I was quite a bit over my head in skill level.


By the way, if you run into the excess quote box thing you can edit the post with the plain text editor toggle at the top, and delete all the quote and /quote tags to clean it up. You may have to hunt around to find them all.

I think one of the most important things to know though is thedoor sold the Wizard and uses the Freestyle as his daily driver.

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BullroarerTook said..
I think one of the most important things to know though is thedoor sold the Wizard and uses the Freestyle as his daily driver.

The second to know is that he lives in a consistently windy spot.

Not taking anything away from thedoor's video but adding to it: insane swell Lanzarote Challenge a few months back - swell footage starts around 0:22

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aeroegnr said..

thedoor said..


Handles swell better because the geometry is more compact (sail closer to foil)

The above day was some of the biggest wind swell i have ridden in, and my freestyle was out of commission so i rode my wizard. I struggled to use my body weight to angle the board down the wave face and was breaching a lot. I felt the freestyle would of handled those conditions much better. But at that time my wizard was set up for more flat water so i could of improved it's ability in swell by altering strap position so that the mast and foil would of been closer together, so you can definitely set up your wizard so it rides more like the freestyle.

That's wild. I have only been in conditions like that with a fin and I was quite a bit over my head in skill level.


By the way, if you run into the excess quote box thing you can edit the post with the plain text editor toggle at the top, and delete all the quote and /quote tags to clean it up. You may have to hunt around to find them all.

Cheers but can't seem to find the edit button lol

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thedoor said..

aeroegnr said..

thedoor said..


Handles swell better because the geometry is more compact (sail closer to foil)

The above day was some of the biggest wind swell i have ridden in, and my freestyle was out of commission so i rode my wizard. I struggled to use my body weight to angle the board down the wave face and was breaching a lot. I felt the freestyle would of handled those conditions much better. But at that time my wizard was set up for more flat water so i could of improved it's ability in swell by altering strap position so that the mast and foil would of been closer together, so you can definitely set up your wizard so it rides more like the freestyle.

That's wild. I have only been in conditions like that with a fin and I was quite a bit over my head in skill level.


By the way, if you run into the excess quote box thing you can edit the post with the plain text editor toggle at the top, and delete all the quote and /quote tags to clean it up. You may have to hunt around to find them all.

Cheers but can't seem to find the edit button lol

Yeah they give you like half an hour? Then you can't edit it

I've only ever used the Wizard 114. I sail open ocean and breaking waves- quite often light wind. The wide tail aids in early lift, but then also gives that leverage to get further out on the wider tail to push even higher up wind. I haven't found the wide tail gets in the way on the wave too much, but maybe the freestyle would be a touch better there and slimmer nose shape also. but I imagine having the wide shape is a game changer when trying to uphaul in open ocean and breaking waves. Although the freestyle is a bit longer and a bit wider, so maybe that helps with stability. If I sailed in consistent stronger wind where I didn't have to bother with uphauling then Yeah I'd definitely consider the Freestyle. I do really love how the slots come right out the back of the board without having to completely undo the bolts though on the V2 freestyle and the addition of carry handle underneath.. Now that's it's got me thinking

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bigdaz said..
I've only ever used the Wizard 114. I sail open ocean and breaking waves- quite often light wind. The wide tail aids in early lift, but then also gives that leverage to get further out on the wider tail to push even higher up wind. I haven't found the wide tail gets in the way on the wave too much, but maybe the freestyle would be a touch better there and slimmer nose shape also. but I imagine having the wide shape is a game changer when trying to uphaul in open ocean and breaking waves. Although the freestyle is a bit longer and a bit wider, so maybe that helps with stability. If I sailed in consistent stronger wind where I didn't have to bother with uphauling then Yeah I'd definitely consider the Freestyle. I do really love how the slots come right out the back of the board without having to completely undo the bolts though on the V2 freestyle and the addition of carry handle underneath.. Now that's it's got me thinking

Yes would love to have a bottom handle on my 114 even thought about retrofitting one but there is lots of V right we're it needs to go and I think the freestyle 115 has a sandwich bottom and the Wizard is only sandwich construction on top.

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KDog said..

bigdaz said..
I've only ever used the Wizard 114. I sail open ocean and breaking waves- quite often light wind. The wide tail aids in early lift, but then also gives that leverage to get further out on the wider tail to push even higher up wind. I haven't found the wide tail gets in the way on the wave too much, but maybe the freestyle would be a touch better there and slimmer nose shape also. but I imagine having the wide shape is a game changer when trying to uphaul in open ocean and breaking waves. Although the freestyle is a bit longer and a bit wider, so maybe that helps with stability. If I sailed in consistent stronger wind where I didn't have to bother with uphauling then Yeah I'd definitely consider the Freestyle. I do really love how the slots come right out the back of the board without having to completely undo the bolts though on the V2 freestyle and the addition of carry handle underneath.. Now that's it's got me thinking

Yes would love to have a bottom handle on my 114 even thought about retrofitting one but there is lots of V right we're it needs to go and I think the freestyle 115 has a sandwich bottom and the Wizard is only sandwich construction on top.

Yeah, I'd love the handle, I really struggled getting out of the shore break yesterday. it's so awkward.

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bigdaz said..
I've only ever used the Wizard 114. I sail open ocean and breaking waves- quite often light wind. The wide tail aids in early lift, but then also gives that leverage to get further out on the wider tail to push even higher up wind. I haven't found the wide tail gets in the way on the wave too much, but maybe the freestyle would be a touch better there and slimmer nose shape also. but I imagine having the wide shape is a game changer when trying to uphaul in open ocean and breaking waves. Although the freestyle is a bit longer and a bit wider, so maybe that helps with stability. If I sailed in consistent stronger wind where I didn't have to bother with uphauling then Yeah I'd definitely consider the Freestyle. I do really love how the slots come right out the back of the board without having to completely undo the bolts though on the V2 freestyle and the addition of carry handle underneath.. Now that's it's got me thinking

I know i have a much easier time uphauling my freestyle than my baby shredsled. More central mast foot seems more important than width.



Edit :) Bottom handle is great though

So what could handle a larger sail ? I used to have a freestyle (V1). and used to uphaul a 7.0 on it. A bit tricky in choppy water.but doable. Foiling with 7.0 was ok..but outside the sweet spot with 76infinity.

A lot of boards can handle a 7.0, but if you want a Slingshot board that can do it I would recommend the Wizard 130.

As a counterpoint to the discussion above, Greg G has tried both the Wizard and Freestyle and prefers the Wizard. He doesn't keep the masts quite as close together as thedoor though.

Freestyle 115 is my daily driver, freestyle 87 is used on better days. No problem uphauling or slogging out to the wind line on the 115. Very loose and free feeling. For me the wizard feels stiffer- not as free carving on the foil and also with the mast track so far forward is a bit awkward to uphaul. With more volume aft, it it a bit easier to get going but with good techniques the freestyle gets up early, too. I am just under 90kg.

This is a 6.5 on the freestyle 115 so it can be done but if you intend to run big sails consistently I think you need something wide in the back.



Here is that same 6.5 on a foil ready slalom board Still not wide enough in the back to power up the sail



Here is the 6.5 on an old wizard which works better but straps are too inboard for race style foiling

If you live in the US ,wizard and freestyle are on sale as the new models have arrived new wizard gets a color change and a bottom handle plus tracks out the back otherwise same board.The freestyle looks to be just a color change temped to go for 115 freestyle or just keep my 114 wizard

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KDog said..
If you live in the US ,wizard and freestyle are on sale as the new models have arrived new wizard gets a color change and a bottom handle plus tracks out the back otherwise same board.The freestyle looks to be just a color change temped to go for 115 freestyle or just keep my 114 wizard

Also should be a change to the construction. Handle on the bottom and tracks out the back were also on last year's boards (v3 wizard and v2 freestyle)

And yes, last year's have been discounted for the past few months. And there are a few v1 freestyle boards that are a real bargain.

I have the wizard130...... but looking to sell and get the wiz114 or go back to the freestyle 115. just the wizard being 66cm wide gets me a little worried. where the freestyle 115 is 71cm . or does the tail width make a big difference. I think the tail is narrower on the freestyle compared to the 114 wizard. I am trying to sell my 7.0flyer. my biggest sail would eventually be a 6.3 freek(reg).

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skyking1231 said..
I have the wizard130...... but looking to sell and get the wiz114 or go back to the freestyle 115. just the wizard being 66cm wide gets me a little worried. where the freestyle 115 is 71cm . or does the tail width make a big difference. I think the tail is narrower on the freestyle compared to the 114 wizard. I am trying to sell my 7.0flyer. my biggest sail would eventually be a 6.3 freek(reg).

Biggest sail I run on my 114 is a 5.0 wave sail but I live in a windy place never felt like 66cm was to narrow.Yes I think that wide tail makes it able to carry bigger sails.Really no complaints with the 114 other than would like the mast track further back and footstraps to be in between were they are now.

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skyking1231 said..
I have the wizard130...... but looking to sell and get the wiz114 or go back to the freestyle 115. just the wizard being 66cm wide gets me a little worried. where the freestyle 115 is 71cm . or does the tail width make a big difference. I think the tail is narrower on the freestyle compared to the 114 wizard. I am trying to sell my 7.0flyer. my biggest sail would eventually be a 6.3 freek(reg).

Got the Freestyle 87, Wizard 90 and Wizard 114
I think the W114 is in reality 108-110L

Wider tails help with upwind speed, gybing and downwinding (backfoot on leeward rail).
I use a 6.5m on the W114 - and down to 2.8m

The mast track placement on the W114 is fine for me, in 25 knot plus winds I move the mastbase forward to the centre.
Footstraps in outside positions.
If you chase speed in rough conditions I don't think the inboard/close-together footstrap/mast base geometry is optimum.

The narrow tail F87 looks the best of the 3 boards

slingshot just got back to me about similar question. and of course they say both boards will work with a 7.0 sail. (I would insert 'roll eyes' smiley face...but don't see one).

one more question. which is easier up hauling 115 freestyle.....or 114 wizard with say a 5.7m sail ?

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skyking1231 said..
slingshot just got back to me about similar question. and of course they say both boards will work with a 7.0 sail. (I would insert 'roll eyes' smiley face...but don't see one).

one more question. which is easier up hauling 115 freestyle.....or 114 wizard with say a 5.7m sail ?

My recollection is the freestyle is a little easier to uphaul cause of the masttrack being more central, but not a massive difference

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skyking1231 said..
slingshot just got back to me about similar question. and of course they say both boards will work with a 7.0 sail. (I would insert 'roll eyes' smiley face...but don't see one).

one more question. which is easier up hauling 115 freestyle.....or 114 wizard with say a 5.7m sail ?

Fyi
I've only been on the 114. My biggest sail is a 5.2.
Like the door said, the nose is short, so takes some getting used to. But once up it's sloggalbe for exteded period You just have to be aware of getting your weight back quickly or the wide nose will go under and submarine. You could certainly use a larger sail, just gets trickier in slogging conditions/tacking. I like it for the wide tail/ foot
Strap positions for carving up wind.

uggggg..... can't decide .

Just took delivery of a v3 freestyle 115. Pretty stoked. Longer foil tracks than my v1 should allow the use of the 710 phantasm fuselage in place of the 872 without having excessive back foot pressure. I am running the mast track all the way back and the foil tracks pretty close the the front with the v1 board and the 872, so nice to have the additional tuning range.

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skyking1231 said..
uggggg..... can't decide .

if you haven't got your foiling gybes down I would go with a wizard

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thedoor said..

skyking1231 said..
uggggg..... can't decide .

if you haven't got your foiling gybes down I would go with a wizard

Agree with thedoor
The extra width in the tail of the Wizard makes gybing easier

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2keen said..

thedoor said..

skyking1231 said..
uggggg..... can't decide .

if you haven't got your foiling gybes down I would go with a wizard

Agree with thedoor
The extra width in the tail of the Wizard makes gybing easier

And the lack of nose volume on the wizard makes tacking harder...

If it helps, I find the wizard to be easier. More stable, Less sensitive and less responsive -like it has an autopilot. It still responds, but you need to be a bit more deliberate. The freestyle is freer/less stable -much more responsive and demands more of the rider, but also very rewarding to those with skills.
It also seems that lighter riders seem to gravitate to the wizard.