Hello, need advice as im in the process of purchasing a new foil board. Was curently on a Tabou Air ride and was very disapointed with the quality of the construction ( board deck delamination, deck cracking, foil box cracking), so im looking to upgrade to a manufacturer with better owerall construction and quality controll. Looking at Patrick, FMX, Excoset and JP.
I have seen FMX boards in person and they are very well built. I have not seen any of the other three up close in person so any feedback would be much apreciated. I can get good deals on JP and Excoset but am a bit worried about the construction quality.

I have been happy with my Fanatics, now Duotone, but what kind of board do you want?

If you're looking for something durable, Flikka (many Horue board are Flikka made) is rock solid. All other brands I have seen are just about the same as their finboard construction, and they are not made to last. But I haven't seen all brand boards (MB board are really rare around here, never saw a single FMX board, Slingshot are unusual...)

My slingshot boards have been reliable just the odd nose ding. Always repair right away before too water gets in. No delams or finbox problems

Looking for 91 wide foil board as i mainly use bigger sails. Flika is an option but, they do not develop their foil boards much and i would still like to have a bit newer design. I guess most of the board that are made now are not meant to last but still some have better quality control, hence i asked for some feedback.

FMX: I have an FMX 91 and liked it so much I bought a second one.
Phantom: I recently got a second hand R mk2 85cm and it is V.Good. touch downs at higher speeds are less draggy.
StarBoard: The new X15 are a bit longer than the rest which can impact transport.


Manufacturing sites. I'll let others opine on the best factory.

Which ever one you get.... I encourage some nose protection!

Fanatic HRS: about bulletproof to me. I hope they didn't change when they switched to Duotone
Slingshot: Good, hope they keep making more boards
Starboard: mixed. My IQFoil held up to a lot more catapults of me getting used to big race gear than I would expect. However, my foilx leaks in a couple of places and their starlite (supposed to be simliar to fanatic/HRS) is not that durable and it took a lot of damage

Heard to many bad things about starboard build quality recently, so im kinda steering away from them. Phantom is also an option, will have to check. Unfortunately missed a really good deal on the fmx last year which im stil kinda bumed about ??

Starboard foil specifically? Or their rubbish fin boards? I don't see issues with starboard race boards, nor Patrik

starlite always has been an overuse of poor glass as it's the cheap alternative and they do say that.

JP is patchy as the old wood stuff was great, LXT is fragile so depends what you are looking at

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Mark _australia said..


JP is patchy as the old wood stuff was great, LXT is fragile so depends what you are looking at

Lol, they must have heard you Mark.
their Freefoil Range is now back to Wood .

2020:115 LXT 7.9kg 130 LXT 8.5kg
2021:105 LXT 7.9kg 115 LXT 8.3kg 130 LXT 8.8kg
2022:105 LXT 8.0kg 115 LXT 8.4kg130 LXT 8.9kg
2023:105 LXT 8.1kg 115 LXT 8.6kg 130 LXT 9.1kg
2024:115 Wood Pro 8.6kg 130 Wood Pro 9.1kg
2025:115 Wood Pro 8.6kg 130 Wood Pro 9.1kg

no idea about their normal foil range.
btw I can vouch for the LXT being fragile.

They didn't listen before when I showed a glaring issue and simple solution so it's just the cycle of life. watch for the ultralight pro edition 2026 and then here we are again.

My Severne Alien 155 has some flaking off the underwater paint but shows essentially no other damage after three years of fairly heavy and clumsy use. That is the more expensive construction than the similar 145, but it's still light and tight so far so may be worth the extra initial expense. Only 85 wide, though...

The best quality boards come out of the kinetic factory:
Fmx
Future Fly
AV boards
way better than anything that comes from cobra.

Earlier Patrik foil boards where also not from cobra and very good. Due to the war it changed I think. Haven't hear any bad things about their new boards. Earlier 91 from Patrik isn't very good for slalom style foiling. The footstrap position is not good.

I just got a FMX 91 from 2022 (new board, old stock), I am very impressed by the build quality. Also very happy with how good it is on the water.

Talked with our local Patrik rep and apparently all of the 2023 V2 foil boards were made in the EU/Ukraine. The 2024 V3 and the new 2025 boards are maid in cobra but with stricter quality control and special build process (supposedly).
Got a good deal on the 2023 Patrick foil comp 91 so will see how it will hold up

My V3 sligshot wizard has held up fine with lots of use. I don't know anything about board construction, but the paint is extremely thin and abraded off easily. This not like gel coat I'm used to on boats, so not sure how it is applied other than spray paint. Other than cosmetics, it's held up fine.

Got a Naish Micro 131 second hand in Jan 2021, used it 205 times, did 5655 kms and it is still going like the first day.

I have a Tribal foil board. Made in Thailand but not at Cobra. I am super impressed with the build quality....
But the board I use the most is a custom from Mark_OZ

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jksmurf said..

Mark _australia said..


JP is patchy as the old wood stuff was great, LXT is fragile so depends what you are looking at

Lol, they must have heard you Mark.
their Freefoil Range is now back to Wood .

2020:115 LXT 7.9kg 130 LXT 8.5kg
2021:105 LXT 7.9kg 115 LXT 8.3kg 130 LXT 8.8kg
2022:105 LXT 8.0kg 115 LXT 8.4kg130 LXT 8.9kg
2023:105 LXT 8.1kg 115 LXT 8.6kg 130 LXT 9.1kg
2024:115 Wood Pro 8.6kg 130 Wood Pro 9.1kg
2025:115 Wood Pro 8.6kg 130 Wood Pro 9.1kg

no idea about their normal foil range.
btw I can vouch for the LXT being fragile.

Both LXT and Wood Pro have PVC sandwich on the top and wood on the bottom. So whats the difference? 1 extra layer of glass on the wood pro, from what I can spot. And from the figures above, 2023 LXT is the same weight as the 2024 wood pro in 115l, assume the shape is the same.

My AHD Compact 83 survived my first 2 years in foiling. I did add some glass to the nose and a Unifiber nose protector. The paint chips, like most Cobra boards. With my AV fin board, the paint is far more resilient.

The front deck of the LXT from a couple of years ago is a 2mm sandwich of some weird foam. It seems to be a 2mm PE rather than normal 3mm PVC and it's a huge difference.
no wood. normal use makes it dent all over. It's astounding how fragile.

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Mark _australia said..
The front deck of the LXT from a couple of years ago is a 2mm sandwich of some weird foam. It seems to be a 2mm PE rather than normal 3mm PVC and it's a huge difference.
no wood. normal use makes it dent all over. It's astounding how fragile.

Correct. They added padding the year after .
Have to keep adding Solarez but eventually it'll need fixing properly by stripping it back and maybe adding a layer of 4oz glass and some non slip or EVA pads.

This is just from my daughter clambering up clumsily with a harness; wife can avoid it now. you can see the dents between the repairs.

the Duotone Dlab foil boards (2024 and later) are pretty solid too imho.