I am seeking advice about choosing new booms. Ive been using alloy booms and there old and been used haaaard and I want to change to carbon booms before they break on me but there's is so many to choose from and i don't understand all the differences between them, slalom/race/course etc. I always sail recreationally on flat water no racing, and I have a 255L mistral prodigy board, a starboard formula and a thommen 130L slalom/freeride and all my sails are ezzy cheetahs and I don't need adjustable outhaul. I want to make sure I make the right choice the first time cause these carbon booms aren't cheap .Any advice would be much appreciated.

The sail sizes you use is in part going to dictate what variety boom you get. They tend to align the boom shapes with length (i doubt you'll ever find a wave boom that goes to 250). I'd say you'll probably be after a slalom shape.
Most booms have an outhaul cleat on them if an adjustable outhaul doesnt interest you, but they are good to have later if you stray into speed sailing or racing.

best option really is to wonder into a shop, see what they've got in the way of carbon booms, im sure the sales assistant will be able to help you out with advice on what to buy too.

The boom needs to be long enough to fit your sails preferably not at max extent. It should also be wide enough to allow the sail to bag out and not bent over the arms. Touching is fine. Wave are narrowest and formula widest. Free ride & slalom in between. Small booms will have narrower grips and larger boom larger grips. All will have a clamp front with RDM shim. Clew ends will have pulley system adj OH compatibility or built in or a simply and effective loop & hook type arrangement.
if you like you existing boom try to match it in shape & size or go and look at as many as you can in shops one on location. Listen to the salesman and decide if what is said suits you or come back here and ask.
what size adjustment do you need? Or what's you kit's range?
me-NP 160-220 wave with twin cam sails. I prefer it's narrow grip. If it could be set up with Adj OH that would be great, but it can't. I'm getting another one. My smallest 140-190 alloy. Use it once a yr.

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Subsonic said..
The sail sizes you use is in part going to dictate what variety boom you get. They tend to align the boom shapes with length (i doubt you'll ever find a wave boom that goes to 250). I'd say you'll probably be after a slalom shape.
Most booms have an outhaul cleat on them if an adjustable outhaul doesnt interest you, but they are good to have later if you stray into speed sailing or racing.

best option really is to wonder into a shop, see what they've got in the way of carbon booms, im sure the sales assistant will be able to help you out with advice on what to buy too.

Thanks for the advice that's a start for me. Only problem with going to a shop is there's bugger all around here. Im in NSW and I source most of my gear from your neck of the woods in WA believe it or not. I will ring Mark at surf sail they have a good selection.

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BSN101 said..
The boom needs to be long enough to fit your sails preferably not at max extent. It should also be wide enough to allow the sail to bag out and not bent over the arms. Touching is fine. Wave are narrowest and formula widest. Free ride & slalom in between. Small booms will have narrower grips and larger boom larger grips. All will have a clamp front with RDM shim. Clew ends will have pulley system adj OH compatibility or built in or a simply and effective loop & hook type arrangement.
if you like you existing boom try to match it in shape & size or go and look at as many as you can in shops one on location. Listen to the salesman and decide if what is said suits you or come back here and ask.
what size adjustment do you need? Or what's you kit's range?
me-NP 160-220 wave with twin cam sails. I prefer it's narrow grip. If it could be set up with Adj OH that would be great, but it can't. I'm getting another one. My smallest 140-190 alloy. Use it once a yr.

Fairly narrow sail range. 95% of the time using either 7.0 with 212cm outhaul or 8.5 with 232cm outhaul so 200cm-260cm would be good I could use that with both sails. Board crazy has has severne enigma on sale at the moment for 899 but the biggest they have is 190-240 that's a bit close to full stretch for my 8.5 at 232cm and the cheetahs are a camless flatwater sail so there not a very deep cambered profile so shouldn't need a really wide boom

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mob dog said..

BSN101 said..
The boom needs to be long enough to fit your sails preferably not at max extent. It should also be wide enough to allow the sail to bag out and not bent over the arms. Touching is fine. Wave are narrowest and formula widest. Free ride & slalom in between. Small booms will have narrower grips and larger boom larger grips. All will have a clamp front with RDM shim. Clew ends will have pulley system adj OH compatibility or built in or a simply and effective loop & hook type arrangement.
if you like you existing boom try to match it in shape & size or go and look at as many as you can in shops one on location. Listen to the salesman and decide if what is said suits you or come back here and ask.
what size adjustment do you need? Or what's you kit's range?
me-NP 160-220 wave with twin cam sails. I prefer it's narrow grip. If it could be set up with Adj OH that would be great, but it can't. I'm getting another one. My smallest 140-190 alloy. Use it once a yr.

Fairly narrow sail range. 95% of the time using either 7.0 with 212cm outhaul or 8.5 with 232cm outhaul so 200cm-260cm would be good I could use that with both sails. Board crazy has has severne enigma on sale at the moment for 899 but the biggest they have is 190-240 that's a bit close to full stretch for my 8.5 at 232cm and the cheetahs are a camless flatwater sail so there not a very deep cambered profile so shouldn't need a really wide boom

240 is fine & Enigmas are great booms too. But thats a huge boom, my 8.2 is 219cm boom. Its a large Slalom, Formula size even. Big booms are wide.

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mob dog said..
Fairly narrow sail range. 95% of the time using either 7.0 with 212cm outhaul or 8.5 with 232cm outhaul so 200cm-260cm would be good I could use that with both sails. Board crazy has has severne enigma on sale at the moment for 899 but the biggest they have is 190-240 that's a bit close to full stretch for my 8.5 at 232cm and the cheetahs are a camless flatwater sail so there not a very deep cambered profile so shouldn't need a really wide boom

The 190-240 should be fine. You're still 8 cm below max extension, and boom manufacturers generally say it's ok to use the boom at max extension. I'd perhaps worry about getting close to max extension when trying to hold down the largest possible sail in racing , but for freeriding, I never really noticed a difference when using my 8.5 (outhaul 226 cm) with a boom that maxes out at 226 cm or a larger 200-260 boom.

The comments here are good. Two more issues about booms.

1. Bite the bullet and get carbon. They don't corrode like alloy will. They are light. And they are STIFF. For sails bigger than about a 6.5 the stiffness matters a lot. If you pump your sail or sail in highly variable wind a stiff boom will hold the sail's shape better. This makes it easier to tune the sail and keep it tuned on the water.

2. Almost all sails today respond well to adjustable outhaul. All booms have a cleat for a fixed outhaul, but most now also have the rollers or the sliding holes for adjustable outhaul. I will not sail without AO since it is so useful for tuning the sail on the water when the conditions change (which they always do).

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segler said..
The comments here are good. Two more issues about booms.

1. Bite the bullet and get carbon. They don't corrode like alloy will. They are light. And they are STIFF. For sails bigger than about a 6.5 the stiffness matters a lot. If you pump your sail or sail in highly variable wind a stiff boom will hold the sail's shape better. This makes it easier to tune the sail and keep it tuned on the water.

2. Almost all sails today respond well to adjustable outhaul. All booms have a cleat for a fixed outhaul, but most now also have the rollers or the sliding holes for adjustable outhaul. I will not sail without AO since it is so useful for tuning the sail on the water when the conditions change (which they always do).

Good point I've been sailing for nearly 17 years now probably time to try adjustable outhaul. My technical knowledge is limited on AO however(I'm in remote location not many others to question on these matters I've learnt by trial and error) Ive always just stuck to more outhaul for strong wind and less outhaul for light wind. Is it also used for sailing at different angles to the wind? do you adjust it when on a deep reach or going upwind etc. One of the things I love about windsurfing is there's always more you can learn, and I'm always looking for things to try to improve my sailing.

If your quick there's a nice one behind a red bin in the shrubs