Quad and Thruster gone ? Replaced by new board Grip

So the brands are converging on offering 2 wave boards + a freewave? And looks like the non-stubby freewave is gone as well.

If so I think they will regret the stubby freewave. Its not for blasting like longer and narrower FSW's are....
Having said that, I'd like to get my hands on one for a go in onshore mush

Any idea yet on the "grip", board volumes, I've always like Fanatic boards, but what a stupid name !, they I think grip and think Velcro !!, not sick critical turns in the pocket !

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Nerdburger said..
Any idea yet on the "grip", board volumes, I've always like Fanatic boards, but what a stupid name !, they I think grip and think Velcro !!, not sick critical turns in the pocket !

Yeah agree with you...pretty lame name!

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Mark _australia said..
If so I think they will regret the stubby freewave. Its not for blasting like longer and narrower FSW's are....
Having said that, I'd like to get my hands on one for a go in onshore mush

The stubby freewaves are not that much shorter. Anyway, all boards are shorter now. Actually the longest boards now are also the widest - thin freemoves like the Gecko.

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Taken from Fanatic forums.




"Hi Guys,

without saying too much, obviously it?s one thing for photographers to post pics, but it?s our job to keep information offline till 1 July. but the board in question is not based on the quad, rather a Triwave influenced outline and a combination of the Quad/Tri bottom shape and rails - as a dedicated Triwave 81/82 rider for the last 5 years, I can say with 100% confidence that the new model is better than both of the previous Quad/Tri models, in a huge variety of conditions. First tests show same feedback from every rider, this was a project done over 3 yrs to get it right....just couple days to go and all details online, patience...

Good sailing,

Craig/Fanatic"

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Mark _australia said..
If so I think they will regret the stubby freewave. Its not for blasting like longer and narrower FSW's are....
Having said that, I'd like to get my hands on one for a go in onshore mush

I was toying up between a Tri-Wave and the Stubby in the 105 litre size. I read several reviews in different magazines not related to each other and they all came up with the same result. The Stubby is great for very specific condition but overall the Tri-waves better boards. They run more freely once on the plane, have a higher top speed, better drive in bottom turns, can handle bigger waves, get planing about the same.I ended up getting a used Tri-wave as that was all I could find.The outline of that Grip TE looks very similar to the Goya and JP wave boards. Would be interesting to see what the characteristics are. If they got rid of the Freewave and Tri-wave I think that will be a mistake on their part and they will probably loose sales to other brands.Just have a look what boards sell quickly on the used market and you'll know what people are after. Pure wave boards, especially in smaller sizes seem to sit on the market forever.

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windaddict said..
Quad and Thruster gone ? Replaced by new board Grip

Ahhh my pet Gripe not Grip. From the testing I did a few years ago on fin angles the front fin tow in angles need to be different to get the best performance out of a quad as compared to getting the best performance from a tri fin. Why do a five fin box board that will end up being mediocre?

They aren't easy on the eye

For maximum Grip, you need a big fin in all 5 boxes.

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Mastbender said..
For maximum Grip, you need a big fin in all 5 boxes.

You're not wrong. Wiser words was never spoke. Why do we have 5 fingers? Coz grip, that's why.

Fanatic Wave / Freestyle Boards are being released today, including videos on their You Tube channel.

Heres the free wave stb link:

Saw a couple of the boards today and look very nice, bit different too.

Alice looks very nice as usual

Interesting choice by Fanatic. They basically no longer offer any wave boards over 100 liters. I watched the Freewave video but noticed Sebastian particularly stays away from saying the board is for wave riding. They seem to position it as a transition board for people coming from a bigger free ride board. Will be interesting to see what the magazine reviews will say.

Grip and Stubby promo vid

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R1DER said..

Ahhh my pet Gripe not Grip. From the testing I did a few years ago on fin angles the front fin tow in angles need to be different to get the best performance out of a quad as compared to getting the best performance from a tri fin. Why do a five fin box board that will end up being mediocre?

Well the smallest comes with only 4 fin boxes, the biggest with only 3. The 3 sizes in-between have 5 boxes, but come set up as quads by default. I have a feeling that no-one will bother with setting them up as tri fins - the center box is there just because every other brand has 5 boxes. I guess the stubby is just the new Tri-wave, like the the stubby freewave replaced the old freewave.

On the Fanatic Forum, they confirm the grip 99, is the same as the tri wave 99 with the grip graffics, were the rest of the range with 4/5 fin boxes are the new shape.

I owned the stubby freewave 85 from 2017 and found it one of the nicest models yet. far superior for bump and jump sailing and entry wavesailing.
Having owned numerous freewaves pre stubby, i think this new shape wins overall.
if you want good upwind, very fast to plane and good entry level wave riding you cant beat them.
down here in Tassie we have a four 85 stubby freewaves on the water and everyone is stoked, one guy is passing on his 2016 77 litre freewave and upgrading to the stubby wave 78. must be happy then!
I would rate them higher for sure over the conventional freewaves,
Fanatic have a good reputation with board design, they do get it right.
Personally i had last years tri wave and now will go for stubby 89 wave.
for interest the grips volumes are much the same as last years tri waves,