Anyone checked out the new 2009 models on the website yet?

Gorgeous retro colours and new designs!

So they are different to the brown, grey and black? Great!

I'd never buy another NP sail, but I must admit they look sick this year.

What the matter with having a bit of pryde? After getting the right mast my RS6 is great and I really like my older RX2 too.


The race sails still have that dull colour scheme. Mr Pryde must have bought up the world's supply of grey and brown film and is now using it up. Hopefully by the 2010 year they will have run out.

Hopefully by 2010 they will also ditch the Euro-bling in most of their range and make tuff stuff

Hi Guys i've just discovered this site after a recommendation by a friend for the arrows wind graphs and have ventured into these forums.
I know this is a forum and all correspondence is allowed, But my first impression is that certain posters have an agenda to slag off brands that do not benefit their standing with Shops /Suppliers.

For example the guy above me with the finger in his nose.

Different strokes for different folks.

You'll quickly come to realise baldrick that an internet forum is a place of wildly differing opinions and generally a place of free speech so get used to it. Agendas free of charge upon entry :D

Don't worry too much about it Baldric. If you need a hand people here will be happy to help. However Internet forums are like the Monty Python sketch about arguments. Personally I believe the way Internet forums work, they magnify differences and encourage people to go out and attract attention.

A friend of mine who is into Minis (the old type) told me a story once about a Mini forum. He got into huge arguments about something on an Australian forum. There was a rally up on the Gold Coast. He agreed to meet his forum enemies at a pub to talk about what they'd discussed. When they met they realised they were not that different to each other and got on well.

Even though Blackadder thought you were no better than a turnip he really was your mate.

is that you brucie?

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baldrick said...

my first impression is that certain posters have an agenda to slag off brands that do not benefit their standing with Shops /Suppliers.

For example the guy above me with the finger in his nose.

Strewth I didn't know I was sponsored If anyone can tell me by whom, or with whom I am at least in good standing, please let me know.... I'll be happy to use your stuff for free

Baldrick, no trolling or agro intended.... I am just going off many years sailing where I see NP stuff break, or it has useless trinkets / features attached which break, or every year they change stuff and use a new material so it looks flash and it breaks.
EG: thread a few weeks ago re: the boom arm on the NP booms. They are clear rigid plastic and look different / flash / expensive. But they simply don't last. Every other manufacturer used a black FRP / polypropylene arm for the last 15yrs and they are fine.

EG: their sails being very mast-specific. Good for them (NP) to sell stuff, bad for the sport in general.

EG: a professional heavily involved in NP a few years back (sorry if you read this and are annoyed but I won't I.D you). In testing here, he continually told them that stuff would not be durable enough and WA guys would not want to use it. Their response was always that the Euro dudes liked "the look" (or the vibe or the bling or whatever) and they incorporated crap features or materials into the product.
He's not involved with them anymore.

That is why I mentioned euro bling.

We've done this before and a few ppl back me up and a few slag me off, so I'm done.
Suffice to say - I would not recommend NP to a beginner / intermediate who needs durability, parts interchangeable (eg: masts) and longevity/value.

Thanks for your replies guys and i've windsurfed for a few decades and i'm a bit shocked that a person on a forum with a Avatar of a finger up his nose is taken seriously!

Just that i've been a pryde customer from 1982 as well as heaps of other excursions and i didn't realise there was a problem.

In fact i've seen every sail , mast and boom break and tear in the narrowneck on the Gold Coast shorey with regularity!
even zetas ezzys and any other boutique maui or german rip off.

Sorry if i created contraversy

A new fan for Mark

Don't take me serious, I'm a muppet

baldrick - never mind, almost everyone on the goldcoast owns a pryde sail maybe they don't last as long, but at least they get ya planing early

hahaha, you guys have seriously funny avatars but my daughter wants a bedtime story. c ya.

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elmo said...

A new fan for Mark

Don't take me serious, I'm a muppet

Hey my finger can go other places little ranga

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EG: thread a few weeks ago re: the boom arm on the NP booms. They are clear rigid plastic and look different / flash / expensive. But they simply don't last. Every other manufacturer used a black FRP / polypropylene arm for the last 15yrs and they are fine.

Hm... have had an x7 carbon boom bought from a "professional heavily involved in NP" aka Grubby (ooops, just mentioned the name)... paid $500 for it. Had been offered three back in 2003... wish I bought them all as the boom is still going strong. No broken boom arms. The head is getting a bit worn now but you CAN get that as a spare part. As a matter of fact I already have it in the garage just haven't had the time to swap it over.

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EG: their sails being very mast-specific. Good for them (NP) to sell stuff, bad for the sport in general.

??? aren't all sails very mast specific?

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In testing here, he continually told them that stuff would not be durable enough and WA guys would not want to use it. Their response was always that the Euro dudes liked "the look" (or the vibe or the bling or whatever) and they incorporated crap features or materials into the product.

Used to have a full set of Zones for about 5 years... now have full set of Alphas... about a year old and still going strong. I am not entirely sure what the "professional" is talking about.

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He's not involved with them anymore.

Perhaps he is talking bad about them because he is disgruntled that they dropped his sponsorship contract? Nothing like a disgruntled employee...

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That is why I mentioned euro bling.

Nothing wrong with bling...

Suffice to say, I would recommend a beginner/ intermediate to get used sails and make up their own mind rather than listening to people on online forums.

There is plenty of great used gear out there!

I for one love NP... but then again if you want real durability forget about NP, Severne, Goya, Gaastra, Simmer, Gun etc. it's all crap build in China by minimum cost labour.

Want quality sails? Buy Sail Loft Hamburg (German brand)... bullet proof sails with great performance... kind a like the BMW of windsurf sails.

Don't have the money? Well get a used sail and make up your own mind first!!!

A dude I know told me that NP have 2 sail making factories, one in EU some place and the other in china. Is this fact or a nice dream for the poms to be getting better quality kit than us?
I have been reading multiple sail reviews in the mags of late and they are all consistent with commenting on the high build quality of the NP sails, these are English mags.

NP sails are great designs, I think you just need to replace them every 1 - 2 years, because you have to compromise some durability for the extra performance and lower weight.
I dislike their fatty masts after two bad experiences, skinnies imo are far superior for wave sailing.

I would still use the NP's if they could just go on the skinny. The new NP skinny is a bit expensive. The np carbon booms a bit expensive too.

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Poida said...

NP sails are great designs, I think you just need to replace them every 1 - 2 years, because you have to compromise some durability for the extra performance and lower weight.
I dislike their fatty masts after two bad experiences, skinnies imo are far superior for wave sailing.

I would still use the NP's if they could just go on the skinny. The new NP skinny is a bit expensive. The np carbon booms a bit expensive too.

The combat sails last forever! This year NP are making a skinny x3 and a skinny x6 along with the x-combat...

For me, the aesthetics aspect is very important , the weight and handling of the sail too. The nitty gritty technical aspects, I'll leave it to you guys!

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stehsegler said...

EG: thread a few weeks ago re: the boom arm on the NP booms. They are clear rigid plastic and look different / flash / expensive. But they simply don't last. Every other manufacturer used a black FRP / polypropylene arm for the last 15yrs and they are fine.

Hm... have had an x7 carbon boom bought from a "professional heavily involved in NP" aka Grubby (ooops, just mentioned the name)... paid $500 for it. Had been offered three back in 2003... wish I bought them all as the boom is still going strong. No broken boom arms. The head is getting a bit worn now but you CAN get that as a spare part. As a matter of fact I already have it in the garage just haven't had the time to swap it over.

EG: their sails being very mast-specific. Good for them (NP) to sell stuff, bad for the sport in general.

??? aren't all sails very mast specific?

In testing here, he continually told them that stuff would not be durable enough and WA guys would not want to use it. Their response was always that the Euro dudes liked "the look" (or the vibe or the bling or whatever) and they incorporated crap features or materials into the product.

Used to have a full set of Zones for about 5 years... now have full set of Alphas... about a year old and still going strong. I am not entirely sure what the "professional" is talking about.

He's not involved with them anymore.

Perhaps he is talking bad about them because he is disgruntled that they dropped his sponsorship contract? Nothing like a disgruntled employee...

That is why I mentioned euro bling.

Nothing wrong with bling...

Suffice to say, I would recommend a beginner/ intermediate to get used sails and make up their own mind rather than listening to people on online forums.

There is plenty of great used gear out there!

I for one love NP... but then again if you want real durability forget about NP, Severne, Goya, Gaastra, Simmer, Gun etc. it's all crap build in China by minimum cost labour.

Want quality sails? Buy Sail Loft Hamburg (German brand)... bullet proof sails with great performance... kind a like the BMW of windsurf sails.

Don't have the money? Well get a used sail and make up your own mind first!!!

if the big german fella can hang his weight on anything without it breaking, its a pretty good testimony for its strength in my book. Personally I find performance of a sail to be most important (provided they dont rip while your rigging them on the beach), the better the performance the more likely you are to get out of any potentially heavy situations. my 2cents
ps everything will break if you put it in a certain situation, no matter what brand, construction, whatever.

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fionzc said...

For me, the aesthetics aspect is very important , the weight and handling of the sail too. The nitty gritty technical aspects, I'll leave it to you guys!

Pretty important in my zone also, I buy sails for the wife and me too use. How they look and weight is a factor.

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if the big german fella can hang his weight on anything without it breaking, its a pretty good testimony for its strength in my book. Personally I find performance of a sail to be most important (provided they dont rip while your rigging them on the beach), the better the performance the more likely you are to get out of any potentially heavy situations. my 2cents
ps everything will break if you put it in a certain situation, no matter what brand, construction, whatever.

wasn't even going to go to the weight issue... my biggest problem these days (no pun intended) seem to be that Pryde is the only company that has gear designed by heavier pro riders for heavier riders. I know no company wants to tell their customers that their are fat, ahm I mean need a little bit of extra power but they should wake up in my opinion.

Just take a look at North, Severne, Simmer etc. ... as far as I can tell none of their team riders are in the 95kg+ league. So given that all wave and cross over sails seem to be signature sails designed with the help of team riders it does make me wonder how well they perform for heavier riders.

EG. I tried a number of wave sails from other companies: Naish etc... none of them seem to have the same performance as my Alphas. (BTW, if any sail company out there is reading this and is interested in proofing me different please send me a few test sails).

RE skinny masts: well, let's just say skinny plus "big boned" rider doesn't seem to mix well either. My experience with skinnys is that at my weight two identical masts (one skinny the other normal RDM) the RDM wins hands down in performance every time. Again if someone out there would like to send me a skinny for testing and proof me different please be my guest.

At the moment the combo of my Alphas combined with the X6 (non skinny) seems to work pretty well performance wise... the proof in the pudding?

Well, in the same conditions I seem to only need a sqm more in sail size than Danny boy here... despite an additional buoyancy of 45 kgs on my part.

RE boom durability, I used to go through 2 to 4 booms a season. Then I found Chinook and was using the same boom for 3 years... because I could find a carbon Chinook in Australia back in 2003 and was offered a pryde X7 instead I went for that to test it out... still have a brand new and two used Chinooks in alu in the garage if anyone is interested... but you aint getting my Pryde X7 carbon!!! actually if you have one of those sitting around and you are willing to sell give me a shout!

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stehsegler said...

as far as I can tell none of their team riders are in the 95kg+ league. So given that all wave and cross over sails seem to be signature sails designed with the help of team riders it does make me wonder how well they perform for heavier riders.

Hi Stehsegler,

Mauisails Team Rider Josh Angulo is probably one of the biggest guy on the PWA doing waves. If you wanna give the Legend or Global with skinny mast a try, we will have some demo sails soon.

Let us know.

Cheers,
Remi
www.thewindsurfingshed.com.au/
info [at] thewindsurfingshed [dot] com [dot] au

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stehsegler said...

RE skinny masts: well, let's just say skinny plus "big boned" rider doesn't seem to mix well either. My experience with skinnys is that at my weight two identical masts (one skinny the other normal RDM) the RDM wins hands down in performance every time. Again if someone out there would like to send me a skinny for testing and proof me different please be my guest.

At the moment the combo of my Alphas combined with the X6 (non skinny) seems to work pretty well performance wise... the proof in the pudding?

isnt a RDM a skinny? either powerex, ezzy or NP etc

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timford said...

fionzc said...

For me, the aesthetics aspect is very important , the weight and handling of the sail too. The nitty gritty technical aspects, I'll leave it to you guys!

Pretty important in my zone also, I buy sails for the wife and me too use. How they look and weight is a factor.

Smart! Give an excuse that you're buying for your wife, when actually you want it for yourself I think the new purple and lime green colours of NP are soo pretty! too bad they don't have those colours for the flatwater sails.

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Mobydisc said...
The race sails still have that dull colour scheme. Mr Pryde must have bought up the world's supply of grey and brown film and is now using it up. Hopefully by the 2010 year they will have run out.

Have to be dull, otherwise it'll be too distracting when they race if the colours are too bright!

yea, rdm (reduced diameter mast). 45ks!?! over my weight, if I had of known you were 120kgs tommy I wouldnt have teased you in the playground, I hope you accept my apologies. I wont point at the beach any more I promise.

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dan berry said...

yea, rdm (reduced diameter mast). 45ks!?! over my weight, if I had of known you were 120kgs tommy I wouldnt have teased you in the playground, I hope you accept my apologies. I wont point at the beach any more I promise.

yeah... not quite 120 kgs but let's just say I am currently closer to the 120 than the 100 mark... the usual stuff... too much work... not enough exercise. Waiting for the sea breeze to kick back in so I can have an excuse for skipping work and hopefully making it back to the 95 mark.

To be honest it doesn't help to be 6 foot 4...
... probably should get back into speed sailing. I certainly now seem to have the appropriate ballast.


apologies about the RMD comment. of course I meant regular diameter X6 mast not RDM.

Remi,

I am always up for trying out some new gear and comparing it to my existing NP Alpha setup. I have actually been in touch with Josh re some board questions knowing that he packs in a bit of extra ballast as well.

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dan berry said...
I wont point at the beach any more I promise.

Just stop throwing those rocks from the beach and I'll be happy...

ok truce.