Starboard iSonic Carbon 2012 is currently number 1 SLALOM board in the WORLD WIDE USERS RANKING by Surfadviser.com
Do you agree?
To share your opinion (review and score this or other boards), see which board is 2nd and 3rd, what are the ranking is other gear categories please go to www.surfadviser.com
There will be prizes randomly selected from all the reviewers in the end of the year (including windsurfing gear, PWA competition lycras signed by top 3 guys and girls and more). For your review to take part in teh lottery just put in your email address when adding a review (it will not be published - we will only use it to contact you in case you win).
Thanks.
The main issue with the site is people will review what they have, and will rank it as the best by far - even though they have not used any of the competitors stuff.
Or, they will have a small warranty issue, they may be 1 in a million, but will rank it as the most crap board / sail etc EVER. Just cos they had the ONE bad one.
Now, given prizes on offer, people will just go write anything to be in the running. I am about to review an iSonic - whatever that is .....why not....
Select to expand quoteda vecta said..
That's iRonic.
At least the graphics are not like most - total iSore
That's the whole point of it. To get actual users to share their opinion. And if you look at what people are writing - it's legit. Of course some people will score the board more manuverable then others would on the same one. That's where we need the numbers of reviews to be as high as possible because then the extreme cases will not have much influance to overall ranking. Prizes are for reviewing not for reviewing in superlatives. If someone had bad experience with the gear we wanna know about it. This is for the people to read and see others opinions about the product they are planing to buy. Quite frankly extremely bad or extremely good opinions "it's the best" or "it's crap" don't have much value. But some people actually write what they find good about the board or sail or anything else and what they found annoying or had problems with. Just a sorce of knowlage you wont get from the producers catalogue. Same like for cars, TVs or toasters. Yes subjective, but real and based on actual users experience:)
Plus the ranking is designed in the way that one 100points review can not put you on top of the ranking anyway. We mae it as much legit as possible. Now we need people to just go and review they kit they tried:) Share experiences with any future potential buyers :)
The i-sonics are mostly flat and hard railed....the 2012 i90 a classic example.
The i87 is the opposite,it's got tonnes of rocker especially from the middle forward.
That's why this board rocks in chop and the i90 gets hugely slower as the chop height increases.
I red thumbed, and I think people should give an explanation when they red-thumb. I believe that the actual purpose of the question is to drive users to the site. So it is trying to get free advertising. I think this tactic in itself devalues the possible merits of Justina's website.
Select to expand quotesausage said..
Performance wise, yeah they're brilliant but...iCronic weakness at the wingers 
but you beat the board to death with the pole - no wonder it broke!!
Select to expand quoteReflex Films said..sausage said..
Performance wise, yeah they're brilliant but...iCronic weakness at the wingers
but you beat the board to death with the pole - no wonder it broke!!
Select to expand quoteReflex Films said..sausage said..
Performance wise, yeah they're brilliant but...iCronic weakness at the wingers
but you beat the board to death with the pole - no wonder it broke!!
No, I beat a fish to death with my fin 
To be fair though Justina was referring to the carbon model and mine was wood so here's a photo of someone else's carbon iSonic that hit a fish
Select to expand quotesausage said..Reflex Films said..sausage said..
Performance wise, yeah they're brilliant but...iCronic weakness at the wingers
but you beat the board to death with the pole - no wonder it broke!!
No, I beat a fish to death with my fin
Perhaps you can jettison the front part just before you bear off, now you have an awesome speed board!
Select to expand quotesausage said..Reflex Films said..sausage said..
Performance wise, yeah they're brilliant but...iCronic weakness at the wingers
but you beat the board to death with the pole - no wonder it broke!!
No, I beat a fish to death with my fin
gees, you must have some big fish up your way....
I voted for the iSonic just because it is Apple.Select to expand quoteWaiting4wind said..
gees, you must have some big fish up your way....
"Fish" called "Bump" and "Jump".
So, if the board split in two between your feet, at speed I image, how was the resulting experience?
This two pictures nearly gave me a heart attack! Thank god when that sea lion got in the way my fin broke off my board!!!
phew
I'm absolutely gob smacked....no I'm pretty f$#king p1ssed off - Just had a look at the site and found a review on a iS97carbon www.surfadviser.com/product/Boards,88/Starboard/iSonic-Carbon,2048&tab=comm by someone using the name of "sausag" (of course they're well within their right to call themselves anything they want). They seem to have copy and pasted my words from the 12.06.13 on a previous SB thread www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/Review/Best-Slalom-board/?SearchTerms=isonic and posted it in the comments, back dated it and then rated the board. I don't own or ever ridden a carbon iS97 so something is smelling very fishy. Credibility of site is very questionable to say the least.
Put it this way; Quality, durability and value for money would have got a rating of 2, 1 & 2 respectively from me.
They've also cut and pasted JamesF comments from that same SB thread.(I'll PM him)
I'd appreciate it if Justina could provide me with an explanation 
BTW - I don't red thumb anyone but I've just given you one big fat one!
Select to expand quoteevlPanda said..
"Fish" called "Bump" and "Jump".
So, if the board split in two between your feet, at speed I image, how was the resulting experience?
Details here Panda (and no, it wasn't bump and jump) gpsteamchallenge.com.au/sailor_session/show?date=2012-01-09&team=20
Geez I thought I had finally let this go but it appears I might have to book myself in for a therapy session with Hardie 
I don't care (I love it....) Justina is just toooooo cute to do those sort of things, must be the terrible Proffitt !!!!
That would explain why the simmer wave boards are the best rated on the website
Although I like the idea of justyna's site. The concept is great to give actual sailors a chance to review the products they use. I feel it will soon become a bit of a race to see which manufacturer can create the most logins to get their product ontop. Much like what happens here with the fake reviews and questions posted.
I don't believe for a second that justyna would troll through seabreeze to use your comments sausage. I suspect that someone maybe taking the p1ss there .I'm pretty sure she has better things to do with her time.
Point taken Troppo but there's really only two plausible possibilities
1) Dr Who windsurfs and is sponsored by *B, travels to the future trawling the internet for comments and goes by the internet avatar of Sausag or,
2) someone who owns /runs the site has grabbed my comment off the internet I made in June and then back dated it to a post supposedly made in April.
If Justyna is only a mouth piece for the website then I apologise and take my big fat red thumb back but maybe she can pass on my suspicions and pessimism.
"The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is hard to verify their authenticity." - Abraham Lincoln
Select to expand quotesausage said..
They've also cut and pasted JamesF comments from that same SB thread.(I'll PM him)
Yeah, nice pickup Sausage. You need to be careful what you write on the internet - once its there it is public, forever. Timely reminder to all those teenagers that post drunk photos on facebook.
By the way, I liked my isonic 97 but didn't suit me and my mediocre skill level. The board works really well for other sailors. That comment taken out of context on the website looks like I'm trying to bag starboard which wasn't my intention.
. I'm guessing faster Zen u is one JL
. I'm guessing faster Zen u is one JL
Sausage, I don't know how your comment came on our website without your knowledge, but I really have no explanation for this. I?m as shocked as you and I will get on the case to try to look into it. We didn't put hours and hours in this website filling it in with data for 5 years to then still peoples comments and post them with exact same nickname.. And then ask you on here to go and review it again... come on :| My Dad had someone working for him in the early stages and ranking tests and maybe he got to eager to put life into it. It is embarrassing for us and it?s a shame to put bad light on what is a big complex project that cost a lot of work. I will make sure to verify it with the programming guys. I removed the review you pointed out. If there is anything else you find please PM me. In the end, best if you could share you real opinion on this product please.
We have over 6700 sails on there and almost 3500 boards not mentioning all the other gear (masts, booms, wetsuits etc etc) on top of that.. I am not able to track down an origin of every review.. We scan them for swear words and that's about all we can do. It is our hobby project and we are dealing with it after our proper working hours, I'm not on it 24/7, and even if I was, I doubt I could pick up that it wasn't actually you cos how? I will have a word with the guy responsible for the ranking and sort it out. I hope you will find the response to the ranking was positive and there is many valuable reviews on there. Like Seahogan?s now;)
As far as an idea of creating many logins goes though it's not going to happen because you can only review one particular product ONCE from each IP addrss (computer). So as far as you can review as many products as you like, you can review each particular one only once. To add another review on the same product you would need to look for another computer which makes things that much more complicated. In the end of the day - like any internet ranking - there will be some people eager enough to try to do this sort of things. I am sure that with higher number of reviews every out-of-the-ordinary review will be disregarded.
And looking at the pictures of the iSonic Carbon you guys are posting.. I even more believe we need the reviews - not even for the ranking but for people to know what to buy and what not, or at least be aware when they still buy it that problems like this can occur.. maybe hear stories whether the warranty went through without problems or not.. cos that all maters.
To address all the issues. yes, Simmer Flywave is on top at the moment because the Simmer users (yes including Ben) took time to put reviews in - but please keep in mind that these are early days. Ranking with 2-3 reviews so far are not solid - the results at this point will be changing with each new review added. Look at iSonic - with one bad review it's out of the top 5 and it was no 1 prior to that. Once we are over 10 reviews per item all evens up and gives more clear picture of 'reality'. Also ranking is set in a way that single review of 100/100 can not put the product on the top of the ranking - it is based on the formula which takes the number of reviews in consideration as well (How does the ranking work link on our site explains it all).
Like in evey user ranking of any product in the world -starting from toasters and ending on Movies, yes here the reviews will be subjective as well, cos people are different and have different experiences and some are brand loyal. But also a lot of people have over 20 years of experience sailing and went through enough gear to pick up flaws and good things about products and hopefully have something to share that will help others learn about the product. You guys think you can tell certain features of the board and what you like and what you dont, don't you? What size sailor you are, what conditions you sail and what you found best working for you - that's important for new buyers.
Also just because one toaster breaks doesn?t mean all the rest are not working perfect - but it's your right to know as a buyer what the stats are. 2 broken toaster reviews will get you thinking.
As for the last issue of giving me red thumbs cos I am "driving traffic to the website" I really have no comment here. Why not? If I was someone else putting the info about the ranking on here it would be fine, cos it's simply interesting (in my opinion) for any windsurfer to find out what are favourite bits of gear according to real users around the world. Starboard/Severne is deffinitely gear Ozies know about (I thought). The website we did with Dad was a project coming out of the pure passion for windsurfing and wanting to create something we always missed - a proper online catalogue where you can find and compare anything. So even when you wanna double check what your gear parameters were you can find it on there - before selling for example. That's why we introduced features like 'Online Surf Garage' where you can "store" your kit online to always know what you've got etc etc.. It was a hobby off-work project and It was exciting for us to come up with ideas and hoping people would simply like them and find it usefull.. It was months of hard work just to enter all the data MANUALY not to mention creating the whole new sorting system etc and that's right - I would like to see trafic on the website and see people use it and like it so I know it's not all for nothing.
Thank you all for your time and reviewing the ranking.
Justyna
Never a dull moment Snags, I bet you wished you never bought that board 
Don't worry Justyna, we know you wouldn't do that. Poor Snags paid good money for a board that lasted a week, got crap service and treatment from the suppler and the bloody thing's still haunting him, he's justifiably peed with it
Thanks Justina, I knew there was an explanation !! 
Feel free to remove my comments on the patrik (though I have one and am super fast and handsome on it...)
<3
Select to expand quoteJustina said..
Sausage, I don't know how your comment came on our website without your knowledge, but I really have no explanation for this. I?m as shocked as you and I will get on the case to try to look into it. We didn't put hours and hours in this website filling it in with data for 5 years to then still peoples comments and post them with exact same nickname.. And then ask you on here to go and review it again... come on :| My Dad had someone working for him in the early stages and ranking tests and maybe he got to eager to put life into it. It is embarrassing for us and it?s a shame to put bad light on what is a big complex project that cost a lot of work. I will make sure to verify it with the programming guys. I removed the review you pointed out. If there is anything else you find please PM me. In the end, best if you could share you real opinion on this product please.
Justyna
Justyna,
Thanks for taking a considerable time to explain the situation. I appreciate you deleting the review on the iS97 carbon and I'll happily put an honest review on your website for the iS97 wood and iS117W and other gear I have experience with. I understand how much time must have been spent and what you are trying to achieve with the website although as Troppo mentioned reviews can be manipulated in favour of (or against) particular brands etc.
My 2 cents on the website - rather than have each individual board listed on an individual page (thereby creating no doubt a lot more work and a multitude of pages), I'd rather be inclined to list the entire range on one page (e.g. Starboard iSonic 2012 range) of which people can rate the specific board they use or make generic comments about the entire range etc. Even providing links to other website threads (like the one that my comments were taken from) and to manufacturers websites of the product in question could be a real plus to the site's attractiveness (much like yourself I have been told ).
Anyway enough flirting.
Cheers,
Brian
Select to expand quotesausage said..
the site's attractiveness (much like yourself I have been told ).
Anyway enough flirting.
Cheers,
Brian
Hey !! Enough !!! 
Select to expand quotefiriebob said..
Never a dull moment Snags, I bet you wished you never bought that board
Don't worry Justyna, we know you wouldn't do that. Poor Snags paid good money for a board that lasted a week, got crap service and treatment from the suppler and the bloody thing's still haunting him, he's justifiably peed with it
Firie,
On the contrary Bob - it's not that I wished I'd never bought the board as even though after a considerable expense to get it stitched back together on top of what it originally cost, it is the best board performance wise I've ever had. I have a love hate relationship with the iSonics - I hate myself for loving them so much
Also just to clarify I in fact got excellent back-up from the retailer, it was the manufacturer's handling of the matter and then umbrage taken on what they perceived as my continued denegration of the brand that left a very sour taste in my mouth. Maybe in hind sight the situation could have been handled differently by both parties (I do tend to wear my heart on my sleeve) but I can assure you I'll never buy a new one again - second hand yes, but new, No.
Can I just add that the service I have received from all the Australian retailers I have purchased gear off over many years has been second to none. So thankyou Remi from The Windsurfing Shed, Simon from Board Crazy, Michael and Greenleader from SurfFX, & Bud from Windsurfing Sales.
