The Mistral Takeoff was possibly the worst board I have ever owned. A slow log with a ridiculous dual skeg arrangement that made it even slower than it already was.

Never owned any boards I thoroughly despised.

I did have one demo board I handed back cause I was having to much fun on it looking for jumps and that was the F2 XTC a freestyle blaster. The problem is, I don't do jumps, no go looking for them however with this thing I was.

Fun Board but sending down a dark path.

Had plenty.
Mistral Ecstasy comes close. Could have been an early Evo but was heavier, clunky, and tons of inertia. Next board, Eruption, was the opposite in every way.
Never liked my Presto. Extreme flat water only.
Plenty more, but dinner is getting cold.

BIC 750

I thought moving from fragile custom boards to a robust plastic production board would be a good idea.

It was stupid heavy. I would do a jump then hang on and hope my ankles survived the landing.

It had a moulding seam around the rails. If you scraped a shin on the edge it would plane a neat strip of skin off.

I went back to a custom wave/slalom board. Joy!

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gollyone said..
The Mistral Takeoff was possibly the worst board I have ever owned. A slow log with a ridiculous dual skeg arrangement that made it even slower than it already was.

I sailed the Mistral Takeoff at Dutch Inn in 1983 and found it fun on a wave and enjoyable. It was not a speed board but a waveboard. The daggerboard included to help it get upwind and in the light. The 5.7 m2 Gaastra Mistral powerhead sail was cool but a long boom. The fins were poor being an over finned twin but that was for control in high winds and big waves and manoeuvrability. Not so bad but the fins real issue was the fact they retracted without warning. The theory was they prevented fins being knocked out when hitting the beach etc. Not very satisfactory at all. I never owned one but borrowed it off my brother who won it in a competition. It was out of date (designed 1981) when released in 1982-83. Robby could sail it well but a good sailor never blames his equipment. All windsurfing boards are fun. My worst board was a circa 1967 Len Dibben moon tail round vee bottom 7'10" plastic fantastic era surfboard which I "sacrilegiously" converted to a windsurfer. It pushed too much water owing to its displacement hull shape and did not sail well at all. After that I got a Bombora New Toy which was superb for a few months and then I went custom.

Windsurfer Dromedary... and the ugliest too.

A 1995 odd model Caveman waveboard.. for years I thought it was a problem with my sailing but then I heard that the idea with the squared off tail wasn't much good. I bought it from a sponsored sailor so it might have been a one off.
I have had other caveman boards and they have been great.

One I bought on Seabreeze. Met seller late one night picked up board. Got it home to find soft under footpads. Seller denied any issue a d no refund. Board snapped in half a few sails later. Expensive mistake. Be great if Seabreeze had seller ranking like eBay.

The worst and by far...

Every board I have ever owned from day 1!!! this explains why I keep buying new gear

JP 101L slalom. 2010. It was well constructed but needed a 38 upright fin (minimum) to stop it tail sliding.

It was also killer fast (killer being the operative word). After about 6 months i decided it was beyond my capabilities to ride it at max speed and sold it.

My second board (after learning on a Windrush Clubman) which was a new Crit 355 funboard from mid eighties - OMG what a dog of a board! Appear to remember buying it from a Frenchwoman who ran Rose Bay Sailboards in Sydney, along with a couple of mylar DeVries sails that were very colourful and looked the goods but that's where the appeal ended! Sold all hardly used and got a Bombora Big Toy which was a big improvement!

Bombora South Pacific. Heavy and completely underwhelming.

Naish Supercross 2000. Tried to use it as a high wind speed slalom board as no one was making anything to go fast. It instead tried to kill me , managed to to a 31 kt run which still rates as the scariest run still.
Just a bad design, I do still use Naish just not in windsurfing

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Brent in Qld said..
Bombora South Pacific. Heavy and completely underwhelming.

No way, when I was a kid my mum had one and I would steal it all the time on those lighter days and sail it right up to the wind hit 20kts, lots of great memories!

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Why? I just acquired one that needs some repair




jusavina said..
The worst and by far...

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AusMoz said..

Why? I just acquired one that needs some repair




jusavina said..
The worst and by far...

I bought one , fixed it up and sold it through a shop , never rode it . I did that a lot , to pay for new sails . Also wondering why it's so bad ?

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GazMan said..
My second board (after learning on a Windrush Clubman) which was a new Crit 355 funboard from mid eighties - OMG what a dog of a board! Appear to remember buying it from a Frenchwoman who ran Rose Bay Sailboards in Sydney, along with a couple of mylar DeVries sails that were very colourful and looked the goods but that's where the appeal ended! Sold all hardly used and got a Bombora Big Toy which was a big improvement!

It was the Crit Shop at Rose Bay not Rose Bay Sailboards.

Tiga Jibe. The second version with deep double concaves and double wingers- looked so sexy but flexy and slippery. I had one of the Tiga raceboards at the time which was fabulous so the disappointment was all the greater. Sold it and bought a custom Hydro Cool slalom. Good exchange

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snorkel692 said..
Tiga Jibe. The second version with deep double concaves and double wingers- looked so sexy but flexy and slippery. I had one of the Tiga raceboards at the time which was fabulous so the disappointment was all the greater. Sold it and bought a custom Hydro Cool slalom. Good exchange

You mean the Tiga power jibe?

Windsurfer Transformer. This hot pink tri fin slippery as ice rounded rail rotomoulded flexy slug of a board. Think that was '85-'86. Well it lasted about 3months for me. Then straight onto a Cornish Wave/Slalom custom. Wow what a performance upgrade! Still have the Cornish , hangin around.

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AusMoz said..

snorkel692 said..
Tiga Jibe. The second version with deep double concaves and double wingers- looked so sexy but flexy and slippery. I had one of the Tiga raceboards at the time which was fabulous so the disappointment was all the greater. Sold it and bought a custom Hydro Cool slalom. Good exchange

You mean the Tiga power jibe?

Yes you're right!

Apples ain't apples .
Compared to modernish stuff , most old boards were crap. I learnt to sail on the old original windsurfer , that's all there was . Then I got , ( thanks Mom and Dad ) for a sixteenth birthday present a UFO . It had straps , it was really heavy , I mean really really heavy and tried to rip my arms off .Pre harness . I could go fast and get six inches of air.
It was the best thing ever
It would be sooo bad now .
Any modern bad boards ?

Rainbow 295 with a mast extension that popped out of the socket on the board, caused a long paddle home in my early days and a lifeboat call out un known to me who was back on land by then walking home.

Bombora xit - got it in 1989 and broke it on the first sail, first run out!

when I was still pretty much a kid I went to local shop in cotton tree to buy a board. it was my first short board.

they sold me an asymmetric wave board from Hawaii.. disappointing to be so blatantly ripped off at such a young age. the guy told me it was exactly what I needed.

not only was it the worst board ever to sell a newb the asymmetric tail was opposite to what we use in qld.

fortunately a local shaper let me swap it for a more appropriate board he had in his rack after I showed him.

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Brent in Qld said..
Bombora South Pacific. Heavy and completely underwhelming.

No way I loved that board.

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AUS4 said..

GazMan said..
My second board (after learning on a Windrush Clubman) which was a new Crit 355 funboard from mid eighties - OMG what a dog of a board! Appear to remember buying it from a Frenchwoman who ran Rose Bay Sailboards in Sydney, along with a couple of mylar DeVries sails that were very colourful and looked the goods but that's where the appeal ended! Sold all hardly used and got a Bombora Big Toy which was a big improvement!

It was the Crit Shop at Rose Bay not Rose Bay Sailboards.

It was so long ago how could you remember clearly?

Hmmm thinking the Bombora Tri-fin ..... it was horrid. With only a 6m soft sail, no other sizes. But it was my first gear after learning to WS in school sport, so I loved it and sailed a couple of seasons, kidded myself I was jumping it in river chop and all!

Then along the lines of Gestalt's one - about 2 years later I needed something better so got a secondhand home-made epoxy waveboard, again assymetrical, from a guy who knew his stuff apparently. Later it got heavy and I found dings fixed with wood filler. ie: one-part sawdust looking crap that doesn't even set. Mongrel.
At same time I got a sail secondhand, my first full battened thing from a very well known windsurfer. Got it home and rigged it and the luff was so stretched it was still baggy even when over-downhauled. Mongrel #2. Sent me broke as a 17 y/o who saved for a year for that $150 sail.
Amazed I kept sailing, I really am.

Keep up the free stuff threads I say.

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snorkel692 said..

AusMoz said..

snorkel692 said..
Tiga Jibe. The second version with deep double concaves and double wingers- looked so sexy but flexy and slippery. I had one of the Tiga raceboards at the time which was fabulous so the disappointment was all the greater. Sold it and bought a custom Hydro Cool slalom. Good exchange

You mean the Tiga power jibe?

Yes you're right!

I tried to go out in waves on this board back in 1991. Geez it ended badly!

Can't believe how much it flexed

Windsurfer One Design.
Compared to the TC's, Waylars, Windrush and especially the F2's I had at the time, (all 'funboards') it was an absolute DOG to sail. When I got it, I was highly motivated to sail it and race it in the local fleet, but that lasted less than a couple of months and I sold it with no regrets as soon as I could.