Hello everyone, I thought I might share my experience with this board. I had my heart set on a starboard ultrasonic actually but I picked up this brand new 2012 model JP SLW 90 for $2200 instead. I saved about 700 bucks with this board. My condition is 46 years old, 80 kg's with managable arthritis and type 1 diabetes that reduces my physical strength somewhat.

First time out, 10 to 15 knot north easterly. My old medium wind slalom board was 8'10" and first time out,the 7'10" JP SLW felt a little odd at first. I also found it a little difficult to find the back footstrap. Not helping matters was the fact that my rig, A 9.6 metre severne reflex 4 was not rigged up correctly at all. The guy in the shop showed me how to rig it up, looked at the battens and said yeah that batten tension looks ok when in reality, the batten tension was very far from ok. some of the cams were barely contacting the mast and I had to much downhaul. I headed back in and adjusted all of the battens and reflex adjusters, and fitted some adjusters to one of the cams. With the correct amount of batten tension and less downhaul the reflex 4 was a vastly different rig, grunty as hell with a wind limit that makes you forget you've got a 9.6 on. I headed back out and the board still felt a bit weird, but definately better. Later on in the day I tried my 8.2 Sailworks NX and it felt to small for the board. not helping matters was my boom height, I usually run with my boom between chin and collarbone height and on the wider tailed JP this resulted in an uncomfortable stance and a bit of pain in the back leg.

Next day, I got up early and rigged up the 9.6 in the back yard and tweaked it a bit more. It looks a hell of a lot better than my earlier efforts. The wind came in after lunch from the south east at about 8 to 12 knots, gusting to maybe 15 occasionally. I headed back out for the second time with the 9.6 rigged up pretty close to how it should be and the boom height raised to about nose height. I still dont have a feel for how early this board will get going as my first sail on it was pretty powered up. On my old gear I wouldn't have bothered going out in these conditions and I venture out hoping I can get going ok. I get out there and bloody hell, I'm really powered up and the conditions look crappy lol. The 9.6 feels excellent and the board feels really comfortable. No more problems getting into the back strap and no back leg discomfort. I'm not just out getting planing for the hell of it, I'm blasting around having a really good time in a gusty, crap south easterly. This board is not just a way to get planing early, it's a fast and enjoyable ride in it's own right. I finished the day grinning like an idiot from how much fun I had on this board.

Next day, third time out. There's bugger all wind but I can see the occasional little gust in the trees so I decide to head out. I still need to test the low end wind limit of this equipment. I feel like an idiot when I'm rigging up and even more so when I hit the water, there's bugger all wind. I float around for a couple of minutes and along comes a gust that puts a little bit of power in the rig. I don't wait around I just jump in the front strap and start putting in some big scoopy pumps. By the third pump the board is planing and by the fourth pump I'm putting my back foot in the strap and hooking up. I can hardly believe it, I'm planing around in wind lighter than I ever would have believed possible. So yes, this board planes really bloody early lol. But, you have to be prepared to put in some decent pumping. If you just hook in and wait you are going to be little dissapointed.

I was watching a video of the SLW 90 by Sebastian Kornum and I noticed that he was lifting the heel of his front foot very forcefully during his gybes. He is obviously exerting a lot of upward pressure with his front foot in his gybes. This is not something I usually do on smaller boards but it works a treat on the wider SLW 90. I was able to achieve turns as tight as a much smaller board using this little trick. The 9.6 Severne reflex 4 is the only sail I will ever need on this board. The 8.2 I have just feels to small and the 9.6 has a higher wind range anyway lol. Once I rigged it properly the 9.6 severne turned out to be an absolutely magnificent sail. There is about and inch and a half of downhaul and an inch of outhaul between a powered up grunt machine and a comfortable blasting weapon. This sail has such a good range that by the time I cant hold it I drop straight down to a 7 metre on my slalom board.

I can't fault the JP SLW 90. It planes in a fart and is fast and enjoyable to sail when powered up. I give it a score of infinity out of 10 lol.

Great review for what is a perfect yellow arrow board.

Nice review and video. You were definitely flying that day, didn't realise the sail was 9.6! I was nicely powered on my 8.4 and 78 wide board, beaut day of sailing.

I have heard people say that putting a bigger fin I those SLW boards makes a difference as well.

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Mobydisc said...
Great review for what is a perfect yellow arrow board.

Where these babies can go you don't need yellow arrows

Looks very nice board to be sailing on. Where is that location? Looks nice

Thanks for mentioning the fin James, I forgot to mention it in my original post. The fin supplied with the board is way underpowered and cavitates quite often. I am planning on replacing it with something around the 60 cm mark.

I saw the formula boys out on the lake this afternoon, I think I spotted a few of the top guys blasting around. They were throwing those big rigs and boards around like wave boards. Very impressive stuff!

Dezza, I sail on lake maquarie near newcastle. The video was taken at marmong point. The wind at marmong can be a little gusty at times but the water is usually nice and flat.

That was good info on setting up the sail.
Some more advice on here.

That looks a v nice board for light winds. I bought an rrd firemove last year, it's 75cm wide and 236 long, and it will plane in 12kts, but takes a bit of effort to keep it planning in the lulls. the jp looks better suited to power up and keep going without too much effort.

Marmong looks a great spot for windsurfing, will have to line up a visit

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elmo said...

Mobydisc said...
Great review for what is a perfect yellow arrow board.

Where these babies can go you don't need yellow arrows

Elmo, I thought I read somewhere that you have gone over 30knots on one of these. I've done 27 and it almost felt like it was going to take off. It is a sensational board.

With the 92 wide, I'm into the 31's now and a 29 5x10s.
With the 90 I was in the 29's.

I predominantly use a 50cm weed fin (what the JP weed fin is based on) but occasionally use the bog standard JP fin which came with the board which will get a good turn of pace out of it, Ive not experienced much of a cavitation issue with it.

Looking at the vid, I do run my mast base back a bit further though, when going for speed I have the NP (for size reference) mast base plate half covering the vent plug.

I find to get them going nice and quick put ALL your weight to the harness point your front foot and try to lift your back foot and "let" the board go as it wants.

Lifting your heels when sailing utilizes the "vee" in the board lifting windward side of board out of water.

It's fun seeing how far you can push these very forgiving beasties

Elmo I moved my mast step back an inch, definately better.I had it forward as I was worried about the weight of the 9.6 but it's not a problem.

Re: the Jp 56 fin, it seems to be when I'm only just planing and not fully powered up that is the problem. As soon as I am doing some decent speed the fin is fine. I think a bigger fin for the lighter stuff is the go.

Elmo you are spot on about how forgiving they are. I am usually quite paranoid about watching the chop ahead of me as I hate getting catapulted, but I find my concentration drifting off with this board as it is so bloody good in choppy water. It glides effortlessly over chop it's pretty amazing for a board of it's size.

There have been 2 days of crappy east/south easterlies up here, the kind wind I wouldn't have looked twice at with my old gear. But now I have had 2 days of enjoyable sailing, this afternoon was great fun until I broke a foot batten :-( . Good thing I have a good supply of spares .

At lower speeds try sitting down into the harness and lifting your heels a bit, this'll get the windward rail up and take a bit of load of the fin, the board should accelerate a bit easier from this.

The video has been popular so I knocked up another one for people who are interested in one of these. This movie is perfectly powered up with the 9.6 metre.

One thing I learnt quick smart with this sail, FFS don't drop it lol. Once that big pocket fills up with water it's a world of hurt to uphaul it. How formula guys manage 11 and 12 metre's I'll never know. They say necessity is the mother of invention, and this sail has done wonders for my completion rates

Moving along quite nicely with what looks like not much wind at all, how many knots wind speed do you figure?

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Beaglebuddy said...
Moving along quite nicely with what looks like not much wind at all, how many knots wind speed do you figure?

About 12 to 15 knots is my best guess. I dont think I can hold a 9.6 in much more wind than that lol. I'm not quite fully powered up at a couple of points on starboard tack but all of the port tack stuff is powered up. The video shows what the board can do when it's powered up, even with a broken down old bugger like me on it lol.

Good that you are getting plenty of sailing on it! Don't look that worn out to me, do you knackered after sailing it?

If I have to pump that big mother rig to get planing I can get a bit puffed but in the conditions in the second movie it's pretty relaxing stuff.

So I guess waterstarting that sail is not too easy?
I have this board http://2002.star-board.com/products/freeformula198.asp which is kind of similar except mine has a more pointier nose and hard rails all around.
I can get my 100 kg going on an 8M at about 12 knots, I need to point it downwind to get it started. I'm looking into a 10M
I find this kind of low adrenaline sailing quite fun and relaxing.

You can take the J.P.& 9.6 in winds up to 22 knots. Thats the beauty about big boards you have got so much leveridge to push down on the rails. I have seen guy's out even women in 20 knot plus winds.HAPPY SAILING.

i am SO happy i found this review ...

originally i tried a TR-4 10-oh on a free-ride board
it was okay, butt not great
tried it on a longboard - Fanatic CAT - and again okay
was about to sell it and then found a BIC Techno Formula/BTF
i call it a FreeFormula like the 2002 SB discussed here

i was worried what to do if this board ever died
also, people were saying the JP SLW has fin issues and is slow
you guys have shown me the way !!!
if and when my BTF dies - it will be replaced with a JP SLW92

THANX

Hi guys, does anybody know how much difference or light wind gain this JP SLW 90 has compared to JP Slalom 84 cm which is the widest slalom board? I just wonder if extra 6 cms width makes much difference. I'm only 80kg.

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GeoGeo said...
Hi guys, does anybody know how much difference or light wind gain this JP SLW 90 has compared to JP Slalom 84 cm which is the widest slalom board? I just wonder if extra 6 cms width makes much difference. I'm only 80kg.

That's an excellent question and one I have pondered myself. It depends what you want, I bought the SLW 90 for the purpose of absolutely maximising my sailing time, a purpose it has fulfilled well beyond my expectations. The SLW 90 keeps proving me wrong in the best way. Quite a few times now I have turned up for a sail and said **** no way... it's to light. Then I say well I'm here now, might as well go out, and on every occasion I've ended up planing around and having a great time.

My thoughts are that if you really want ultimate light wind sailing as early as possible then yes the 90 wide board will leave the 80 wide board behind, all things being equal. If however, you don't plan on going out in wind below 12 knots then a 75 to 80cm board with an 8.5m sail will usually out pace the JP SLW 90 at this point in the wind range. The flipside is, at 15 knots I'm on my JP slalom IX 68 wide and it smokes the 75 to 80 wide boards lol

You just need to ask yourself what conditions will I be sailing in and what job do I want the equipment to do,then do your homework and choose your gear accordingly. Personally, I wanted ultimate lightwind performance but user friendly, so I choose SLW 90 over a formula board. For windier stuff, I always like my sailing to be a challenge so I went for a full slalom board over a freerace, even though I'm a geriatric old vegetable . Really, thats all it takes to enjoy a slalom beast, a bit of attitude

Thanks Cluffy for the comprehensive answer. That's what I was suspicious. I've just bought 2012 JP Slalom 84 cm wide and it's a great board but I wouldn't call it super light wind planning one. Well I have to admit I'm only using 8.6 2 cams sail and quite a small but powerfull carbon fin, vector Canefire 46 cm. In the gusty conditions I wouldn't be able to handle any larger fin as I have to work quite hard and locked in to keep the board level. It would be interesting to try 9.5 sail and fin in the range of 55 cm or so and see the difference compared to JP SLW 90. I would gues there would be probably 3-4 knots early plannig gain with JP SLW 90?

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GeoGeo said...
Thanks Cluffy for the comprehensive answer. That's what I was suspicious. I've just bought 2012 JP Slalom 84 cm wide and it's a great board but I wouldn't call it super light wind planning one. Well I have to admit I'm only using 8.6 2 cams sail and quite a small but powerfull carbon fin, vector Canefire 46 cm. In the gusty conditions I wouldn't be able to handle any larger fin as I have to work quite hard and locked in to keep the board level. It would be interesting to try 9.5 sail and fin in the range of 55 cm or so and see the difference compared to JP SLW 90. I would gues there would be probably 3-4 knots early plannig gain with JP SLW 90?

GeoGeo, I think a 9.5m on that 84 wide would be great but the 8.5 will do a great job also. and between the SLW 90 and the the slalom viii 84, I think it you are spot on about 3-4 knots in it. I was up at jimmy's last sunday in the lightest session I've had yet and seriously, it was like 7 to 12 knots and I was putting around at 17 to 19 knots with a top of 22 in a couple of bigger gusts. That's not exactly excitement city in the speed department but condsider the wind was below 10 knots most of the time and it beats the hell out of sitting on the beach

I've found that correct pumping technique does wonders on my 90 wide. 2 or 3 big but efficient pumps and it pops up on top of the water. If there's enough wind to pump the rig hard without falling in backwards you will probably get planing. The SLW seems to convert mast foot pressure into lift like no other board I've owned.

Had 2 ripper sessions this weekend on my 92 SLW, testing some new techniques.
Yesterday used an 11m sail with a 50cm weed fin and today a 9.5m with the bog standard JP fin.

The change was with foot positions when trying to get onto plane.

Front foot on the center line about 4-6' behind the mast base, most importantly back foot in front of but almost touching the leeward foot pad ie so your heel is on the center line.

When a puff of wind would come it was simply a matter of hooking in then pointing the board slightly down wind and pushing down with my back foot with most of the weight towards the front of my foot, this digs the leeward rear corner of the board but frees up all the rest, the board quickly picks up speed a couple of these was all that was needed, with no pumping of the sail. once picking up speed it was simply shuffle the feet to the foot straps keeping the load on the harness and of the windward rail.

2 days of sailing in red arrows with sub 10 knot base

Hope this helps

Thanks elmo, that technique is amazing. I can get planning now like never before. I've told my friend about that and he was amazed as well. Great tip. I was always loading wrong rail by just standing on it and the board would always struggle to get going. Now it's a piece of cake

It's mad how easy it works.

I made myself a clamp on mast cam mount for my sony and today was some nice easy conditions to test it out. I'm very happy with the results. Some of the views give a good third person perspective that gives the best feeling of being on the board that I have been able to achieve so far.

two things I noticed about this movie, One, I have put on a few pounds around my guts and two, maybe my tack strap is a bit loose. I always thought the section of the sail below the boom was a stalled out waste of space but looking at the way my foot batten is working in this movie I am not so sure. Any opinions fellas? floppy or not floppy on the foot batten?



If anyone is interested in the cam mount I'll put up some shots of how I did it. It can be attached anywhere along the mast except for perhaps the top 3 feet of the rig which might be a bit skinny.

Great work Cluffy, surprising how stable the camera is.

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pepe47 said..

Great work Cluffy, surprising how stable the camera is.

Thanks mate! The camera is mounted about halfway up the mast which takes away a lot of the jerkiness. My cam is a sony which claims to have a stabilisation feature which helps a bit but can't contain the more severe vibrations. I don't mind a bit of jerkiness actually, too smooth would be a bit boring I think. The Sony also has a mic that has a short range but is very sensitive so every little vibration and squeak in the rig is picked up. I made the call to stick with the sailing sounds and not music as it didn't sound to annoying and kind of reflected the moderate speeds I was doing which adds to the realism I think.

One small point about the sail, it looks like the shape is drifting back a long way but it's actually the wide angle lens. It tends to make all straight lines look curvy. If you can catch a look at the shoreline when I gybe you'll see what I mean. So yeah, that big curvature in the 2 main battens just isn't there. It's all an optical delusion.

saw her big sister on the beach today :





Formula speed pro edition 170 l.... at first I thought the guy had found a door