I was in the market for a new high-wind board for my local spots here in windy South Australia, mainly B&J, cross-onshore, I'm progressing in waves but not too bothered about wave-riding really...yet.

I'm 80kg, my sails are Goya Banzai Pro's at 5.3, 4.7 and 4.0 and I also use these for wind-foiling Slingshot Wizard 114 in 15 Knots+, my other boards are JP FSW 94 Pro which is a keeper for 20-25 Knots and a Severne Dyno 85 which is a great fun all-rounder in 25-30+ Knots.

I was considering a new 80 litre production board, but I've been a bit miffed lately at the high prices, availability, construction information and quality of (some) boards and I wanted something different. I was thinking about getting a custom board for a while and the opportunity came about a couple of months ago in discussion with a shaper in WA who said they had time to design and build one for me...

All aspects were discussed, my current ability, ambitions, boards I liked, the new board shape, rocker, concaves, rails, tuck, volume distribution, carbon, glass, areas to strengthen e.g. for port tack jumping, flex, foot strap positioning, pads (direction of the chamfers!), fin box types, placement, tail shape, tail kick, bottom finish (matte - viscosity!) weight.everything - a proper custom board.

It started with new board templates and a rocker jig, it was great having regular updates, explanations and pictures from the start and through the whole process. Discussing minor changes, possibilities and confirming expectations along the way - I found it fascinating.

The board has a styrofoam core with 5mm PVC, E-Glass bottom with carbon strengthening up the middle, under-foot and also extra fibreglass heel patches, carbon rails, glass strips in mast strike areas, 3 x extra glass nose, tail and other areas. The deck has a large wood laminate (uni-directional pine) section and more strategic carbon, exposed Aramid/Carbon Kevlar with 4oz glass over.

All inserts are well structured and not just 'dropped in'. Power box centre fin construction using carbon tubing for better bonding (not plastic), slot box sides with adjustment. The design is 226 x 57.5 about 80l, a smooth fast rocker line, double concave, deep vee, soft parallel rails to a narrow-ish tail with hard rails and cut back to a rounded square tail. Lots of other secret technical shaping, sandwiching and processing happened that's waaaay above me.

Totally personalised colour scheme with good practical advice from the shaper working through some changes along the way, I wanted a classic look but I had to have my football team's colours on the bottom (White/Blue/Yellow) hahaa.

The fins, again, after researching, I kept it in Australia and contacted Martin Love at Atomic WindSurf and we agreed on the G10 Shock-Wave Fins (19cm centre and 10cm sides) the profile and hand-finish on these are excellent.

The board was sent from WA to SA in 3 days, it was double boxed and well protected so it took me ages to unwrap! In the flesh the board looks and feels amazing, solid and light, nicely weighted, the finish quality and detail are top notch - it weighed in at 6.6kg bare (7.6kg including fins, straps, base) so very happy with that. Glossy rails, matte finish bottom, sharp logos and stencils of the 'Eye of Kanaloa' on the deck tail and specs, foot pads are good quality 'easy-in, hard-out' for port tack jumping, with 5mm soft cushioning underneath, fin boxes, mast track and vent plug and screws all top quality. It came supplied with 6 x foot strap anti-twist (Jaws type) washers too. The non-slip is very good.

I tested the board just a few days later (exactly 2 months after contacting the shaper) at the local, it was 25 to 35 knots with some massive gusts, decent swell and waves. I rigged 4.7 but needed 4.0 at times it was ballistic. I was well powered up from the beach and bearing away slightly the board popped up onto the plane quickly and gripped through a fast acceleration, through the onshore white water and chop without any spin-outs towards the first bigger ramps for a jump.. YES IT WORKS! it felt great!

The board is fast but planted and secure, going into some high speed gybes I was expecting a bit of spin-out or rail skip due to the conditions but it just drove round fast and smooth, the exit speed was noticeable and exciting. Another thing I noticed when comfortably planing, the tail release wake looked really smooth - maybe this was due to the fins too? I moved the mast base forward from centre a touch to keep the nose down but it basically did what I asked for.

Dakine Supremo foot straps felt really nice, they needed adjusting on the water and they were twisting but that was totally my fault. Supremos have hard plastic formed ends as an 'anti-twist' system but I'd screwed the straps onto the Jaws washers into the padding - they felt solid on land but twisted on the water. I put the jaws washers between the plastic ends and the foot strap material then into the pads to stop any twisting.

I jumped back on my 85 for an immediate comparison and it felt wider (it isn't), flightier, boxier and a bit skittish, still bloody great fun - but the 85 is lighter, has more volume, bigger fins and it was blowing it's t!ts off so the 80 litre custom was more controllable.

Really positive first impressions of this board (and fins) and I think when you first jump on a board and it's windy enough, you just know if it's 'right' or not and this one just needs minor adjustments, maybe widen my stance a touch and tweak the side fin placement - I can't wait for the next few sessions to dial her in.

I know it's only one test, but I couldn't find any 'constructive' feedback to the shaper yet, apart from my double bolt Chinook mast base is difficult to slide in that new mast track hahaa! So all in all, a great experience, I've learnt loads about board design and construction, I've enjoyed researching the options and making informed decisions to make the idea a reality. The cost was well under a new production board and excellent value considering the amount of design, materials, technical experience, know-how and hard work that's gone into it. Not to mention the hours of advice and customer service!

Anyone out there thinking of a custom board - do it, there's loads of good videos online, threads on Seabreeze and great shapers in Australia and NZ.

Thanks to M_Oz Custom Boards AKA Mark_australia.

Thanks Rob, you're too kind.
It was a pleasure to make something a bit more tailored to the user. Glad you like it

Great work Mark that carbon kevlar is very tricky to work with. It looks great. Would not want to try to fix it but it looks very tough so no worries...

The outline looks a bit like a JP FSW

Wow !The board shape and construction look impressive. By no way I am an expert in making boards (I love to ride them though) but still I am curious..My beloved goya custom 4 79 2020 with straps, fins(K4 -they are light) and point-7 pro base weighs 7.5 kg-which is not bad imho (naked 6.44 kg, although stated 6.1 kg). But then I read that Starboard for 2022 has a similar dimension wave board -the ultrakode 78 (shaped by Mark Stone btw) that weighs 600g (5.9 kg naked with FIVE boxes) less even more... What is the secret-better materials, better construction skills,more attention to detail or just saving on resin? Lighter wave boards jump higher but too light makes them hard to control in gnarly conditions in my humble experience. Still if I am sure that the ultra light ultrakode will be as durable I would prefer it to my goya custom4. Will that be a mistake ?

^^^its no secret.
a board made correctly at 6.5-6.kg for a waveboard is proper strong. Under that there is no secret materials just less of it.

My construction is based on what I see work (after many years of doing repairs) and its wood laminate with CK over. Obviously other stuff going on there..... which won't be disclosed.
The brands I that see persisting with wood and carbon, or wood and CK, like Fanatic, Tabou, RRD or the old way JP made stuff, just lasts. Really lasts.

As to your question- I never see Goya in for repair but Ultrakode is egg shells.

^^^ 6.5 to 6.8

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John340 said..
The outline looks a bit like a JP FSW

What year? I don't think so, its much more parallel, pulled in tail has much more pronounced kink, squash tail

Nice!

Love this review. 2022 if I can save enough coin I would love to enlist a local "Aussie shaper" to help craft the perfect wave board for my ability and various wind challenges we have in Sydney. Thanks for writing such a great review. The board sounds great.

Anton Pain likes his Aussie Custom Boards:

My God. Couldn't stop watching this video. Anton is such a great sailor. All speed and agility. That spot is just breathtaking. I'm super jealous you guys have it there.

Just need to add also- that's considered a bad day. It was marginal and he feels he didn't really turn it on for the camera. He is a bloody good sailor.

Not sure why marginal if he used 4.2 - 3.7. and 80L board. :) I think that the spot is so beautiful because any sailor level can potentially sail there. Waves get bigger the farther you go and one has enough space to skip jumping at will. Also the size of that spot is huge.
Again, you are lucky. Where is it on google maps?

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leto said..
Where is it on google maps?

Coronation Beach, WA, Australua

That was gorgeous. Looks like a beach where even wavesailing beginners can have fun and he just looked sooooo smooth.

Looks like leto will be here next summer

Frack, rthere should be some ,kind of law against posting vids like this possible to watch here in North Norway in the middle of december. We have like 3 hours daylight but no sun and 4 degrees in the water. Great vid btw. How long does the windy season in WA last?

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Broken Fin said..
Frack, rthere should be some ,kind of law against posting vids like this possible to watch here in North Norway in the middle of december. We have like 3 hours daylight but no sun and 4 degrees in the water. Great vid btw. How long does the windy season in WA last?

That's so so easy now. Call Dr. Fauci who shall quickly mandate youtube to close Anton's channel for making BrokenFin feel uncomfortable LOL Leto will likely not be there in Cors any time soon because of Ozz lockdowns and little kids.

Where I sail waves are almost always generated by wind and travel in same direction not swell so jumping is tricky. Sometimes I under-rotate a backie or jump when doing back wind wave riding. Trying forwards is a bit dangerous because all jumping happens aggressively into the wind.

Conditions like in Coronation beach where all levels can have fun at the same time in say 25-30mph wind is very unique and rare.

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Mark _australia said..
Just need to add also- that's considered a bad day. It was marginal and he feels he didn't really turn it on for the camera. He is a bloody good sailor.

His marginal day > 99.9% of my sessions. I'm now in an existential crisis.

Another vote for amazing video - just blasted my evening watching the whole thing. Do not watch this on your phone, it deserves the largest hi-def screen you can find.