Anyone have an opinion on the X9 boom?

Ihave 2, 160-220 & 180-230. The large one replaced an Enigma of the same size. I use NP sails that's the reason that I have them, so when I went large again I got NP. The 160 replaced an X3 and was my first carbon boom. They are certainly stiffer than X3 booms and don't corrode. Better than enigma, not sure. Be sure to get on sale and then you can get 2 of them, I did. When a 140 X9 comes up and I'm flush I'll get one. They are wearing well for my flat water sessions. No issues with grip or anything. Spare parts are pricey but other brands appear to be about the same.

I had a go a few weeks back of the 2016 or 2017 X9, 180-230 rigged on a 7.5m KA Koncept 7.5m with a RDM mast.

The X9 comes with an adaptor for RDM masts.

The boom was bought end of season on special for one K by a friend and it was only the second time it had been used.

He doesn't like it and wants to sell it!!

He dislikes the square backend and said to me he prefers booms in a slightly smaller size.

Anyway,it felt pretty good to me! Super stiff for sure.

The square backend is slightly heavier than a standard rounded end but it's made that way for extra stiffness.

The boom gets thicker towards the backend also.

Its a bit heavier than my Maui 160-220 wave carbon which weighs in at 2.7kg but then the X9 is a slightly bigger boom and definitely stiffer when extended near its limit.

The X9's weight felt about standard to me. Guessing it's weight to be around around 3.0kg or just under.

I have a small carbon boom that weighs only 2.4kg.

Only fits one sail (173cm) though as I've taken off all the adjustment and glued it rock solid.

Crazy stiff and the 300g drop in weight over my Maui - I can really feel it,especially when gybing.

A good boom let down by the crap cast ally cleat in the closing lever, which lasts about 6mnths unless you uncleat it and wash the salt out after every use, even cheaper booms have a stainless steel cleat

i have a X-9 race boom and the front end become loose and you have to shim it....

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NordRoi said..
i have a X-9 race boom and the front end become loose and you have to shim it....

AFAIK, all carbon booms eventually do this. Open any head and you'll see carbon dust from head articulation. NP has a carbon head, unlike most others. Maybe carbon on carbon abrasion is not as bad as plastic on carbon. IMO North has the worst design in this regard - plastic ridges which create grooves in the carbon.

IMO, there is no perfect boom. From my experience:

NP X9 160-220 - grip falls off, even the wave size needs an RDM adapter. No skinny grip. But IMO, the carbon head stays tight the longest.

North Platinum Aero 140-190 - carbon wear from the head. No harness position markings (North sails have it, but not everyone's using North sails). No skinny grip. On the up side - widest small boom by far. The Aero is the lightest boom as well.

Severne Enigma 140-190 - very narrow boom, head upside down (unless you have a Severne extension and sails... Which I do). But the skinny grip is nice.

Put it that way, NP eventually do this rapidly... ;)

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NordRoi said..
Put it that way, NP eventually do this rapidly... ;)

What's your shim of choice?

I have a couple of them, one black/white grip (wave) and one with the blue/yellow (wave/slalom).

Stiffness and overall durability is very good. I do not think that the squared back-end adds any weight. Really like the front end, works really well with both SDM and RDM. Of the carbon booms I've had or tried, these are the best for me (TecnoLimits, Gaastra, Simmer, Aeron, MauiSails, Powerex)

Only issue I've had is that the plastic part that holds the lever to close the extension has cracked on two occasions. Does not seem to affect performance, but still annoying on a boom this pricey. The grip is perfect for my hands, I am not a fan of the slimthin booms out there.

I rate the X0 as one of the best carbon booms you can get. Good friend of mine works in the largest shop in the country and they've only had to replace one (1) X9 boom in quite a few years.

NP X9 booms are a very good choice.
I used alloy booms for 40 years before I ugraded to a X9 160-220 and X9 200-260.
Both used and refurbished from my surf shop owner.

And what the hell of a difference!!!
Most difference for me was the increased stability of the sail.
Next difference the way more relaxed feeling in gusts.

The 3 most important tunings for me were:
Use mast and sail from same company.
2 fins pro board (and board better bigger than smaler if around 100 kg)
Use Carbon booms!!!

Have fun

Hi guys, just wondering if the X9 is always a slalom boom or can you get wave booms called X9's? I ask because I just bought one thinking it was a slalom boom but now I get the feeling I've bought a wave boom accidentally. I bought a 160-220 X9.
Cheers for any insight you can provide. :)

They did a 140-190 wave boom as I've seen them advertised on WSP along with the 180-230 Slalom & have also seen the 160-220 advertised elsewhere. My guess is it's a Freeride style boom.

Looks like NP have updated their boom range & the new Carbon booms are called XC. The Slalom/Race booms have an internal outhaul system now which looks interesting

https://www.neilpryde.com/products/xc-carbon-boom

Yeah I've seen the latest ones with the internal out haul etc but this isn't one of those. The thing that makes me think it's a wave boom is it doesn't have the pulleys at the back, it just has some stainless steel loops in the middle with a cleat and some carbon grooves at the side where ropes could run around I guess. It's also not very wide.

My mate has an X9 160-220. It has a square and fairly wide tail, but a narrow main body designed for small sail sizes. It has a basic pulley system, but this will work with a simple adjustable outhaul set up. He uses it on 5.2 to 7m simmer SC race sails. He use too struggle sailing over powered with other boom brands. He switched to NP and likes the narrow grip diameter, S-Shaping (prevents the clew length getting shorter as sail powers up) and the light weight feel.

The X9 160-220 will be used for wave, slalom and freeride. NP riders will use it on the 5.2 and 5.6 sails. Although it will extend to 220, its probably to narrow for most slalom riders with a 7m or bigger. Most slalom riders would move up to the 180-240 by the time they are on a 6x or bigger for the extra body width.

So no, I don't think you have bought a dedicated wave boom, more of a boom for 5x size slalom and wave sails, and 5x to 6x freeride sails. I'm sure it'll work fine for you.

This is how I understand it, but I might be wrong :)

Neil Pryde were I think the first to make a 1 piece front and back end Carbon Boom. I bought 3 X7's about 15 years ago, 2 160-210 and a 135-185. They are still going strong, I sold 2 of them recently and use the other 1 for speed sails. They are still super stiff. I also now have an X9 which I currently use for wave sailing. In all the years I've been using them I have only seen 1break, and that was when a mate got carried onto rocks by a big set, he also trashed his sail, broke his mast, a rib , fin and had his board well bashed. Fair to say the boom didnt break because it was crap. I can safely say if you can afford one buy it, or if you see an old X7 or X9 going cheap second hand go for it.

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mark62 said..
My mate has an X9 160-220. It has a square and fairly wide tail, but a narrow main body designed for small sail sizes. It has a basic pulley system, but this will work with a simple adjustable outhaul set up. He uses it on 5.2 to 7m simmer SC race sails. He use too struggle sailing over powered with other boom brands. He switched to NP and likes the narrow grip diameter, S-Shaping (prevents the clew length getting shorter as sail powers up) and the light weight feel.

The X9 160-220 will be used for wave, slalom and freeride. NP riders will use it on the 5.2 and 5.6 sails. Although it will extend to 220, its probably to narrow for most slalom riders with a 7m or bigger. Most slalom riders would move up to the 180-240 by the time they are on a 6x or bigger for the extra body width.

So no, I don't think you have bought a dedicated wave boom, more of a boom for 5x size slalom and wave sails, and 5x to 6x freeride sails. I'm sure it'll work fine for you.

This is how I understand it, but I might be wrong :)

Ok thanks Mark. I only really bought it for my 7metre and up slalom sails coz the new Evo X has a cutout at the clew that doesn't really work with my old NP boom, as it has the cleats on top of the boom. I might have to trade this one in on a 180-230. Cheers for your input. :)

My X9 boom cracked at the head tubing, noticed a creaking noise pulled the boom head off and there was a split of about 6cm long, sanded and wrapped with carbon and been fine ever since.

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Maddlad said..
Hi guys, just wondering if the X9 is always a slalom boom or can you get wave booms called X9's? I ask because I just bought one thinking it was a slalom boom but now I get the feeling I've bought a wave boom accidentally. I bought a 160-220 X9.
Cheers for any insight you can provide. :)

I have X9 wave booms, both 140-190 and 160-220. So yes there are X9 wave booms.

The 160 - 220 boom is most likely a wave/freewave boom with a 27 mm grip diam. However, I use it with my 7.2 freeride sail, no-cam, at it works great with that. As long as it isn't a very deep fully cammed race sail, you should be fine.

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masse said..

Maddlad said..
Hi guys, just wondering if the X9 is always a slalom boom or can you get wave booms called X9's? I ask because I just bought one thinking it was a slalom boom but now I get the feeling I've bought a wave boom accidentally. I bought a 160-220 X9.
Cheers for any insight you can provide. :)

I have X9 wave booms, both 140-190 and 160-220. So yes there are X9 wave booms.

The 160 - 220 boom is most likely a wave/freewave boom with a 27 mm grip diam. However, I use it with my 7.2 freeride sail, no-cam, at it works great with that. As long as it isn't a very deep fully cammed race sail, you should be fine.

Thanks for the feedback Masse. I actually use fully cammed race sails so i think i will need to either try to trade this boom or sell it and get the proper slalom boom which is 180-230cm. Cheers. :)

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Maddlad said..

masse said..

Maddlad said..
Hi guys, just wondering if the X9 is always a slalom boom or can you get wave booms called X9's? I ask because I just bought one thinking it was a slalom boom but now I get the feeling I've bought a wave boom accidentally. I bought a 160-220 X9.
Cheers for any insight you can provide. :)

I have X9 wave booms, both 140-190 and 160-220. So yes there are X9 wave booms.

The 160 - 220 boom is most likely a wave/freewave boom with a 27 mm grip diam. However, I use it with my 7.2 freeride sail, no-cam, at it works great with that. As long as it isn't a very deep fully cammed race sail, you should be fine.

Thanks for the feedback Masse. I actually use fully cammed race sails so i think i will need to either try to trade this boom or sell it and get the proper slalom boom which is 180-230cm. Cheers. :)

I use my 5.5 and 6.3 ka race sails on the 160-220 x9 no problem so they are wide enough for smaller race sails. Only issue may be no adjustable outhaul but never find it an issue on these sizes.
Keep it madlad and get the next one up as well, always good to be able to rig more than one sail.

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mark62 said..
My mate has an X9 160-220. It has a square and fairly wide tail, but a narrow main body designed for small sail sizes. It has a basic pulley system, but this will work with a simple adjustable outhaul set up. He uses it on 5.2 to 7m simmer SC race sails. He use too struggle sailing over powered with other boom brands. He switched to NP and likes the narrow grip diameter, S-Shaping (prevents the clew length getting shorter as sail powers up) and the light weight feel.

The X9 160-220 will be used for wave, slalom and freeride. NP riders will use it on the 5.2 and 5.6 sails. Although it will extend to 220, its probably to narrow for most slalom riders with a 7m or bigger. Most slalom riders would move up to the 180-240 by the time they are on a 6x or bigger for the extra body width.

So no, I don't think you have bought a dedicated wave boom, more of a boom for 5x size slalom and wave sails, and 5x to 6x freeride sails. I'm sure it'll work fine for you.

This is how I understand it, but I might be wrong :)

My X9 160-220 will take my NP Hornet 7.7, just. My X9 180-230 is better for the 7.7 as i have it set up with adj OH and its wider too.

I do prefer the narrow grip of the 160-220 but understand the the bigger boom is like it is for a reason.

I do like them both for their own reasons.

I ended up trading it in for the 180-230 X9 with adjustable out haul. Tried it today and it was great. :)

I would go as far as to say that the Yellow and Black X9 boom (along with the RSX boom) is arguably the best product in windsurfing ever as far as reliability in concerned. I've got a couple still going strong after 10 years. There are still heaps being used for racing season after season.
Sure there are some great new booms from other manufactures but we'll see if there still around in 10 years. Rock solid.

Got water sloshing around inside the main section of the boom somehow and cant get it out. Ive taken the back section out and left the front to drain but its not coming out. Anyone know how to get it out?

Hi,
I've got a X9 180 230, probably from the same batch as yours. No water in the front, but I had water in the back end. One of the adjustment hole @ 28cm had a small crack in it and was letting water in, only happened when I used that setting for the first time. I drained it over a few days and repaired it.

Try using something long and sharp to punch or poke a hole in the plastic cap that sits inside the main boom arm to stop water getting in. Yeah I know, counterproductive


BTW, my X9 180-230 fits my 8.6, 7.8, 7.0, 6.4 and 5.8. Great boom, all good.

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ka43 said..
Try using something long and sharp to punch or poke a hole in the plastic cap that sits inside the main boom arm to stop water getting in. Yeah I know, counterproductive


BTW, my X9 180-230 fits my 8.6, 7.8, 7.0, 6.4 and 5.8. Great boom, all good.

Do you find the rig heavy with the smaller sails? Or just used to it. I might try the 6.7 with the big boom next time. Extra width and adj OH

Havent really noticed it to be honest. All I do is move my harness lines a bit for the smallest sail.
Just makes it so easy to have one boom for all sails. Plus adjustable outhaul.
Your 6.7 will be fine.

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choco said..
My X9 boom cracked at the head tubing, noticed a creaking noise pulled the boom head off and there was a split of about 6cm long, sanded and wrapped with carbon and been fine ever since.

hmm.... was this a horizontal split between the grip and the mast attachment? I just noticed this on one side of mine, wondering if it was a result of a huge crash I had a year ago. Was thinking to do exactly the same style of repair.