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I have no problems with colour, but not at the expense of durability or practicality.
(1) the black bottom on the board serves only to look different (must admit it looks awesome with the big green fanatic logo and matte black) but heats the board up. Inconsistent with durability perhaps.
now the sail:
Colour is great - area A is coloured x-ply but it is right where you may want to look up and thru at a developing lip. That could be made with clear x-ply.
Area B is right where you get knee and harness hook impacts and it is monofilm.
Move the material used at A to B, and you have a much more usable sail and it still has plenty of colour.
So - if it is not the North Nerd what should it be ?
North Herd - for use by euros at Safety Bay
Pryde Barn - a little too fly for a fly
Hot Sails Mark_Maui - any colour so long as its not black
Gaastra Haircut - floppy head, like a mullet
Point 7 Severne - maybe confusing in a 7.7 size
Any others ?
Oh, Barn 
tutt, tutt
If this was poker, I don't think a pair of Gaastra and Tabou would beat North and Fanatic.
Somewhat equal in the euro stakes?
Dude, their "Mad Cow" model name and graphics are that lame they'd be so close to doing a Helo Kitty model it is not funny
But a challenge has been met, I bow to you barn. Although I think claiming the reduction in length of freestyle boards world wide is a stretch
tutt, tutt
Yea but I was surfing a kneeboard as my first surfboard (1978) should I claim the reduction in size and the move to fish style boards.... I think not. I agree with Arkim that starboard has been the main innovator of the past decade, still that innovation has been limited to wide style boards. Give me something that really screams out there, for the last couple of years we have seen a return to multifin boards (1980s) a tweak here and there but nothing that is worthy of the title innovative.
In case you missed it my point has always been that shapes are pretty constant but technique in manufacture has improved by leaps and bounds. This is true innovation giving u access to light robust (kinda) boards and sails at reasonable prices. I still love the fanatic, was looking at one the other day and he bottom is more a grey than a black.
I totally agree with you that starboard have pushed the envelope more than anyone and are arguably responsible for the short/wide boards we all sail today, particularly the freeride stuff. When they came out with the EVO it started the short, wide wave board trend we have been seeing since. While I don't think the evo was a particularly good board (personal opinion), things like the JP RWW were. You'd struggle to find a serious wave board over 230cm long these days, 5 years ago 245 was common, a few years before that 255 was common....massive differences. Same applies to freeride boards.
I think much of the push to multi fins has to be credited to Kauli as he is the one always trying radical stuff, first with twins, then quads and JP have the resources to try lots of stuff and smash it into production. I don't agree with you that board shapes haven't changed much in the last 5-10 years. Put my fanatic quad next to even a '07 JP RWW it is radically different in about every way - these are boards only 4 years apart...Sure you can get into semantics about what constitutes 'different shape' but take it from me, they are wildly different approaches in terms of getting the most out of a wave board. Or look at the entirely opposite end of the market and compare that latest starboard formula board to one from 2001...chalk and cheese.
Regarding technique in board manufacture I don't think it has changed much in the last 10 years (probably even longer) apart from the much more common CNC'ing of blanks. I have an F2 from 1999, it's full carbon sandwich, weighs ~6.5 kg, arguably it's construction is exactly the same as my fanatic quad, save CNC blank and kevlar added in the weave which is a minor difference, the layup/construction technique for all intensive purposes is identical.
One thing I will agree with you though is that sails have come a long way in the last 10 years in terms of range of use/performance.
I remember a time when I was the master and Barney a grom.
Modern freestyle was still new,and at LBG I was the king of the lake because I could loop and vulcan. Many local riders had their noses smashed off their boards as all wanted to master the loop.
Not Barney, he cut a foot off a JP FSW before it got smashed
Freestyle has always been his style.
After years of travel and fun training and becoming an awesome windsurfer he has continued to ponder this concept.He then built his own prototypes and tested them .
He demonstated and proved it works.(but I knew the plywood fins was going to be a fizzer)
When we were learning the spock together there was no way I was going to do a cut and shut on a new JP pro.I guess till recently I prefered a traditional FS board(with a freeride fin),that works well for more oldschool freestyle,like me.
This year Alex is ready for newschool freestyle. We will learn together.How long until he too leaves me for dead?.
To acheive this Carbon Art are building Alex a newschool board. It will be 178x56cm and 65 l. Thats 45cm shorter than JP's kids freestyle and will make the prokids Flare look like a freeride board.
Wide , short,light,thick and twin fin! Yep twin,another of Barney,s ideas from long before this latest multifin fashion we have now.This board will be based totally on Barney's concept and what I have learnt from him(oops, sorry Barney, I forgot to ask if I could borrow your concept
).
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An unseen feature in the nose lol. As to 2015 and boards being 2 metres long, they will need to pull another old surfing theory out of the scrapheap and that was the old hollowed out blank with a gas injected into the hollow to create float. Btw this never actually eventuated. I have an alternate theory and hat is that length actually returns, now I'm not suggesting that longboards will be back (because they never left) but if the cycle of development continues to match the surfing cycle, boards will actually stop reducing in length and getting wider they will get slightly longer and narrower again.
A reduction in length or a multifin board is still not a breakthrough in Australia or anywhere else it's an evolution and like most forms of evolution it will result in an extinction. Not arguing that once in a while something will survive. The whole multifin thing was here in the 80s and has been around in surfing since the 70s. Board length has gone up and down the whole time as well.
Surfing learnt it's lesson and that is there are limited numbers of people that can actually ride the high performance twitchy boards the pros use, therefore don't build stuff for people that puts them off. Reduce rocker so it's usable, keep width to a level where it's friendly, make boards that are long enough so the average punter can use it
As far as thousands joining any army other than the Aussie one, probably not going to happen unless most other forms of water port are banned and choice is reduced. We have a sport that is struggling to attract new blood into it, where choices for recreation are increasing and sailing is being marginalised. So to he original thread North and Fanatic should be applauded for going down the path of making stuff fun, introducing colour, spending some coin on marketing because it may get one new kid into the sport and that kid may take the sport to the masses.
Haha, the first quiver of sails I bought was North, and I did own a Citroen, I think I even own a pair of ION board shorts!! there is an endless list.. The hypocrisy is mind numbing, I'm hardly Wesley Snipes.. That makes me an expert?
Anybody seen that move They Live from 1988?? It's like Boards and Less, and the GayPryde Group are the Aliens with formaldehyde faces.. You need some magic sunnies to see their evil controlling powers..
Few realise that the true innovators in the sport are New Zealand brand Niche Sails. Their Gay Pirate gear is totally revolutionary and it's a mistake that most windsurfers have turned their back on the Gay Pirate.
Kitesurfers however love the Gay Pirate and are willing to bend over backwards (and forwards) to get hold of Gay Pirate Kitesurfing gear. This is why Niche Kitesurfing is the most successful brand in the world and I am sure many windsurfers have some Gay Pirate Gear hidden away in their closets.
Don't forget those NP RS sails with zippers in the front, just like a pair of pants!
Now THAT'S innovation!
Pretty sure it was a shameless pimp from Arkim. I agree simon took the ideas that TF had in the drifter and played with it. I am going to side with Barn though in the innovation stakes. Great innovation comes in the manufacture side of the business more hardy product that comes cheaper (lol). My point about innovation is that moving a wide point forward or back and even making things wide and thin are not necessarily innovation. Battens come from sailing, most of the material comes from the same place. Two piece masts, innovation or evolution, I would say evolution to get things smaller and easier to pack or handle. Shorter boards will not necessarily be easier for the masses, boards can only get so short before physics takes over and the mast track bumps up against the footstraps. I don't agree that multi fins from the old days were any less usable than they are today. We understood fin placement in the surfing industry pretty well I think. Materials are heaps better today giving us the ability to determine flex characteristics much better. Some fin makers are actually creating flexy fins, I have been using flexible side fins for years and I reckon they are heaps better. Once again is that evolution or innovation?
I still would suggest that Simon building that thruster and making it work in a wide range of conditions was innovation at it's highest level. He opened up an entirely new part of the wave and it's still the dominant configuration in use almost 30 years later.
I actually can't think of anything in surfing or sailboarding that comes close. Once again happy to be shown otherwise.
