fastest flat water 14

anyone tested with a gps and is not biased?? be interested to know which is working best. production 14 over say 2km flat water...???

Yes, PeterP is right. And the board that is fastest for someone else might not be fastest for you. So even if you could determine which is the fastest board across a whole group of people (and PT Woody and his crew had a good go a couple of years ago ) it still wouldn't mean it is the right choice for you. Most of the top flat water boards are very similar in speed. So you just have to try them and find one you enjoy paddling. You will probably find that you are fastest on that.

There are a few boards out there that are pretty slow, however, and should be avoided if you are serious about racing. You'll find out which they are when you try them. The most common problem IMO is not getting the tail rocker right so the board's arse drags pretty much no matter where you stand or what your weight.

Mostly the boards are good at what they are designed to do. So a pure flat water board of a particular length and width will generally be faster in pure flat water than an all-rounder raceboard of the same length and width. But of course the all-rounder will be faster in sea/chop (typically). There's nothing particularly magic being discovered year on year. IMO the big manufacturers are generally producing boards each year that will sell, and this means not producing the same as last year because few people are going to buy another board if it performs exactly the same function as the one they already have. Personally I rather like seeing a good shape evolve over several years to be better. But clearly that strategy doesn't sell. So instead it's all change from year to year, whether the old design was a good one or not.

But it sounds to me like you have essentially answered your own question.

I agree.. The 14' Jav is still right up there with the fastest boards.

The 14 Naish LE 23 is pretty fast in the flats , my old starboard ace was also , but any chop with it and it was hopeless. My new Coreban turbo is also very fast , it is actually the only board I have paddled that keeps going faster the harder you paddle it. I found with some boards you would get them to hull speed I guess and the effort to get them above this is just to much. Only down side to the turbo is that it is heavy so suits a bigger rider. The Lahui boards are also good in the flats. But it always comes down to the jockey

Mistral M2.

The SR-71 Blackbird of flat water race boards. Inspired by Olympic flat-water kayak racing craft, this hollow carbon model is 14' X 24.4" and extremely light.

Im pretty sure he paddled a nsp dc 14 by 24 dugout but I could be wrong.

www.seabreeze.com.au/News/Stand%20Up%20Paddle/The-New-Coreban-Sonics-Have-Arrived_7895509.aspx

The weight of the m2 is insane.
Probably in the 8 kg range. As for being really fast, it didn't look as fast in the water as it did out of the water.

Another thing I noticed is that it makes a massive wake, perfect for drafting. Eheheh!
That's probably due to the fact that it has a conical rail profile.

Looking at what top riders use tells you nothing about which board is fast - it only tells you which companies pay who to ride what they give them.

As others have noted, it's basically impossible to do a proper test of what's fastest. The best methodology, in all likelihood, is to somehow get access to several different boards and run several dozen time trials on each board over weeks. If you randomly determine which board you use each time, the law of large numbers should provide a decent estimate.

Even then, your test won't be blind. This means that your personal biases will impact your results: For example, you personally like Fanatic's color scheme so you try a bit harder on that one. You think such and such brand rider is a wanker, so you try less hard on that one. That may sound trivial, but the effect is well known in the experimental literature and WILL impact your times.