I've seen nothing written about this board so I thought I'd give a little review for anyone who comes across one and is curious.
foilboard.star-board.com/archive/2023-wingboard-range-archive/2023-xtra-race-wingfoil-board/
I found mine for sale at a very good price (under 500AUD used here in Canada) and have been meaning to try a sub bodyweight board for some time. This one is the 5'5" 65L and I am around 93kg.
For my bodyweight they consider this a high wind board and it's main design consideration is for racing which I don't do, but it has a bunch of strap positions and promises to be fairly efficient so I thought I'd take the risk to have something I can get into jumping while still being useful in our mellow ocean swells.
My current board is a 90L custom KT which could probably be considered a chubby mid-length at 5'10" by 25" with steep chines that reduce the bottom width. It's very efficient although lightly built without many footstrap positions which makes me hesitate to jump it.
By comparison the Xtra is 24" wide with boxy square rails. The board is extremely thin especially over the foil with a heavily sunk standing area, low nose rocker and an also windsurf foil board nose (more on this later). The tail seems to borrow from windsurfing as well with cutouts coming from quite far forward. The tracks are 16" and as usual my foil (PTM926) is at the very front.
Obviously this represents a big step down in volume and that was definitely humbling, especially since I had conditions which would have also required effort to get going on my 90L. The volume seems concentrated under the front foot when underwater but once you get it to the surface the tail provides a lot of area.
Lets talk about that nose since it was the first thing I really noticed:
It feels wide and low. The volume has me almost standing in front of the footstraps when under water, or with my back foot right next to the front. This does make getting it to the surface fairly easy but you really have to focus on keeping it out of the water when getting going since too much front foot pressure will submerge it easily even near foiling speeds. Breach recovery is not very graceful and I get the feeling this board has been developed for riders who rarely breach. I may play with some rake shims to get the board a little more nose up.
They claim the nose is designed for lower drag in the air but I don't think I'm fast enough to notice.
The tail:
The board felt efficient and very intuitive to get foiling once it was at the surface provided you are mindful of trimming the nose out of the water. The tail is well designed for efficient release, significantly better than the classic chisel tail on my KT. Once you're running on the surface the tail seems to gain volume from the very high sides of the sunk deck (looks to be almost 3cm deep at the back). It wants to go fast when on the water which I think would suit a faster HA foil whereas I'm currently on a fairly mild MA (PTM926).
The deck:
Yeah it's sunk DEEP. I like the feel of a dished deck and this one delivers, the tail almost has guard rails which I rather like as feedback for foot position since I only use the back strap to jump. The board is extremely thin through the standing area which feels fantastic to me, I seem to really notice board thickness as a sort of loose unstable feeling.
The footstraps:
Really nice set of Y straps is included along with T30 screws (love these). There are so many footstrap positions on this board that it boggles the mind. I'm currently almost all the way forward in order to balance the board when underwater but I can see moving rearward if I can get that technique more refined, or perhaps just having my foot in front of them when submerged since as mentioned once the tail is on the surface the apparent volume shifts to the rear.
Construction:
It's definitely not a board to go throwing down on hard beaches. The previous owner didn't ride it that much but still there are a few repaired dings and you can see where the carbon has been slightly exposed in other areas. The sharp rails seem to be particularly fragile. I will be doing rail tape before too long since all my local spots are quite rocky.
Conclusion:
It's hard to conclude after one session in conditions it wasn't made for with a foil which doesn't capitalize on it's strengths. Based on the price being very right I feel it's a reasonable purchase to gain experience on a smaller board and I feel it will meet my mission requirements, I wouldn't buy one new. I'm also looking at DW style boards to fit the bill of a lightwind option.
