Windsurfing A Way Of Life

So no posts for a few days sorry about that been a bit short of time in the evenings. Here in Dahab we have had a few great days of wind you can see the stats here . Its pretty busy right now but with strong wind all day at the moment I have been getting the chance to go out and have some fun.

Yesturday and the day before managed to get out into the swells with my Beast 84 and a 5.0 Voodoo which was great fun and today I have been playing with the new Mistral Syncro 92 2007. This board is amazing I want one of my own but in the lite weight edition they now make which weighs in nearly 1kg less than the standard model. Having said that the standard model is not heavy either.

This board is great, sails really well. I have been using it with the straps set on the outside. The board is fast, feels exciting and is a carving machine. The new channels in the deck really work and make this board feel smaller than it is when carving. Today I took it out into the swells with a 5.3 North Voodoo for a couple of hours (day off today). The swells were small but I had a lot of fun riding them on this 92 Syncro. It turns hard when you want it to and is very controlable. I gave it a full thrashing upwind to see how it behaved and then a full thrashing downwind on both points of sail it was fun and fast especially the downwind run dropping off down the swells. The nose of the board did not bury and although it was gving me an adrenaline rush it was not difficult to keep everything under control.

Now anyone who has sailed here in Dahab will know the swells are very confused and bumpy so total comfort is not easy to acheive but I have become a total fan of this board.

Stats for the Mistral Syncro 92 2007

• 92 litres
• length 245
• width 59cm
• construction carbon sandwich
• rec sail size 4.5 - 6.2
• wave fin / Powerbox 27cm

Key Features

Double concave hull deck channels for increased strength, performance and comfortswallow tail for smoother more aggresive turnsnose chine on the bottom for water redirection and control in radicla manouversKai Hopf G10 FinAnyone who is looking for a board like this must try one it is a really goof fun exciting bit of kit that feels a lot more alive than the 2006 Syncro 90 and previous models.The 102 is also amazing and really good fun but i'll write you a little about that shortly. plus update you on Manolis testing of the Joker 102The only sad thing is that the swells are so far away from the beach that its difficult to get any action shots without the use of a boat. Anyway when it quietens down a bit will try to get the guys out there with the boat and my camera to get a few pics for you all to see. So for now you will all just have to live with some close up shots of the kit.Tonight its blowing like hell outside so we hope tomorrow will be windy again Inshallah.Happy sailing, have fun and maybe see you out here in the desert sometime.PS Sorry bout my poor photoshop skills at cutting the board pics out of the complete pictures they were in the fins doesn;t really have a rough back edge etc :-)

Ok So here is the first of the 2007 Mistral boards I have tried and I have to say it is very different to the Joker 109 of 2006. The 2006 Joker was a 109 litres and although it was a freestyle board it did freeride quite well and also was quite good for carving moves as well.

The new 2007 Joker 102 is a completly different board. If you are into the new school moves such as vulcans, spocks, Grubbies etc then you must try this board. Personaly this kind of windsurfing doesn't float my boat but this new Joker is a real 100% pure new school freestyle board. It gets on the plane early, pops out of the water easily and is really designed to slide around.

The tail of the board has been changed completely compared to any other Joker. It now has cutouts to help redirect water while doing fast freestyle moves. The nose of the board has also been changed to allow for smoother switch stance riding. The footpads on this board are also very comfortable, they are the new mistral airpod style design which are also on the other boards in the range.

The other great thing about the new Joker as well as the Syncro's and Beasts is that they all come as standard with the new Kai Hopf G10 fins (FAB)

The stats for the stats for the board are :-

• volume 102length 242width 66
• construction carbon-kevlar sandwich
• rec sail size 5.0-6.9 but I have used it with 4.7 and its absolutly fine
• fin size 25 cm freestyle fin powerbox

If you are not used to sailing a pure freestyle board and are not looking to do all the new school moves then this is probably not the board for you but IF YOU ARE!!! then it is most definatly worth trying to get a demo on one so you can experience this great freestyle board.