Pretty cool, and dare I say, a bit quirky! Cutting edge (hollow PVC), and yet the dims are quite a bit more compact than other popular parawing boards. Will be curious if folks can make a 4-10 work outside of Maui and Hood River. I wonder what it feels like?
Interesting, for example, for the new KT Arc not to come out with a hollow option.
Will this sink if you get a ding in your board offshore?
I stand corrected.
hdip, that’s not the same construction. Patrik was using very thick nomex honeycomb, which I’m not yet seeing in any foil boards. They all seem to be using something like 80kg/m3 PVC foam as the sandwich - much cheaper and easier to work with. But twice the density of honeycomb. In general, the hollow boards probably won’t sink, but they might be very nearly neutral bouyancy depending on how heavy the foil is and how thick the sandwich core construction is.
I have no doubt this would work anywhere with solid wind. 20-25mph and a 3.6+PW and you’re good. Doubt you’re saving much in weight vs other sandwich construction options, but the added stiffness probably feels very very good, and counters the extra thickness needed to hit volume in the shorter length.
I think appletree is using honeycomb in their upcoming hollow boards. In typical appletree fashion they said they are optimizing for durability and stiffness and not weight though. They said the boards would be about 20% lighter than their standard construction, which would put an appletree hollow about on par with a custom traditional sandwich in terms of weight. The brm offering at 3.1kg for 60l is definitely lighter
that nomex honeycomb is fairly expensive, but then again so it a hollow board.
Tested it yesterday and will have it on hand to share for the season. Crazy parawinging something that small! I’m 90kg with all my wet gear so being on a 60l 4’10"x21" board seemed silly but it pairs well with the range of the S3’s. I wouldn’t recommend it for a beginner, but far easier than expected to get on foil.
Board construction is not my skillset but Greg said no, it doesn’t take on water if cracked. He had a proto damaged by the airline and he never bothered to repair, or even tape the damage. Never took on water.
Is it too thick? How it felt upwind?
I’m thinking of thickness as something that affects (just a little but it does) in powered conditions to do the UDW laps? Any comments on this?
Good questions.
I will need some time on it to get to know it well. Thickness at the center is about 5" max, but the standing area is recessed a bit. It’s thinner at the foilbox.
Maneuverability was extremely high, yet not twitchy for footswaps. Upwind seemed normal first session but I wasn’t going downwind far. I was nervous about not getting back on foil and swimming home. Confidence was much higher in my ability to restart it after an hour or so on the water but I had to head home, just a short intro.
My waterstart time went from 7 minutes first try, to 5 minutes second try, to 2 minutes third try.