I’m looking into getting a new board as my current one is old and leaking in the tracks. I currently live in Hawaii, so I was interested trying a custom Majek from Glenn Pang, but I’m not sure how much that would cost brand new. Anyone have exprience with Freedom Foilboards? I saw some online that were on sale for a decent price. I currently ride a 3’10" x 20" x 31L and I’m interested in lowering my liters to the 25-28L range as I weigh 135 lbs.
I would also like to work on doing a downwinder one day, so if there’s any hybird boards that can do both would be cool.
If you want to stay with local brands the Amundson boards are really cool. I had a Firebolt V2 a while back and liked it. It’s going to be narrower and longer which will be good for shore runners " mini DW". It’s much more of a shortboard outline similar to some of the freedom boards. Price wise the Freedom boards are most likely on sale. I have personally never ridden one but have heard they sometimes have issues with tracks failing. Again no personal experience but I have to share what I have heard. In my opinion construction wise Appletree is the best. If you ding it you tech don’t have to fix it. Majak actually does some models with them as well that are in that lower liter you’re looking for. You may have noticed a change recently in prone board outlines having a wide tail which I personally am a fan of. It gives it a more surfy vibe and allows you to bank off your back foot more where on some other boards they have needed turn initiation from the front foot. I personally ride the Omen Flux in 36 liters which is on the high side of volume for me. I am in your weight range and have ridden small 25 liter boards and I personally like them more in pump but I don’t mind the ease of paddling the 36 liter. Anyway I do a little Youtube channel and have some info on you stuff I was talking about. Feel free to check it out if you like. Non the less I think even going from 3’10 x 20 to 4’4x 18 its going to feel like a completely different board.
Amudson supermodel is narrow and hard to get used to but it really pays off. Everything else feels clunky now.
The narrow outline makes whitewater takeoffs much less stable but your in Hawaii where you get smooth blue water take offs – I bet it’s the ideal board.
If you’re on Oahu, Majek boards show up used fairly often on craigslist and facebook, including ones around your size about half the price of a new one. They are really well made boards and popular for a reason. Amudson is running a good sale right now, but nothing in the 25-28L range.
