My Board CV – October 2023

Author: Jon Mann

So I am by no means an early adopter of SUP foil downwinding, but over the last 1.5years I’ve seen and had a significant change in boards on the market and that I’m riding. I’ve also answered a lot of questions on board selection (tried to address some of that in the downwind board blog) but I thought it might be good to go through the boards I’ve had (excluding any boards I’ve briefly tested for reviews), the pros and the cons of each and the main learning I got from each board. 

One thing I’d like to emphasise. There are no bad boards. There are boards that might be harder to use and easier to use, this doesn’t make a board bad or good, it just means you can learn something different from it. I’ve managed to downwind successfully on all the boards in this blog. I don’t attribute this to skill (I had the ‘harder’ boards when my skill level was lower), and I actually really dislike it when people go ‘but X person is a freak/ natural talent / etc so of course they can’, I feel this discredits the learning and effort that said person has put into learning the sport, regardless of how long it took or how skilled they are. The ’right’ or the ‘best’ board is the one that suits your needs the best. This will vary from person to person based on skill, style, priorities etc. So let’s not go around imposing our views and opinions on what the best board is whenever people ask for advice. The one you think is the best is the one that suits your needs best. So when giving advice I always try to give context and why i think various aspects are important instead of ‘X board is the best’.  

AK Durable Supply Phazer V2 5’10” x 28” 110L 

When I first started looking at SUP foil downwinding, it was really hard to get hold of boards in The Netherlands without being on a decently sized waiting list or paying heft import fees. So I figured that a large wingboard with a decent enough shape (the Phazer is made as a multisport crossover board, so covers SUP foiling too) would be fine. For me I figured that since the lakes at home had short stacked bumps would mean that bump selection would be more crucial than the glide of the board. I also wanted the width for stability. First and foremost I needed to learn to paddle with this board. Thanks to how short it was I really had to refine my technique as short boards don’t track straight well at all. I spent a few months on this board dialling in my paddle ups and SUP foiling a couple of times 

Pros: Super stable, easy to sup foil

Cons: Hard to paddle straight at the start, draggy

Biggest learning: Bump selection. Even with this board I had some paddle ups in the bumps that only took 2-3 strokes. I learnt a lot about patience in the bumps and waiting for the right bump. 

Release 6’4” x 24” 105L 

Whilst I was figuring it out on the wing board, my brother started building this board for me. We based it off the Kalama E3 with the idea of making it nice and all around as well. This board is super fun to SUP foil (still use it these days). For me the added glide was great, paddle ups became even easier. I learnt to flatwater paddle up this board (First on the Axis 1310 then on the 1010) and also did my first ocean runs with this board 

Pros: Still stable, better glide

Cons: I don’t actually have a con for this board for my skill level at the time. But for the smaller foils I use now, it’s probably a little draggy. 

Biggest learning: Paddle pump. This board touched down like a dream and really allowed me to work on learning to paddle pump. 

Appletree 7’3” x 21” Skipper Proto 100L 

I was lucky enough that the guys at Appletree asked me to try out an early proto of the skipper. This board had a fully rounded displacement hull (way before the KT dragonfly, and much rounder). It was super easy to paddle and get board speed with and unlocked some (at the time for my level) ridiculous low wind runs on the lake (went as low as 12 knots gusting 16, but that wasn’t fun) as well as unlocking my first flatwater paddle ups with the HPS 1050 that I couldn’t get with the 6’4”. I also did my first downwind run with the ART 999 on this board. 

Pros: Easy to get speed thanks to the displacement hull

Cons: Less stable due to how round the hull was

Biggest learning: Although not much less volume than my 6’4” (100 vs 105), I realised that longer boards need more volume. Due to the 100L being spread over more board, each square cm of board was therefore less buoyant. This made the tail and the nose easier to push into the water and made the board feel a bit ‘sinkier’. Also made me realise the benefits of a displacement hull or a V hull (which I had on my appletree pro foil prone board)

Release 6’6” x 21.5” 100L 

Whilst riding the Appletree I asked my brother if he could build me an allround travel board. One I could use for sup foiling (hence why I didn’t go so narrow) and downwinding whilst also being bombproof. We put a stepped / slanted tail on it after seeing Erik from the progression project posting abount his thoughts on this (something that’s appearing on more and more boards now) and a v hull for faster planing. I really really love this board. It helped open up North sea runs for me as well as being really surfy and fun to ride. When I went to Hood River I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect board. 

Pros: Super fun allround dims. I can still flatwater paddle up decent sized foils on it. Solid. Easy to paddle up in bumps. 

Cons: We built it strong, at the expense of weight. It’s just shy of 7kg, though I must say it’s not really a con. 

Biggest learning: Ok on this whole board development timeline I’m not accounting for improvement in my skills. But with this board my paddle up confidence got much higher, meaning I was much more willing to push my riding and work on my style as opposed to trying to just ace runs. 

KT Dragonfly 7’7” x 20” 110L 

I ended up on a dragonfly by chance / luck. Originally I wanted to build another board with my brother with the view of easier North Sea runs in lighter winds and possible racing in the future but he was busy with other board orders and big boards take time. Secondly I was trying to plan to have this board in a short time frame in order to be able to train on it in my limited time at home for the DW race in France. This ruled out a few brands due to lead times. I then happened to be chatting to Marco from Wakestyle about dock starting when he mentioned he was putting in a pre order for the Dragonfly and could get me on the list with delivery exactly when I needed it. 

Anyway, long waffle. This board is great – it’s speculated to be one of the best boards on the market (can’t confirm nor deny having not tried all the boards out there, but it’s for sure good). Easy to paddle up (Paddled up the spitfire 840 with it). Pretty fun to ride (not sure on the raised deck at the back personally) and extremely light. Like the 6’6” this board gave me so much confidence in my paddle up that I didn’t even care about coming off foil. This let me get used to riding smaller foils as go to’s. 

Pros: Insanely easy to paddle up. 

Cons: In my opinion maybe too lightweight construction. Haven’t damaged mine, but know a couple people who have dinged theirs pretty easy. 

Biggest learning:

I actually find the board could be narrower as it’s so stable. I had never truly realised how much length does for stability (kind of obvious but yeh…). But I also learned how to downwind at faster speeds as I could use faster foils. 

Appletree Skipper DW (Narrow) 7’7” x 20” 110L 

So, it was always a matter of time before I ended up riding an Appletree downwind board and I’m stoked at the opportunity to be a part of the Appletree family. Appletree has been a significant part of my foiling journey. Wieger was one of the guys who guided me and helped me with my prone journey as I was starting out and was integral in helping me build my relationship with Axis foils which led to me being an Axis ambassador. My Pro Foil 4’6” (though the v1) was a key part of my foiling progress (wing and prone), so much so that it still features in my quiver as one of my prone boards and my main travel board thanks to its insane construction (3 years on and still going strong). 

Appletree have been slowly refining their shape and this is one of the new stock sizes. I love the fact it has the same dims as my KT which allows me to compare it to the KT as well as I can.  The board has a much more pulled in tail than earlier iterations of the Skipper, this lets it release really well and the front is a bit flatter with a bit of a v double in the front. 1 week in and I’m really loving how responsive it is (bit thinner than most production boards). I’ve done 2 really good North Sea runs in both light wind (Noordwijk Parnassia – 20km) and ticked a goal off by foiling Scheveningen Ijmuiden (46km) in decent wind (18-25 knots) that was slightly too onshore to be ideal. The board touches down really well and literally ‘skips’ back off the water. I’m yet to try to flatwater start it as it’s just been windy since I’ve had it, so will add an update here once I’ve done that.

Pros: Responsive, best construction in the industry?

Cons: For some maybe the weight (just under 7kg with pad and all), but really not found this to be an issue for me. This is because of the closed cell foam that is used that allows Appletree to build such bombproof boards that you can ride even with massive cracks in them (speaking from experience) without worrying that they soak up water. The DW boards have lighter cores (I think, don’t quote me on that’), but I think durability and sustainability (who wants a board that gets damaged easily anyways and takes on water?) are more important than half a kilo at the end of the day. 

Biggest learning:

Still early days – so hard to say. Biggest achievement is foiling Scheveningen to Ijmuiden (46 km) with this, which has been a goal to do for a while. This also says a lot about how easy it is to paddle up and how stable it is as the conditions were pretty rough.

If you made it this far, thanks! Long read, but each board I’ve had has taught me something new. For those unsure what to buy I’d really look at

– What can I get the soonest? Is the wait worth the trade of vs skill development?

– What skills do I need to learn? How will this board help me address that? Does it suit the conditions I DW in?

There is no best board, so take peoples advice with a pinch of salt as often they are trying to validate or justify their choices (my opinion, not too fussed if you disagree, but then again you could be one of those people who adamantly tries to impose their opinions on those, so then I’d just encourage some self reflection). 

Lastly, you can’t buy your skills and nothing beats time invested. The guy on the ‘sub optimal’ gear that goes often will always surpass the guy that buys all the so called ‘best gear’ but barely practices. At the end of the day the gear improvements make getting on foil easier, but that’s the easy part. The staying on foil part is more related to skill than gear.