When you ask someone about his or her favourite board, you expect it to be the one that helped them win a world title, or the one they first rode Jaws on.

Historically, wave boards were often thought of as highly individual pieces of kit that needed to be built around the sailor's characteristics, ability, and the location they'd be used in. However, with such varied conditions on the world tour, and very good production equipment being built, more and more sailors are starting to use off the shelf products which hold less sentimental value.

With so much development going on at the moment, we wanted to know what the professionals of today thought. So we asked some of this year's highest ranked PWA wave competitors which one board they treasure the most.

Here's what they had to say:

Josh Angulo (Angulo, MauiSails, DaKine)

"My Chango 88 production board. In the last 6 down the line wave events 3 in Hawaii and 3 in Cabo Verde, I've had 4 firsts and 2 seconds on that same production shape. There's definitely something to be said about the ease of replacing your favorite shape when you ride production boards. It also works sick in all the small wave spots and the onshore spots around Sal. So it's a one board fits all scenario."

Kevin Pritchard (Starboard, Gaastra, DaKine)

"Oh man that is a hard one. I have an old faithful that I haven't ridden in a while and it won me a world title, along with a couple of events, so that is my favorite one. It's a 78L single fin, with a slow rocker but is really fast once it gets going."

Klass Voget (Fanatic, NeilPryde, MFC)

"For me it's got to be the 2010 Fanatic NewWave76. It's a 76L, 55cm wide, single fin with the Newwave-rocker. I use an MFC 2K 21 or 21.5 with it. And it just so happens to be the board I used in Sylt this year!"

Robby Swift (JP, NeilPryde)

"I have a 74L twin fin that is 7'6" long and 21 ?" wide. It is simply the best board I have ever had. I've had to repair all the heels and the mast track, but I still keep it because I just can't find anything better!"

Kauli Seadi (JP, NeilPryde, MFC, Mormaii)

"At the moment mine is a 74L quad fin which is just magic."

Victor Fernadez (Fanatic, North, MFC)

"My favourite is a 79L, 56cm wide quad fin. It has more rocker than my other boards and it's just awesome."

So there you have it, some of the pros have a trusty old favourite that has some sentimental value, whilst others are hooked on their new multi fin boards. A few prefer their customs whilst others are more than happy on production models. I wonder what we'll see on tour next year.