Tardy said..
I just brought a 120 Patrik Frace ,2017-18 model ,i have a 2013-14 115 v1 ,I'm going to test them with my GPS Watch to see if free race boards are as fast as full slalom ,anyone done a test like this ?? ,the 120 was designed off the 115 v4 ,I'm only interested in top speed ,but it sure does gybe nicer and seems to get up on the plane quicker with the flatter rocker line ...115 v1 is 69,5 wide 120 ,70 so should get a fair test .the 120 seems to carry a 8,5 a bit better .really nice board to sail . was really nice is chop .

I'm guessing it will come down to conditions ,one will be faster ..than the other ..

If a board is more user friendly it will allow mere mortals to put the foot down.. I'm getting better speeds with my WT than my slalom because I'm game and keen to go for it..
The WT is confidence inspiring , fast , comfy and doesn't threaten to bury into the back of the chop in front.

Im gonna go somewhere in between and say for a mere mortal trying to achieve speeds in chop, maybe/quite possibly faster.


down a flat water speed strip where you can push a slalom board as hard as you like, probably no.


this is talking about us mortals here. A PWA sailor, or anyone else born without the ability to foresee catastrophe is always going to do better on a full slalom board than on a free race.

Surf Mag did a comparison and the general consensus across the 5 brands were if you put a proper slalom fin instead of the free race's cheap G10 fin there wasn't much difference in top speed, the slalom only a couple of KPH faster. The JP, Fanatic & Tabou were very close, Starboard & RRD less so.
There was more of a gap for comfort, ease of use and gybing. It wouldn't surprise me if 500m alpha (gybe) speeds would be faster on the freerace kit.

You can download the entire test for 2 euros and do copy/paste from the PDF into google translate.

www.surf-magazin.de/boards/freerace/test-2020-freeraceboards-gegen-worldcup-boliden



Test 2020: Freeraceboards against World Cup bolides
June 15, 2020

Slalom boards are considered to be more powerful than freerace boards. But will the boards perhaps - as a "stall order" - be throttled with the series fin? This test determines the actual differences with 10 boards under fair conditions.

Hardly any other racing class offers that: For "only" around 20 to 25 percent surcharge, in addition to the leisure racer, the original professional bullet is available in the shop. At RRD, the X-Fire World Cup board costs the same as the more moderate Freeracer Firestorm - apart from the lack of a fin. Sometimes that tempts you. We therefore compared five pairs with one another - with identical sails and fins. With the boards from JP-Australia, RRD, Starboard and Tabou, we were able to test the freeraceboards against each other with the supplied series fins. Fanatic doesn't have a similarly wide pair, here we had to go for the next (75) size instead of the 71 width - which in turn is not offered by other brands. A cross-comparison with the four other freeracers is not useful because of the larger width and volume at Fanatic. For the heats "Slalom Raceboard versus Freeraceboard" the boards from Tabou were equipped with 37 fins, RRD, Starboard and JP with 38 fins and the Fanatics were equipped with 40 fins.You can find the entire test of these board pairs with all overview tables, data and grades as a PDF below in the download area.

Fanatic Jag 125 LTD vs Slalom 121 TE
JP-Australia SuperSport 111 PRO vs Slalom 71 PRO
RRD Firestorm 120 LTD vs X-Fire 114 LTD
Starboard Futura 107 Carbon vs iSonic 72 Carbon Reflex
Tabou Rocket + 113 Carbon Flex vs Manta 71 Team

elmo said..
Free race boards aren't slow, I got a 39 using a 71 Rocket wide with a 31cm weedy.

However,

I was continually getting passed by guys on Slalom gear so went down that path again.

39 and getting passed , on slalom gear ,
youve got fast company . I'm trying to crack 30 and I'm feeling fast.
begs the question ,
in the right conditions , what could a 80 wide , slalom board do. .? For normal people in the right gust .
I gots one , just never taken it out in anger.

Depends on your skill.
A top race car driver pushes his race car to the limit.
You drive his car 10 seconds a lap slower.
But you can drive a detuned race car faster than you can drive a pro's car.

some fair comments and your are all right . ,I just feel i want to push the 120 f race so hard the fin pops out ..its that kinda feeling i get out of it ..push me ..it is longer than the 115 feels narrower and less rocker ,or i should say a flatter stance area .

Wednesday is lining up 20 knots ...Let the games begin .56 kms /hour here i come .

nice speed Elmo ..I have not been past 36 ,so your kicking my arse ,
your right everything has to line up ..tide ,wind direction and **** loads of wind .and the balls to take it there ...

Tardy what was the outcome? Did the wind God's deliver.

I HAD A 38 Fin on the 120 ,didn't slip out ,but felt it needed more with the 8,5 ,great board and a true free racer and great in a bit of chop to ,i would rather ride this in chop than the manta ..its smooth as silk .if you like a slightly longer feeling board and narrower ,get a F race .
its got speed ,basically its just a nice board to go for a blast .and will carry a 8,5 no problem .

full moon ,someone pulled the plug and left a little bit for me to sail on ...i will post a short vid soon ..

..and fast freeride sails, you can rig .5 to 1.5 meter smaller sails, same low end, same top end..and waaay easier.

Tardy said..
I just brought a 120 Patrik Frace ,2017-18 model ,i have a 2013-14 115 v1 ,I'm going to test them with my GPS Watch to see if free race boards are as fast as full slalom ,anyone done a test like this ?? ,the 120 was designed off the 115 v4 ,I'm only interested in top speed ,but it sure does gybe nicer and seems to get up on the plane quicker with the flatter rocker line ...115 v1 is 69,5 wide 120 ,70 so should get a fair test .the 120 seems to carry a 8,5 a bit better .really nice board to sail . was really nice is chop .

I'm guessing it will come down to conditions ,one will be faster ..than the other ..

I am pondering a similar question because I "need to buy" a new large slalom board (large at my weigh means 70-72 wide). At some level the question seems irrelevant: you will not see a pro-level sailor racing slalom on a freerace board, case closed. But if you are not racing slalom in a category where a handful of seconds make the difference between win or loose I suspect that the difference might be irrelevant.

Based on my GPS results I top out at around 31-33 knots, no matter which one of my 80-100 liters slalom boards I have used in the last ten years. There is a clear speed difference with my FSW boards. They top out at 25-28 knots, and they are harder to handle when sailed overpowered. But the slalom boards top out is clearly due to water conditions: there is basically never flat water where I sail, and my only 36 knots 2" happened in lucky days taking advantage of a short lived a window of flat water.

Now, with my big slalom, Isonic 111, I never broke the 30 knots barrier. And that is simply because I rig too small for the 12-15 knots of wind I use my Isonic in. Put on the Isonic a 8.0, go out in 20 knots of wind and if I were to survive the un-enjoy-able ride ... I would probably ... top out at 31-33 knots.

And taking of sails my impression is that the same is true when it comes to cam vs no-cams. My GPS results are actually faster with my no-cam Point-7 ACX than with my Hot Sail Maui GPS race. I am not sure why. Is it because point-7 builds faster sail? But given how easy to handle is the ACX I am pretty sure that I would have had better results on an ACX in the local slalom races than I ever did on a full on race sail.

So, moral of the story. I am not sure what exactly a pure slalom race board would buy me, and I am tempted to go, say, Futura instead of Isonic, simply because of the promise of a more comfortable ride with the Futura.

Cams vs no cams? I am so happy with my 2020 ACX which are somehow even better than my 2018, but ... I am ordering a two-cams-below-the-boom ACZ 6.8 for 2021 ... just to see if it buys me a tiny bit more marginal conditions/underpowered performance.

Around '05, I bought one of Matt Pritchard's regects, a Z made blur AHD 9'er.
Just over 9 lbs., hard rails all around, 22.5"wide.
Rode it twice, turned it over to Linda Moser.
Ok in flats, impossible around corners and any chop.

I'm not a racer, but I found the Isonic and the JP slalom I had, compare to freerace, they were quicker to get going after a jibe, they were accelerated quicker and downwind they seemed to be quicker on my gps but on a normal reach..quite similar. Like I said, I'm not a racer.

None of those boards are relevant to current designs, and most are not the slightest bit relevant to Australian sailors. (You know this is an Australian based forum, right?)

BTW, I also had 110 Isonics and Futura to compare and test side by side with mates. On flat water, Futura faster off the wind, Isonic faster acceleration out of Gybes, upwind and early planing. On a 500m figure 8 course it was about even.

But in the 87L sizes, Isonic faster everywhere.

In rough and choppy water in 25 knots plus, a wave board was faster because I could not sail the others flat out for more than a few minutes before blowing up. But then most slalom races dont last for more than a few minutes, and the top races are super fit.

sailquik said..
None of those boards are relevant to current designs, and most are not the slightest bit relevant to Australian sailors. (You know this is an Australian based forum, right?)

BTW, I also had 110 Isonics and Futura to compare and test side by side with mates. On flat water, Futura faster off the wind, Isonic faster acceleration out of Gybes, upwind and early planing. On a 500m figure 8 course it was about even.

But in the 87L sizes, Isonic faster everywhere.

In rough and choppy water in 25 knots plus, a wave board was faster because I could not sail the others flat out for more than a few minutes before blowing up. But then most slalom races dont last for more than a few minutes, and the top races are super fit.

Ah! thank you that is valuable information! The whole discussion race vs freerace is a bit moot unless one compares specific boards, so nice to get some input Futura vs Isonic. Surprising that the Futura is a faster downwind, although it is a slightly smaller board than the corresponding Isonic ...