iv been looking at freestyle and am wanting to get into it, but just for future knolledge what board manufacturrs are making freestyle board, and what board are out there. besides the JP freestyle i dont really know of many and to keep me from searching the web i thought the forum may just payoff again

KeepSailing
jordan

I guess you mean Naish Freestyle and Mistral Joker.
Just about every board brand makes one. Most of the importers only bring them in if you pre-order them and are prepared to wait.
The Starboard Flare is a great board and last I heard the guys at Auswind have got one in stock.

ive got a jp freestyle 100. absolutely sick board. just got a new 20cm mfc freestyle pro to go with it. the boards plane super early, i will be going with a 5.8 when my dad is going on a 9m and 125L. so basically just get a jp.

the flik-flak sail sail stuff (helitacks, monkey gybes etc) is learnable on any floaty board, but i personally reckon you'll advance quicker on a dedicated freestyle board if you want to learn the slidey stuff (vulcans/spocks etc) + a sub 24cm fin with a really thin profile seems to be the go. I definately find that the so-called 25cm freestyle fin that came with my 2008 99 jp freestyle is not as predicatble in slides as a basic wave fin or for example the 2005 23cm mistral freemove fin or the 23cm orange painted 2007 JP freestyle-wave fin, plus the JP fin that came with the 2008 board is g10, no flex, and weighs twice as much - but i reckon the board itself is terriffic. however; once you get good enbough you'd probably be able to do any trick on any equipment - I'm just not there yet

whatever you buy, be prepared to change your sailing technique a bit. most slalom sailors hate freestyle boards because they have soft rails and you can't load up the fin when pointing upwind, particularly if you use a sub 20cm fin. they are alot more like wave boards. They tend to require you to sink most of the windward rail in order to really point high, keeping 50% or most of your body weight on the front leg. you do get used to them and eventually realise that the pros outweigh the cons when it comes to being able to slide them around n stuff, just take a bit of getting used to. Don't fall into the trap of sticking a slalom fin in it becuase you are used to having a big dagger fin that you can load up. i know that most would find this a really bad analogy, but the technique used to point high on a soft railed, tiny finned board is similar to getting a kite board to point into the wind while kiting

forgot to add - DON"T GIVE UP! even after a couple of years of fairly constant practice (that's the beauty of windsurfing) there is only two of us on the GC who can manage to vulcan with any consistency and i'm only now just managing to to pull off some spocks on flat water it's like you need to learn the tricks all over again for different conditions but being young and rubber boned like yourself, in a wonderfully windy place like WA, you should be teaching us how to do the rest of this stuff well within two years time

wow/ thanks guys. i like the look of the flare. but i alsothimnk the air would be good too. a bit more friendly in other areas

Haircut said...
[i know it's just my opinion, but cripes naish come up with some horrid looking board graphics / colour schemes the design looks like they are in cahoots with JP but they printer was colourblind

Granted the web graphics look terrible, but from what i've seen of the boards look great in the flesh.

well im hoping to get my hand on johns board, but i have no money at the moment, so i will try some get rich quick schemes and hopfully have a new freestyle board soon

well im pretty sold on the chilli now, so im selling my board and getting extra shifts to try get it just hope it doesnt sell before i get enough

turf dogs are land windsurfing boards, they look sweet for land but dont think they would go to well in the water

If you can find a JP Freestyle from 2006 or earlier, they are brilliant freestyle boards AND great freeride board. The 2007 is a wonderful freestyle board but doesn't sail in a straight line all that well.

Side note: Agree about Naish graphics...their boards used to be sharp...loved all the skull and crossbones stuff.

I have a 07 jp freestyle 91L I would like to swap for the next size up