This is not your regular windsurf waveboard, and finding any information on it is next to impossible. So since I have one and found a lot information in an old Windsurf magazine from the year 1998, when the board came out, I made this post.
The Fanatic Fly 290 was made in 1998 and for one year only, so I think it is fair to assume that it was not very popular, as it is a specialist board. The Fanatic Fly 290 have a classic Malibu/longboard surf shape with a lenght of 290 cm (about the classic 9'6") and have a volume somewhere between 90 and 100 liters (haven't been able to find the right number), and is on the heavy side at about nine kilo which is probably due to it having three US finboxes and a masttrack that all need reinforcements and it have probably been beefed up further to make it more durable as a production board. But compared to the boards in the test it is only about 1 kilo heavier, but for a board made for light winds, heavy is not what you want, but the lenght make up for this in the "get up and go" ability. A longer board will plane sooner than a shorter board, but the long/short board is a totally different discussion.... ;-)
Data
Lenght: 290 cm (~9'6")
Width: 58,5 cm
Volume: ??
O.F.O: 38 cm (nose)
O.F.O: ?? cm (tail)
1 metre off: 56 cm (nose)
Wide point from tail: 131 cm
Mast track from tail: 140 cm
Finboxes: 3
Toe-in: 0 degrees
Tail lift: 17 mm
Weight 8,9 kg
The board has an insert to attach a leash so it can double as a surfboard, but with regular grip this is not really an option (unless you have a really old wetsuit), or you do as the previous owner did, sand down the grip and replace it with wax, but the wax is just not ideal for windsurfing. The last option would be adding a deckpad all over the board, like a SUP, but that adds weight to an already fairly heavy board....
Disclaimer: I have not tried it in "surfboard mode" - only as a windsurfer.
My history with this board...
I bougth this board back in 2012 as a "very light wind" waveboard after having experimented with converted SUP's that never quite worked as expected.
At that time the options where either SUP's with mast inserts or the Kona waveboards for this purpose.
I had a few great sessions on it, as it has the possibility to "float & ride" and make it possible to wait for the waves and then catch them. (See one here; https://vimeo.com/42694161 )
I lost the board after three month and got a AHD Sealion instead which is the ultimate board for this purpose, and I only used it once since I got it back in 2014 and it have been sitting in my garage ever since.
But I've now decided to give it a light renovation and a new chance in the quiver this season - more on this in a later post.
This is the board test scanned from the UK Windsurf Mag from 1998:
This is a feature of the board with a little history of it scanned from the UK Windsurf Mag from 1998.
--------
An alternative to this board as a light wind wave windsurfer, without going the SUP/Sealion/Custom way, would be finding a F2 Air (1. generation) from around the same time - if you can find one... - and which I think was one of the first freestyle boards - if not, at least the grandmother to the freestyle boards :-)
Posts
