Hi James,

as you know, I am a customer of yours since '08. I own or owned the following: SL58 '08, SL55 and 62 '09, SL58 and 66 '10, SL58, 66 and 75 '11.

Beyond all differences in shape and performances, one thing I must say about your boards and their recent evolution. In '08 it was: just get on the board, keep the sail sheeted in and go. In '09 it was: mast foot at mid track and go. In '10: oh well pull the mast back, care the fin not to be too powerful (out go the Tomcat, welcome to the Talon) and go. '11: please help! seems to me the boards are much tougher to setup properly and, anyhow, the boards seem to need to be very much overpowered.

Now this all may be because boards have changed, or because people are getting more competitive with their slalom kit and so keeping the pace (or overpacing) is getting harder and harder. In my view the most important an useful thing would be to share infos here on this forum about board setup and fin choice, much much better this than any shape change in my view. Maybe Phil could join in and help?

Hi James,
starting to see clearer now. Probably I am not used to fine tuning, or maybe the Talons (in 9.0 thickness) I own happen to be just good for the '10 boards, less so for the '11 ones. Seems to me the '11 boards need more power from the fin than the '10 did. Probably people using a quiver of 'harder' fins (C3 Sting, Deboichet SL2, Tectonics Tomcat, ...) would just go 1 size up and see no problem at all.
My problems are partly solved by chosing a larger size: last time I rigged 7.6 with my '11 SL66, a 42 Talon did pretty well in good winds; on the '10 board I would have been using a 40, maybe even 38. Applying slightly less downhaul to the sail (about + 1.0 instead of my usual + 1.5 - 2.0) also helped, the board is so controllable that was no problem to deal with the extra power. Probably the best thing to do for me is to test the '11 66 with fins that proved too 'hard' for the '10 66 (38 Tomcat, 36 Talon 9.5) and then decide. Another good thing is, as the bottom shape is the same, what is OK for the 66 is supposed to be OK for the 75 too (just different size).

Hi Tim,
to be honest, I think now I am understanding the board better. I just needed to refine downhaul settings (about just .5 cm less than what I was used to) and stance (more committed). After all, the shape is so simple, just flat vee and a long time tuned rockerline, that one can expect no limits when riding it right. Now I am totally happy with the 66, and I am using it with Talon 38 (7.0), 40 and 42 (7.6). The mix of performances and control is something beyond my expectancies.
I sailed the other boards (58, 75) too little to say.