Isthmus Sailboards Staff Review
with Gary Stone
::2007 Exocet Kona Style::
I had the opportunity to ride the first Exocet Kona in the country recently at the Windfest in Cape Hatteras. It was long and narrow in comparison to what I'm used to riding (350cm x 70cm, 220 liters of volume) though it had good initial stability and was effortless to get underway. With an 8.5m2 sail cruising was very nice and the board was quite responsive to any kind of puff the sail caught. The board would rail up just like an old stock windsurfer the moment a puff came through which made it very fun to ride in light conditions and with its full EVA deck it was remarkably comfortable. I bet I could finally learn to rail ride on this board too! (at 49 years old). As I got farther from shore and more into the breeze I found the board has multiple personalities. It would come up on plane easily and as the puff eased the gliding was was fun too. The big shock came when I got out to the wind line and got powered up and back in the footstraps: the Kona became a very capable freeride board with tons of speed! Surprisingly, it felt much smaller than its 350cm length when ripping along in the flat water with offshore winds-and while its responsiveness to foot pressure for jibing was not on par with a freeride board I had no trouble jibing it. In comparison to other boards of this volume, the Kona has a combination of performance and fun that is unrivaled!
The Kona was designed to offer supreme versatility and is based on a “longboard” surfboard shape, so if you live on the coast you can remove the daggerboard assembly with 4 screws and go surfing too! The reports I have heard back indicate it is a blast in wind conditions under 10 mph in the surf-riding waves on it is supposed to be a riot!
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