Starboard Atom IQ 110 Review/Thoughts
First off I need to categorically state that I love this
board, it has expanded my sailing immensely. for the last 15-20 years my
biggest sail has been a 6.0 or 5.7 matched with a 95 litre FSW. I tried a
slalom/free race board (Fanatic Hawk 123) some years back, but ended up selling
it fairly quickly – I found it very clattery, uncomfortable and stiff to gybe).
I had a freestyle board for a few years but don’t have the knees ! – they can
be great boards though especially the older freestyles (2008-2010 roughly)
Yes i have moved the straps !!
Back to the Atom IQ. The good bits , it planes incredibly
early and gets you out on many of those so so days where you would just dog
around, I currently have it paired up with a 7.0 no cam (looking to change to a
twin cam for this season). It gybes beautifully and the rails can be made to
bite hard, which is the bit I previously hated with slalom board, I like wave
type boards and this thing carves beautiful arcs. Its quick, lots of the locals
have isonics , rockets and futuras (local fleet is primarily starboard or tabou),
unless they are racers I can usually keep up. Its any easy board to drive hard
through chop.
I have been reading a number of threads and reviews in
general (mostly after the purchase) , however there are a couple of items
around this board type which I don’t quite get and which may lead to opinions
being formed that don’t necessarily reflect the capabilities of the board (or indeed
board type)
Suitability for beginners/ early intermediates–
I noticed one of the young local lads has picked one of
these up, he previously had a recent 120 carve (wealthy parents I assume !) – I
did notice whilst he was super keen he spent a lot more time in the water and
off the plane (or going over the front). Having given it a bit of thought ,this
type of board really takes off – there is no acceleration like a FSW or
Waveboard, its just bang and it is planning – I’ll be honest its caught me out
a couple of times !, it's also really short ! what hope for those just getting
used to the planning sensations
For me personally this is not an issue at all, 20 years of
sailing wave boards and you get used to pointing a board off the wind to get it
planning. Its very sensitive to where you put tour feet to get planning - now its probably taken me 20 years to even notice where my feet are on a board ! (Easiest
is to stuff them straight in the straps – but for an intermediate they are
pretty outboard !) - I certainly didn’t
know when and where to place my feet I was learning on my 120 litre astro rock.
Where I am heading is
that I don’t get the recommendation of this type of board for early/mid
intermediates (maybe in a bigger size these characteristics are somewhat dulled
down). The Atom is a great board but it
is a little technical and you need to already have the skills to realise the
technical bit !!Also ease of gybing, now I can gybe with a reasonable level of consistency (that
can be good and bad), however it took me a while to adapt to the Atom, my
background is sailing boards with the three strap centreline configuration so
it took me a while to get used to stepping right across the board with my back
foot (there were a couple of occasion where I actually stepped too far – must
have entertained , I can still see the
slightly perplexed on another sailors face as I disappeared off the inside of
the board at full belt !). The straps are a long way out I can't help but think
this will also hinder intermediates, both gybing and sailing and the inner
position just don’t let the board release.
Range
This is the one thing everyone asks me about when I pull the
board out, the hype around this style of board seem to be interpreted that
these boards are one board wonders which I think is slightly flawed. I want one
board to do everything from 7.5 to 4.2 and am still looking !
Now I want to wave sail or bump and jump as soon as I can,
so to be honest range on this board is not important (and not involved in my decision
to purchase) as I just jump straight
onto a 5.7/5.3 (this year it will be a 6.0) as soon as I can.
However last season I did experiment with a 5.7 wave sail
(admittedly a 4 batten Ezzy Elite so not ideal) and in board straps – I found
the board unbalanced and really quite hard to sail, I tried in board straps with
a 7.0 and found the board very draggy, uncomfortable and slow. I also tried
outboard straps and the same 5.7 and that was truly awful in the balance department.
The straps on mine now stay out and back (2nd hole from front from
memory) and the board just gets used with the 7.0 (soon to be 7.5)
I have no idea how people manage to sail this type of board
with a 5.0 !! – my 95FSW is starting to get interesting when in 5.0 weather –
and this is where I think some of the unrealistic expectation creeps in. You can sail anything with a 5.0 even an old
raceboard but does the kit work together, my take is no , however I will
experiment more this season as I now have a slightly more all round 6.0.
(Severne Gator)
I have not jumped mine (one minor hop was quite enough to
show that I was either going to break me or the board!) – to my mind the
conditions it thrives in are just not conducive to this kind of behaviour !!
and jumping thin flat wide boards is sure to end up with a crease !
Overall
As I mentioned, I love this board , its changed my
windsurfing, it was one of those game changing boards for me, I cruise , go out in light winds, I am even
considering racing it, it's fast it's
easy to gybe ( with above caveats) it’s a genuine FUNBOARD (showing age again
here) and I am sure the other brands which are similar are also great boards
- I just happened to get offered a starboard.
However at this size, I think they are great boards for people who can already
sail a smaller board (or something like a carve to its full capabilities or a Futura/Isonic
owner with dentures who wants a smoother ride!) and want something to expand
their water range . If people are expecting them to be this wave riding,
chop hopping 5-8.0 handling wonder machine then……………………………………dream on !
Its a great board, highly recommended but change the standard
fin to something a bit stiffer and you get another gear without sacrificing the
gybe (I’m using an MFC liquid force). I’ll be keeping mine for while) the
standard Drake fin will be used as a depth gauge !
