2009 Boards
Flysurfer Flydoor M
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THE HYPE:
This is the best seller in the Flydoor range. The Flydoor M
offers riders of average weight excellent light wind performance combined with good control in gusts, thanks to optimised flex zones. The board is still narrow enough to ride toe-side or blind with ease. To make the board this agile the fin set-up has been altered from last year to a classic four fin set-up. The concave bottom helps to get even better upwind performance, which makes the board perfect for riding course races with comfort for all riders and has more practicality and ease-of-use than a big directional race board, which you'd have to learn to gybe. TEST TEAM NOTES: Blimey, you can see why they've called it a door! It's very big and square and different to other light wind boards that we've tried that seem to be scaled-up versions of smaller twin-tips. This has incredible parallel rails with just a slight indent to the outline in the middle. Very flat, there is just a slight rocker, so common sense says this thing is gonna float like a boat, and it does. Power your kite up slightly and you're off! You really do get going early on this, but it's not too much of a bumpy ride. Somehow, it's very easy to get a rail engaged and ride around as normal. It definitely feels big, but the funny and most surprising thing is that you can actually load it up and get good pop. Not the sort of loading you'd do for boosting, but for pop that you don't need the kite for. Leave the kite where it is, load and pop and you fly up - much higher than you'd expect for a board of this size and nature. Don't start thinking this is a light wind freestyle board; it's not, but you can certainly try things in the lightest of airs and have a lot of fun. It's only when you crash and fly your kite from stationary that you realise how little power was in your kite in the first place. For boosted jumps it's hard to hold the edge as the kite moves up through the window and it feels big hanging off your feet as you dangle under the kite. Fast landings are quite technical as you're trying to steady something the size of a viking war ship as you hit the water, but lower speed pops and rotations are easily stomped. Straight line speed is excellent and it's actually manoeuvrable enough to ride in toe-side and tanks upwind, so the application is good. SUMMARY: If you've got some cash burning a hole in your back burner and you want a new toy to get out and having fun in light winds, this is a great buy. Stunning build quality, great fixtures and fittings, lovely pads and straps and we've certainly enjoyed having it in the office to get us out for after work sessions when we'd otherwise be struggling. If you want a light wind board to practice serious tricks on then look elsewhere. KW LIKED: Surprising fun factor. KW WOULD CHANGE: Make it better for boosting jumps. SIZES: XL: 170 x 50, L: 165 x 46, M: 155 x 42.5 and S: 140 x 41cm www.flysurfer.com  This test is in issue #36 |
 
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