One Happy Customer

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PWA Cape Verde

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Its time to choose a new board and what a choice you have! There are over 15 mainstream production brands on the market, but have you ever really considered getting a custom board instead?!

We certainly hadn’t. For years we have been dismissing them with assumptions that they would be too expensive, have no resale value, carry too much risk that you wouldn’t like the shape when it arrives and perhaps most of all, just too difficult to choose what you actually want!

So we decided that it was time to see what they had to offer....

What is a custom board?

It sounds obvious, but a custom board is a board that is designed specifically for you. This means the shaper will take into consideration factors such as your size and weight, your standard of sailing, the conditions you want the board to perform in and any preferences you may have in feel and style eg. Fast and lively or controlled and comfortable etc etc. Everything about the board will be designed for you, including the graphics!! Many people believe that custom boards are only built for wave sailors, but this isn’t actually true. Some of the worlds leading shapers actually spend a great deal of time producing freeride, freestyle and even racing designs for customers.

Where can you get a custom board?

There are actually a good number of custom manufacturers. These range from small, local shaping houses up to the highly reputable international shapers. Shapers are very much like artists. They have their own styles, successes and reputations. The most reputable custom shapers in the world currently include: Keith Teboul (Quatro), Mark Nelson (also shapes for Mistral), Richard Green (also shapes the JP Radical wave range), Patrik Deithelm (shapes for F2) and Sebastian Wenzel (shapes for Fanatic). These guys shape boards for most of the Worlds top riders.

Top riders will often have boards from a range of shapers, as certain shapers have reputations for being better at different things, You might also be surprised that although most pros don’t have to buy their equipment, they do still pay for custom boards from these shapers….their value in producing great boards is that well regarded!

The only way for us to really test out the whole custom board experience was to actually order one. So after much argument in the boardseeker offices, Adrian Jones (Boardseeker Team) got the very lucky job of being the case study for this experiment!

Adrian is 6’1, 78kg and mainly a wave sailor. Based near Rhosneigr, he wanted a wave board that he could use in UK conditions, but could also use on trips to proper wave locations such as Ireland, South Africa, Tiree etc. Already owning a 72L wave board that he was very happy with, he decided to opt for a larger wave board to cover 4.7-5.3 m sails. So here is his story……

Choosing the shaper

Keith Teboul of Quatro is possibly the most sought after custom shaper in the wave board business. He shapes boards for Kauli Seadi (2005 World Champ) and

many other pro riders whose names must remain anonymous (as they sail for other brands!).

"Everything about the board will be designed for you, including the graphics!! "

"The only way for us to really test out the whole custom board experience was to actually order one."

Choosing the board

This was the most difficult part of the whole procedure!!

In my own mind I kind of knew what I wanted – a wave board that worked with sails of 4.5-5.3m (mainly 4.7 & 5.0) and was good in all conditions from onshore to cross-off. But I am little bit fussy about what I like, particularly in terms of how a board feels.

Writing your spec is a difficult thing to do. There are 2 approaches:

• Write a very rough spec and trust that the shaper knows what he is doing.
• Write down every last detail of what you want, such as dimensions, nose shape, how you want it to feel and perform in every manoeuvre etc etc.

My instincts told me just to be brief and trust the guy, but my over riding worry was that I might receive a board that I didn’t like and then wish I had been more specific. So in the end I settled somewhere in the middle. This is what I asked for:

Hi Keith,

Here is my spec for the board.............

Design: The board will be used for sail sizes of 4.5 - 5.3 and mostly 4.7 & 5.0.  Local beach is cross on predominantly (a bit like Pozo, but not quite so windy!) but I also travel around a lot and will use the board a fair bit in Capetown (cross off) and Ireland/Scotland etc So basically it has to be pretty good at everything!

I prefer a fast feeling board and want something that will grip well, turn tight and wont bounce out when bottom turning.  I have a 2 year old Goya Wave 72 litre which I really like. So perhaps a rocker line similar to this, although in plan shape, I would prefer the board to be a little more compact than this as it is quite a long and drawn out design. I have been borrowing a custom board (a V2Max) that I really quite like.  Its size is 54.5 wide, 238 long and approx 78-80 litres - which is pretty much the size I want.  I have included a photo so you can see the plan shape.

For your info, I am 6'1'' and approx 78kg.  The board will fit between my Goya 72 (which I intend to keep because I like so much!) and a 95 liter Freestyle board.

Thanks,

Adrian

Construction:

With Quatro you get the choice of Standard or Ultra Light. As most custom boards I have seen are relatively heavy, I decided to opt for the Ultra Light construction. Particularly as it is my larger wave board. Ultra Light construction comes at a premium of £100.

+ £125

Production

Stage 1: Keith designs the board on a computer program. Using a computer allows him to be more accurate with the design and easily cross reference with previous successful designs.

Stage 2: The design is then shaped using a CNC cutter. Only a few companies in the world own one of these machines. Traditionally the foam blank will be hand shaped. This is an arduous process requiring a large amount of skill and frequent checking to ensure accuracy. The CNC machine makes this process more of a science than an art and ensures complete accuracy in shaping. In the past, many pro sailors will have a board that they really like and when the time comes that they need a replacement it is extremely difficult by hand to shape an exact replica. With CNC shaping, an exact match can be shaped in minutes.

Stage 3: Keith fine tunes the pre-cut blank – particularly the nose, tail and outline

Stage 4: A quarter inch high density bottom gets put onto the foam blank in a vacuum bag.

Stage 5: Keith shapes the rails, removes any imperfections and marks out where the stance will be.

Stage 6: The sandwich deck is added – high density foam, heel patches, and carbon reinforcement.

Stage 7: Keith fine tunes the rails again, smoothes out any imperfections, marks where all the inserts go and put inserts into the board.

Stage 8: The board gets laminated.

Stage 9: The sander finishes the board off, smoothing out any imperfections from lamination.

Stage 10: The board is painted in the customer’s desired colour.

Stage 11: Board is airbrushed.

Stage 12: Stickers, non-slip and deck pads get added.

The finished product

Well after 5 weeks of anticipation, my board finally arrived in the UK . My first impressions were as follows:

Shape – Plan shape was exactly what I had hoped for (but was unable to explain properly on the spec!) Not too wide and not too narrow, a nice compromise. The tail is quite narrow, the overall width is 54.5, exactly what I asked for and pretty regular for that size of board.  The rails were extremely tucked (way more than any production board I have seen) which should help the board with turning, but could make it a little slow. It also appeared to have a lot of rocker, particularly in the aft of the board and very little flat.

Finish – The board had a nice sanded white finish to it. The underside had a slightly textured matt finish, compared with the smoother, glossier finish of most production boards. The non-slip was pretty standard – very similar to current production boards.

Weight – Eeven in Ultra Light construction, its not exceptionally light, but nor is it heavy! It actually weighs exactly the same as my production Fanatic 81.

Graphics – I was really happy with the overall look of the graphics, which look even better in real life. There is definitely a hand made look to them and in some areas, where a marker pen has been used instead of the airbrush (such as the boardseeker logo), they do look a little ‘home made’. But overall a big thumbs up and how many other people have ‘Designed for……by Keith Taboul’ on the back of their board?!!

Fittings – I opted for the Quatro production board pads as they are a little bigger than the ones normally supplied on the custom boards and the colour and design of them looks a little more upmarket. The footstrap positions all measured up to what I asked for, but slightly surprisingly there was no option for position adjustment on the back strap and only one option on the front strap – I guess you don’t need it when the board has been designed only for you! The only area of fault with the whole board was the fin/fin box. The supplied MFC fin had already received a noticeable ‘adjustment’ to help it fit the track of the board, but even so, I still couldn’t get it to fit. It took me 30 minutes with a file and sand paper to get it to fit at all and even now it still doesn’t fit 100% properly, as it sticks proud of the box a little too much at the back.

Before I give an overview of how the board performs, I want it to be clear that I paid for this board and have no vested interest in saying that this board is anything other than what it truly is. I have also had 4 pro riders try the board and a tester from a competitor’s magazine, just to ensure my conclusions are accurate.

First impressions – my first go on the board was with a 4.7m sail in waist high waves/chop. Straight off the beach, I was startled at how stiff and fast the board felt underfoot. I haven’t had this feel with a production board before, it really did have a stiff and crisp feel to it. The other thing I noticed was the huge amount of grip it had when turning. There weren’t any big waves, but when turning, even overpowered on chop, the board never skipped out. The board certainly didn’t feel big with a 4.7, which made me a little concerned that it may be too small for underpowered 5.3 conditions. The icing on the cake was that the board was surprisingly good for the odd freestyle trick, which I think is down to the wider nose shape and short length. I know its not designed for freestyle but with so many less than ideal wave days in the UK , its great to have a board that can pop the odd spock or grubby etc. I had hoped that it would be good for this, but didn’t want to mention it in my spec in case Keith started to design me a freestyle board!

Ownership

I have used the board pretty solidly for 2 months now. Cosmetically there are a few minor issues. Some small patches of gel coat flaked off around the mast track and the white paint, used to colour the board, is very fragile and scratches easily. However these are only cosmetic issues and structurally the board seems very tough, with no creases, dents or dings so far!!  Quatro state that their custom boards have the same warranty as production, but the duration is 6 months instead of 12.

I love the board so much, I won’t be selling it for a long time! However, if I did want to sell it, I am pretty sure the depreciation will be higher than that of a production board, due to the more niche appeal and the higher initial cost.

Having said this, it is the only board I have ever owned that draws crowds when you pull it out of the back of your van!! It’s rather like owning a Ferrari would be – you know its not cheap, you know you are haemorrhaging money every time you take it out of the garage, but each time you do, you have a massive smile on your face that just makes it all worth while!

Conclusion

If you are looking for the ‘ultimate windsurfing board’ then there is no doubt that a custom board is what you need. It is unique, tailored for you, doesn’t go out of date like a production board and from my experience with this board, has a feel of refinement and quality that separates it from any production alternative.

There are definitely drawbacks; its more expensive, has limited warranty against breakage and although my board has exceeded all my expectations, there is a chance that you may end up with a design that you don’t like and a board that is difficult to shift second hand.

Having said this, Quatro claim that if you really dont like the design, then they will build you a new board - although they do point out that so far, they have had 100% satisfaction rate!!

If you want one, then my advice would be to spend a LOT of time working out exactly what you want from the board before placing your order and secondly, select a shaper with a reputation for shaping the type of board you are looking for. You wouldn’t ask Andy Warhol to paint the Sistine Chapel after all!

The choice is yours, but I will certainly be choosing custom again!!