Fanatic Freewave 86
“Nice feel to it - great acceleration and wants to get up and going”
“Fun and lively to sail - feels like a proper freestyle wave should”
“Good for freestyle - big stable bit in the middle and spins really nicely”
“Pretty loose on the wave, but doesn’t feel quite as settled and locked into a rail driven turn”
“The back strap feels a little too far forward with smaller sails”“Felt like it starts the carve quite easily and snaps around quite quickly in backside turns”Summary
The Fanatic is one of the most definitive Freewave boards of all time. There is no doubting its credentials, being used as a high wind Freestyle board by those bendy Venezuelans and still perfectly able to wobble out in sideshore logo high waves and tear the place apart. A true Freestyle Wave by definition.
Head to head with some slightly newer designs within this test, the Fanatic still sits right with the front of the pack in almost all categories.
On the flat, the Freewave is a great high wind freeride board. It’s as fast as anything here, planes very easily and has an exciting and lively feel to the ride, albeit not quite as settled and ‘locked down’ as the Starboard and JP.
In Bump & Jump conditions, these credentials all add up to a really fun package. Great for burning around, carving, jumping and throwing the odd freestyle move.
In wave conditions, the Freewave is again near the top of the class, but not quite right at the top. Its very good, there is no doubt about that, but compared with some of the competition here it isn’t quite as grippy and agile. Some of the boards in this group feel almost like big wave boards, whereas the Fanatic is noticeably a blend of freestyle and wave.
The standard of fittings and attention to detail is top notch on the Fanatic, which combined with its fantastic all-round performance makes it a very attractive purchase.
