Great review of the Kona 9'5 by my buddy Ed in Boards Magazine

"Having sailed the Kona 9'5" five times in the last week at: Littlestone x 2, Westbrook Bay (Margate), Minster, and Pirate Springs, I thought I'd be well placed to do an initial impressions review,

Shape:
The planshape is quite a teardrop design with the width taken right the way forward and a narrow, drawn out tail that is similar to a waveboard in width. Step tail is found where you'd find the back of a conventional board and the rear srap is over the leading edge of the fin (long fin track). I've set the stance wide and the straps big as per a waveboard.
Comfy deck with spongy bits under heal and finished in attractive green and white colour scheme.

Carrying:
Carry just like a conventional board. It balances well on the front strap.

On the water:
Have used with 5.8, 5.2, 4.5 in waves from virtually flat on Wed to Monday which was chest high.

Coming in:
Catches EVERYTHING. If you are a surfer you will know what I mean. Even in very light winds say 5knots, any small lump of swell can be pumped onto and the board then accelerates quickly onto the plane enabling you to get in the straps, ride the wave and glide between sections to link up sandbanks all the way to the beach pretty well every time.
The bottom turn is phenomonally good. Lean forward and commit the rail and it goes round in a beautiful arc even when left late and on a steep face. It's the best bottom turn in the business I reckon because of the amount you can commit at slow speeds; feels really radical.
Top turn; 'roundhouse' turns in about a board length. It's not snappy, but it does not fight you and carves round well. If you misstime it then you can stay in the straps and the tail supports you even at very slow speeds.
Down the line. I went down the line purely using the wave in the lulls and basically surfed the board from the straps on glassy waves faces for quite some distance. Also laid it down into rail driven power turns during powered up moments.

Going out; Off the plane glide out with feet up by the track, punches through the waves with ease (one foible; get splashed in the face by the white water hitting the nose).
On the plane work out through the waves by storming off downwind to avoid sections or luffing to a virtuall standstil to get over the biggies without jumping. The float means you can stay in the straps at a standstill then pump it back onto the plane rapidly.

Freeride; Composed, pleasant ride, with the security of knowing you can sail back from miles out off the plane in comfort if need be. Gybes with the best of them, Chop hops well (oops!). The thin and wide nose rides low and looks beautiful as it skims along

Upwind; off the plane it pulls about 200yards on the shortboards in one standard tack, on the plane about the same as the shortboards when riden from the straps or much better if feet placed more forward.


FUN FACTOR; 10/10
Change your mindset when you ride this board, forget planing at all costs. You can plane at the same time as the freestyle boards but that would be missing on all the fun. 
If there's any kind of wave then think like a surfer and use the sail to 'paddle out' to the line up (where the waves first break). Tack, and hang about just edging along slowly and watching. Pick your wave and bear away to pick up speed then surf frontside and backside all the way to the beach. Rinse and repeat!

Overall:
It's the best board I've ever sailed by quite some margin. Each session the wind was gusty and many packed up in disgust. I had my most enjoyable waves sessions maybe ever.
It's all going to be about finding gusty cross/cross off venues from now (albiet with full on jumping sessions too from time to time on my small waveboard), searching for reefs and sandbars and riding waves regardless of the wind. I was suffering from a serious mojo crisis and am fairly bored with bashing along in onshore stuff. This board has thrilled me beyond expectation this past week and I can't wait to explore new spots in previously impossible conditions on it. I urge all of you to get a demo on one of these. The 9'5" is perfect for my 73kg and would prob still be ok for up to 85kg. After that the 10'5" may be a better choice.

I've named mine 'Konan'."


Full forum discussion can be found at:


Boards Forum

Surprise Thursday night speed

There is a phrase "Fail to Prepare:  Prepare to Fail" and this can to mind last night when on slotting in my fin to my Mistral 135L RD Slalom I noticed that I had brought a deep tuttle fin and not a tuttle fine.  This was as I looked out on the water to see a nice Bft 3 to 4.  I then realised that I had left an ancient Starboard Go 170 (85 by 270ish) at the Lake and thinking that it would be better to get out then watch I slotted by HSM GPS 8.0m on that and headed off after fitting the deep tuttle Select Zero Racing Fin - which did not fit the Mistral's box. 

Carrying the board down to the water I was a bit put off by the weight of the Starboard after the Mistral so I had low expectations of even getting going, especially as 8.0 is not really a light wind size for chaps my size.  However, I was very pleasantly surprised that with a little gust it was off and despite the footstraps being too far in-board I managed to get just over 25 knots on it when the wind was no more than a 3 to 4Bft.  At no time did I feel properly powered up, but the board did feel a bit like a run-away bus when moving at speed, though to its credit it gybed really pretty well and fairly tight when needed.  It has got me thinking about how fast I could get the Go going... I wonder if it could do over 30 knots?  Perhaps a bigger sail and a bit more wind would see that or maybe it would top out at 27 knots.  Still it could be fund to try and fun out.

What to do if your fin screws are way too long?

Just shows that it is worth checking your kit before sailing it.  I arrived to find that my fin screws were too long and the fin would not fit tightly in the box.  With a bit of luck I found just enough washers in my tool box to make it work.  

Not very fast today...

I had the chance to sail at Whitstable yesterday.  There was plenty of wind, about 18 to 24 knots.  The only thing was that it was bang onshore and high tide.  This makes it rather hard to get out as the groynes are only about 20 yards apart which means you have to swim out against wind and, in this case, tide so that you can edge past the groynes and get some speed up very quickly to head up wind.  However, there is not much space and twice I managed to almost smash into submerged groynes.  In fact, I did graze them slightly and picked up some minor dings to the board, but nothing serious.  

I had rigged up the 8.0 Hot Sails Maui GPS and slotted that into the 110 (66cm) Mistral Slalom RD.  I thought that this would be a bit too bit for the conditions (even though someone on the beach told me that it was dropping), but I wanted to find out when that combination would be too much.  I think that for comfortable sailing I was right in that it was a little on the large size, not that the sail became unstable; but more that there was more power than I could comfortably control, especially when trying to gybe and tack.  The board was surprisingly controllable given the condition of the chop, which was a intense form of Thames Estuary corrugated chop - short, sharp, steep and brown.  I would have loved to try it with a 7.3 but I do not have a mast for that at the moment.  I would also have liked to try the 95L Mistral Slalom and a 6.6 GPS but I did not have the combination with me.  

All in all it was a good session to show that the conditions required a smaller set up (and perhaps some more sailor skill....).  I found I could really only get comfortable going upwind, downwind I was completely out of shape and I think that showed in the very low GPS speed of just over 23knots showing on the GT-31.

Whitstable is a very pleasant place to sail from (if you can get parked) and the Whitstable Oyster Company - the building on the far left above (http://www.oysterfishery.co.uk/) is good for food and coffee.

Hard slalom session

Very choppy and bang on shore meant a disappointing speed.
Lessons for the day are sort out fins and get a 7.3m and sail in power
not overpowered, at least not yet

Horton

Horton in November  
Was it really November when I had my last decent UK wave sailing day?  What has happened to the weather this year?  No decent SWs for months, fingers crossed for the sea breeze season on the South Coast.