Hi
I had talked with Marek Bracuru about his boards, and decided to go for it as my new "marginal wind" perfect board (not knowing how it would work though...)
150 x 55 cm.
Got it in march, winter and snow here - but the first thing that stroke me was it was 3,0 kg only.
That means, it FEELS like a much smaller board, when on the water.
So if one wanted to, this board could be a "one board for everything"
It is quite special - superlight yes, but also quite short but with a superwide nose, and thick, loads of volume so strong and stiff despite being superlight.
Also, the top is very flat all over (the best for your feet), but the nose has a lot of "scoop" on the bottom, meaning it is easy to land jumps or recover ventilations.
The design feature that is the determining factor IMO, making it the ultimate lightwind foilboard, is the bottom with its "Catamaran" shape - see here:
What does it do ?
Well, apart from giving more and lighter glide to get up in marginal winds, it has a distinct feature, namely the fact that it "sticks" to the water sideways, meaning your board does not turn downwind by itself when you loop the kite.
This has the (unexpected) effect, that you get a lot more power and pull in the lines, so you can get up and going in marginal winds, as the board will keep the lines tighter, just like if you stand on the bottom, you can get a lot more pull from the kite, than when drifting in the water
For jumping it is spot on, low weight, and the nose will touch down safer and easy.
Even for having fun in the waves it works, because of its light weight you dont notice its size !
Only in a lot of wind where you lean deep into the carve, you can have issues with its width (havent tried that yet, but it MUST be so).
On the first day of riding, I HAD to get out, eventhough more than sufficient wind for a light wind foilboard - it was snow and cold:
It does not seem that big really, compare to my Ketos 118 cm board - but it IS in terms of volume and how low you can go, great !
In april, walked down to my local beach enjoying the first barefeet session now:
Awesome to see the sun for the first time really giving the water its beautiful colours
And having fun with 360s and everything is just really easy, as you dont feel the board because of its light weight.
Another shot another day of the board:
I will say it is the very best marginal wind board I can imagine, and have ever seen - with the added bonus that it can be used as an allround board and not just as a "need to take this one" for marginal winds
Had to ride and test it a few months, till I would give my review - I have paid for it (and got the Ketos box mounted but whatever one wants should be possible) so would not recommend it unless I really fell in love - but I have
Marek and Wictor are "geniuses" IMO, respect !
I can ride with a 12 m2 LEI (Storm Voyager Limited Edition 2018) in 6 knots with my bigger Ketos wings, so have almost dropped using my foilkites that can go only a slightly tad lower, but with a huge risk of having a swim if less than 6 knots.
There are multiple footstrap positions, and the deck is really awesome super non-slip surface without heavy pads.
I love riding smaller boards in higher winds and waves, and got several, but if I only wanted one board, this one would be it
Raceboards got some of the same qualities, superlightweight, stiff, and some volume.
BUT, they are narrow, and not easy to ride on the surface as the bottom is opposite, round - so in many ways not the same and a lot more difficult so not the max marginal wind choice.
Bracuru boards are not a brand mass producing boards, on the contrary they are both riders by heart and do it out of love - but I must say I can only recommend this board in any size, for everyone, if in any way possible to get your hands on
PF