Our back yard is the North Shore of Fuerteventura where, within a 10 minute drive from our R&D centre, we can find many world class wave sailing conditions. We have spent over 25 years of testing in some of the toughest conditions you can find, repairing damaged boards and developed composites engineering techniques to perfect our constructions. When you have demanding conditions at your door step you get to see frequently what works and what doesn´t and learn a multiple times faster than in locations without good conditions. Throughout our boards you can find intelligent but still very logical solutions, using the specific qualities of the various materials there where they are needed most.

One example are our fin boxes. Experience shows that the biggest forces on a fin box is when hitting bottom. And experience tells us that sooner or later prtty much anyone will hit the bottom with their fins.  When we started using multifins we thought we can sail in shallower waters and still hit the bottom.
The best way to place a fin box is to first place the reinforcement block together with the sandwich so there is a big connection area between block and sandwich with laminate in between. This even saves time. Also the harder sandwich sheet then sits directly against the box without the slightly softer reinforcement block in between.  After the reinforcement blocks and bottom sandwich, the cavities for the boxes are milled by CNC, this saves a lot of measuring time and is accurate to the 0.1mm and 0.1° of toe-in angle.

The Chinook Strongbox US box we use is made of very tough plastic reinforced with a high percentage of glass fibre. Glass fibre is twice as strong against impact as carbon and the high pressure injection moulding technique used ensures the fibres are in every corner and the automated production process is failure free. The thicker walls of the Chinook Strong box also provides a bigger area to take the impact from hitting the bottom. We mount the boxes with various layers of high grade glass fibre which is then smoothly guided over into the bottom sandwich for the best load distribution.

As a comparison here is also a carbon slot box, pre moulded into the reinforcement block before mounting into the board. The box needs to be placed after the sandwich, for which the hole cut into the sandwich needs to be a lot bigger. The carbon box is lighter but carbon is also very brittle and does not handle impact well. Carbon is especiall brittle where it is making a sharp corner. Reinforcing with Dyneema or glass is pointless, as carbon is a lot stiffer, it will take all the force and the glass or Dyneema will not do anything until the carbon is already broken. Also the weight saving is done by using a thinner wall, causing the area to take the vertical load from hitting the bottom to be much smaller. The screws of slot boxes are also not ideal to take the load from hitting the bottom. The angle is far from ideal plus there is little material to stop the screw from breaking out.

Then you also get the more products from factories aimed at bigger quantities which often do not work as accurately. This can lead to production mistakes likes this where the fin box and reinforcement block are more or less floating inside the reinforcement block. This is likely to break easily when hitting the bottom but it may be hard to get guarantee after hitting the bottom, if you are still within the guarantee period at all.

Haka ST 90L – personal review

Haka ST 90L and Slayer 4.2m2 offshore Levante in Valdevaqueros – Tarifa

Last summer arrived my fresh Haka ST 90 liters. After one season I feel like wanting to share my personal opinion about it. I will not tell about the technical matters, but about what I feel on the water so give a personal feeling release.

Haka ST 90L and Karma 4.7m2 small waves in Canos de Meca.

My profile: I’m an experienced windsurfer and windsurf coach since 25 years on high skill level. I used to freestyle in combination with waves, so I windsurfed with freestyle boards 90-100 liters in waves for many years. The past 10-15 years I focused only on wave windsurfing on small and larger wave boards, with some remains of freestyle moves in between.

I weigh 76-77 kilograms and my height is 182 centimeters.

When I hesitate about what sails or board to use, I mostly choose for a smaller sail on a larger board, so the 90L had a lot of sessions in many conditions from 5.3m2 in very light wind, 4.7m2 light in larger waves 2,5 meters in Tenerife to even 3.7m2 gusty with small waves in Tarifa. I experienced a lot of different conditions on several spots.

Haka ST 90L and Slayer 3.7m2 in Bolonia

My general opinion and feeling: with the larger volume for a waveboard, 90 liters sounds a lot, but it works in so many conditions. The stability with 5 knots is difficult, but once you get 10-12 knots you can float and start to make some speed and height. Despite the pretty small fins, it starts planing extremely fast from 15-17 knots in combination with the powerful Karma 5.3m2 sail that gives an incredible push and a fast acceleration, so I can windsurf as fast as when the kiters start not losing their height. Giving pressure on the feet and pumping the Karma give an amazing energy shot! Sailing the Haka ST 90 liters in combination with 4.7m2 Karma and 4.2m2 Slayer with waves 1 – 2,5 meters always works incredibly good. In wind drops I just need to stand a little bit more straight above my gear to keep the planing. In stronger gusts it’s just the opposite, it never loses the calm and fast contact with the water. Side, of, on, strong and constant, gusty, any wind, … for jumping you just need to push a little bit, it easily accelerates so flying is a true pleasure on any wave size or direction. This is very important to me, because jumping is my number one thing. Same feeling for waveriding. Once you are used to the board and knows where and how many pressure to give, this board gives a boost in 1 meter waves to big and pushy waves in onshore wind. It turns smooth or fast down the line and is performant to take aerials and very aggressive short turns on any lip. Even when there are no waves, I like to sail around for performing my windsurfing lines towards the wind and downwind, and the Haka ST 90 liters give me an impressive upwind and downwind performance, especially with the small wave fins and in combination with the powerful Witchcraft sails. Working on my body positions give me the feeling of windsurfing in a slalom or race event, cruising and enjoying the sun or the scenery. And this exercise helps me out to perform better in the waves.

Haka ST 90L and Karma 5.3m2, choppy waves in Normandy

Any less points? I don’t feel the inspiration to take out with my older freestyle moves. Popping up and sliding are more difficult, but I don’t mind because I look for more waveriding and jumps. If you look for a more performant board with freestyle capacities, it’s better to take the Reaper or Ouija. When the wind is above 35 knots and pumping harder it still works pretty well, but I start to make mistakes and a smaller board is much better.

Haka ST 90L and 4.2m2 Slayer, powerful big waves in Wissant – France

Conclusion : Wauw! The 90 liters Haka ST is incredibly performant and ready to use in so many ways. It gives a lot of possibilities for windsurfers in flat, choppy, small and big waves.

I really love it and would like to let it try to everybody. Everybody that tried the board for so far, had the same feeling. It gives an impressive dimension towards comfort, fun and performance in windsurfing!

Fabrice Devos

Haka ST 90L and 4.2m2 Slayer Wissant – France

Witchcraft’s Bouke Becker talks about the benefits of using windsurf sails with a pre-cut shape and why generally this is better for your windsurfing. It’s also why Witchcraft sails are becoming ever more popular. Read on to find out more.

(more…)

Time on the water with windsurfing is key – especially if you don’t live in a Trade Wind location and/or you’re not close to your chosen launch. It makes sense to therefore make sure all the Is are dotted and Ts crossed in relation to your windy kit. What are we talking about? Read on to find out…

(more…)

With WC’s Bouke Becker possessing a wealth of shaping experience – having made custom windsurf boards for many sailors over the years – we thought we should revisit this topic for our latest article and see where custom’s at in 2019.

(more…)

We hear the term ‘drive’ being used regularly but what does it actually mean?

(more…)

If you’re an enthusiastic windsurfer, committed to the cause, then you’ll have developed a certain way of being over the years. As part of something we can describe as ‘randomised’ our actions breeds specific behaviour patterns. Random because of a reliance on Mother Nature certainly has its unique set of frustrations but there are positives to be had also.

(more…)

Youth wave sailors Tessa and Nikki (aka Sea Twins) had an amazing summer competing on the PWA. In particular the Pozo event (Grana Canaria Wind & Waves Festival) saw the pair achieve notable success, as well as their overall windsurfing level increase. We caught up with the girls to see how it was.

(more…)

Over the last few months any regular follower of this blog will have noticed a whole raft of info related articles about windsurfing and your progression within the sport. If you’re looking to push on with your skills and increase your knowledge then these posts have been designed to help.

Unfortunately we’re aware that things do get missed from time to time so here are links to these stories. If you have any suggestions for articles in the same vein then let us know.

(more…)

As we head into autumn proper in the northern hemisphere it’s a time that traditionally signals waves and wind. For experienced windsurfers it’s the best time of year. If, however, you’re still contemplating the wave arena and making the leap then consider these pitfalls.

(more…)