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Andy McKinneyI’ve been following Thomas Traversa and Alex Mussolini for a while now- They both have a pretty sick style, blending new school aerials and wave moves with old school carving power and style. Thomas is a Gaastra rider, and Alex rides for Vandal sails, both of which are designed by Dan Kaseler. Thomas has been on the Manic, which is Gaastra’s lighter power, luffable wave sail (with a relatively traditional cut), while Alex has been riding the Riot- a short luff, medium boom, new school maneuver oriented wave sail. The Riots have looked absolutely sick to me, but Vandal sails are a bit tough to get here in the states. So, when Gaastra announced the release of the IQ, Thomas Traversa’s new 2011 signature sail, with a shorter luff and slightly longer boom, wow, did I get excited! Long story short, I pulled the trigger and ordered a quiver for myself and shop demo.
Well, I’ve been out on the 5.3, the 4.7 twice, and the 4.2 twice as well, all on the Tabou Twister 100. I definitely could have used the 3.6 on one of the 4.2 days, but I wanted to see how the sail handled when way overpowered. The waves have basically been flat, so I’ve only been freestyling on the sails. They have a very nice, pumpable pull, with lots of stability both under and over powered, and a great, compact feel which makes them very easy to throw around. They seem to go neutral pretty easily, as well, when you want to ditch some of that power. I’ve been very impressed with how well they handle overpowered- going into tricks with crazy sail power is pretty scary, but the IQs provide a ton of control with all that power. Stoked!
Anyway, enough jibber jabber… My buddy Ace was kind enough to shoot some footage the other day while I was on the 4.2. Thanks for taking some time out of your sesh, Ace! Check out the footage:
Windsurfing on the Gaastra IQ from Andy McKinney on Vimeo.
Yeah- Stoked!! Swing on by the shop and try one out for yourself!
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Yeah! That was a cool video. Looks like the sail suits your style real well.
Sick video! we need to go freestylin sometime soon even though i suck at it! still fun! haha
Thanks James- I think the IQs will suit a lot of different sailors very well- smooth power, tons of control, and easy to throw around- what more could you ask for?
Let's Go, Ian! There's only one way to get better!
Nice vid!
How do the Gaastra's feel on a Nolimitz mast vs a Gaastra mast?
Hey Phil- Obviously, the gaastra mast is the best match, but I've been messing around with the tuning a lot and have found that long bottoms and short tops seem to feel the best in the IQs (and many other gaastras, too). For example, on the IQ 4.7 (luff 396) I use a 400 bottom and 370 top with about 11 cm extension. With a bit of tuning, the NoLimitz perform very well in the gaastras! I have a bunch of NoLimitz masts in demo at the shop, so if you want to try them in your sails just swing on by.
Hi keen to purchase one of the new twisters. Have you got any views on the 2010/11 Twister, I've heard comments that they are quite slow on to the plane due to the twin fin set up?
How do the fins perform on slight (6") chop, I usually ride a 16cm fin on a chilli so when it gets choppy it gets ugly…. do the 14s have the same issue or are they more solid.
Lastly how do you find the slide, witha twin I fear that as soon as the fin hits your slide stops dead, throwing you off unlike a single where it is a bit more forgiving.
I guess my main question is does the how extra lift and grip from the twin fins outweigh the disadvantage of increased drag…
Any help and info appreciated
Cheers
Nick
Hey : )
I've recently gotten myself a few IQs myself. Havent got to test any but the 5.7 yet. However, I do have some issues trying to rig/trim it correctly.
the 2nd batten from the bottom is allways staying on either side of the sail and wont rotate unless I add like 2cm+ to my extesion and 3-4cm+ on the boom.
I have tried all sorts of tension on the batten aswell.
Best so far is ok rotation, but the sail is then totaly flat with no power at all
Any clue what is wrong?
Cheers, Simen
btw, rigging it om 75% gaastra 430 mast
Hey Nick-
The Twister is sick! I don't notice any difference in planing between the twin and older single fin model. The Tabous are a touch narrower than some of the other freestyle boards out there, so that may be where the comments are coming from. However, I find that the 100 planes up plenty early (I'm 165 pounds). For example, last night I was out on 4.7 when everyone else was on 5.8s and bigger boards, with no noticeable difference in planing.
I don't ride the stock fins because we have weeds to contend with, so I can't comment on their performance. However, the twins allow you to ride a shorter fin and still get better upwind drive and a more solid feel under foot than a larger single fin (ie 2x 14cm vs 1x 18cm). So the spin is great since the fin is shorter and doesn't catch going backwards. They do, however, re-attach flow better at the end of the move to keep planing away like nothing happened : )
I don't notice extra drag- just increased control and better upwind performance. They're plenty fast for me! Hope that helps!
Hi Simen-
Are you using a standard diameter mast or a skinny mast? I'd recommend skinny. Is your extension super long and mostly shoved up inside the mast? If so, try a shorter extension. If those aren't the issues, then try rigging with +2 or even more downhaul, but keep just a little bit of positive outhaul (like +1cm, not the +4 to +6cm that you tried). When I rig, the upper leech looks moderately floppy, but not extreme. The main battens do have quite a bit of overlap with the mast, but they still rotate just fine. It is designed to be a powerful sail, so don't over do the outhaul or you'll kill the feel. So yeah, add downhaul, but not too much outhaul.
I hope that helps! Have fun!
-Andy
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