Home » News

15|09|08 +++ TWINZER 76 and 84 litres – first impressions

New MISTRAL team rider Moritz Mauch has received his new TWINZERs a few weeks ago.

Even though he has only 45 kg of weight, he had a few very good days already with lower winds (15 – 20 knots) on his 76 TWINZER. For Gran Canaria standard winds of 20 – 30 knots he is using a custom twin fin board from a local shaper with 47 litres (for Gran Canaria super summer winds of 35 knots and over Moritz is still riding a 38 litre custom).

So there was plenty of time for his dad Claus, who is in charge of the CLUB MISTRAL at Gran Canaria, to test the 2 new babies from MISTRAL shaper Mark Nelson: 

“I am extremely happy with the 84 TWINZER” he is reporting – “it was almost love on first ride! The first 15 minutes I needed to get used to the board, but since then, I am really enjoying every ride. I was expecting it much more nervous and less forgiving.

Sailing conditions with the 84 were about 25 to 35 knots and 0,5 until 2,5 meter waves and I used sails between 4.0 and 4.7 sqm (the new EGO from NORTH SAILS fits perfect with the board, but also with VOODOOS it works well!) in Pozo and in Vargas. I am quite sure, that it will work well with sails up to 5.7 sqm in lighter winds.

The 84 is sailing very smooth; through its width it gets into planing very easy and it is also not very difficult to cross any breaking wave. As you might expect from a twin fin board it is turning extremely narrow without too much effort; surely also the length of only 225 cm helps for snappy turns. In riding steep waves you feel another advantage of the short board: the nose does not dive easy, just because it is so short!

If the water gets very choppy, the board bounces a bit more than a narrow wave shape, but with the smallest wave you will forget this small disadvantage immediately. The cleaner the waves, the better – of course – but they do not have to be super clean, to have great fun already!

One information given from MISTRAL before already was a great help:

Always take the board one size bigger, than you would use normally!

The 84 really feels much smaller, I would even say, it feels even smaller than a classic 76 litres wave shape. For sure it turns much livelier than a 76 wave would do. On the other hand the extra in volume and width help you to get into planning very easy and keeps you on any wave! This extra volume never makes the board nervous (as it would do on another bigger wave board; I was never using such big boards with sails under 4.7 before), probably because you have less lift on two small fins than with one bigger one. A single fin board would certainly be a little bit faster, but on the other hand for riding waves you do not always want the fastest board, right?

The 76 TWINZER I used with winds between 28 until 40 knots with sails between 3.7 and 4.5 sqm. I experienced the board much more aggressive, but also more nervous, than the bigger one. To be true: with 80 kg I would prefer most of the time the 84 TWINZER, the 76 only for very strong and constant wind (on the 2008 boards I would go mostly on the 76 WAVE RD, in strong winds even on the 69 WAVE RD.

Fore sure for light people the 76 TWINZER will be a great board too, but over 80 kg I would always recommend the 84 except in very strong wind, for lighter winds the 92 TWINZER should be a good board as well.

Even Moritz with 45 kg had a very good time in lighter winds between 15 to 20 knots on the 76 TWINZER and his new 3.4 NORTH SAILS EGO.

Thanks to MISTRAL for these great boards – we love them!