2018 Severne Fox 120 Board Review
I’ve had a lot of fun on the 2018 Severne Fox 120, so much so that I’d thought I’d give a full run down on what I thought of the board.
I was trying this board for the first time in Vasiliki in a force 5 with a 7.5m sail.
This is easily my favourite free ride/slalom board that I’ve ever sailed on and I’ll explain why
Let’s start with how quick it takes to plane, with just a few small pumps of the sail I was able to glide the board out the water and onto the plane. And because the rocker isn’t too steep it feels very steady whilst transitioning from off the plane to on the plane. You’d think that maybe having a shallow rocker would reduce its ability to plane earlier but they managed to compact this by just making the nose thinner.
So thumbs up straight off the bat.
So how well does it deal with chop, with a lot of performance boards they’re not designed for comfort which means despite being the fastest on the water your ankles might not like you very much for taking every bump straight to your feet.
The Fox is a different story though as it has clearly had that dose of comfort added when the designers were creating the board. I really couldn’t feel a thing. as soon as there was a bit off chop the board just skimmed smoothly over the top.
Now for the best part:
If you thought all of that wasn’t enough to convince you then let me tell you about the way it gybes:
The Fox will make your time carve gybing an absolute park walk. Digging the rail in, initiating the turn and holding the speed the whole way through the turn is just so easy. I would comfortably plane out of most of the gybes I did with this board and the times where I didn’t was just down to poor technique.
But seriously it’s just so forgiving and would be perfect for those of you who are doing a lot of carve gybes but are having difficulty either holding the speed or planing out of them consistently.
I’m no expert at carve gybes but I certainly have done some of my best ones on this board.
Let’s take some time to talk about speed.
If you consider this a pure free ride board it’s not and the same goes for if you want to label it performance board, it’s not. It is however the perfect balance between the two. In terms of speed it’s bloody quick and will definitely give you the advantage on the water even if you aren’t the most skilled windsurfer on the water.
A quick side note
I got taught a new technique whilst riding this board. If you want to go that little bit faster for longer, try holding onto the up haul with the from hand, this will keep the sail upright whilst allowing you to get as far out and away from the kit as possible which also allows you to drive off the fin even harder whilst keeping the sail in that perfect position.
Can the board help with any alternative moves?
I managed to pull off a nice downwind 360 on the Fox and to be honest it did feel very comfortable, so yes of course it can.
Okay so I’ve been blowing smoke up this boards backside for the last few minutes but there must be some disadvantages right?
So if we assume the board is being targeted at intermediate riders then I’d say that if you are on the lower end of this spectrum then you could struggle with the outboard foot straps at first. The idea with the outboard foot straps is that the board can behave more like a performance board when it needs to as it enables you to really drive off the fin.
The small issue (again if you have just transitioned into an intermediate level) is the reduced volume in the nose. If you are trying to tack frequently, you could find yourself sinking the nose on the way round and ending up in the water. However if your racks are on point then you won’t have a problem whipping round the board and coming out the other side.
The other thing to note is the price tag at over a £1000 it could really dent your wallet. But I can honestly say that if you’re someone who windsurfs regularly, just loves to go back and forth carve gybing every-now and then, I really do think it’s worth it and especially if you only want one board in the locker.
So to wrap things up..
The Severne Fox is an incredible free-ride/ performance board that will continue to satisfy a broad range of windsurfers in that intermediate category that are looking for a lot of fun.
