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Challenger FLUIDO SOFT WING

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Challenger FLUIDO SOFT WING

Challenger Soft Wing 2015

Challenger Soft Wing 2015

Miriam Rasmussen – Ambassador Challenger Sails, have tested the all new sail concept Challenger FLUIDO SOFT WING. The soft Wing is a camber free sail with a very stable wingprofile. According to the Challenger team riders the FLUIDO SOFT WING is really light and easy to handle with smoth/easy rotation and without the camber-hassle on a traditional full on slalom sail.

Read the full story about the Challenger FLUIDO SOFT WING on Miriam Rasmussens web miriamrasmussen.com.

FLUIDO SOFT WING – Sizes and Prices

The Soft Wing is produced in three different sizes, 6.0 (Mast 430), 7.0 (Mast 460) and 8.0 (Mast 490) and the prices range between Euro 680-780.

Update: As per today 2017/2018 the Challenger FLUIDO SOFT WING is out of market, however Wing concepts keep popping up on the market. Read our article about the all new Wingsail for windsurfing.

How to rig the Challenger FLUIDO SOFT WING

FLUIDO SOFT WING – How to set up the wingprofile

Ice board sails – Size matters

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Ice board sails – Size matters

Stefan Söderlund from Västerås, Sweden

Screen grab from a chase cam session with Stefan Söderlund – Sweden.

When it comes to windsurfing sails for Ice boarding the choice is simple but at the same time quite complex.

From start any windsurfing sail/rig will do just fine on Ice. Thats great because you can use your old dusty windsurfing rigs from your garage or buy a used windsurfing rig for 200-300 Euros, and you are good to go.

Generally a windsurfing sails for water and black frictionless ice is quite different. However when you are ice-boarding on ice with snow or if the ice is rough you will need quite a large sail to power through the bumps/snow.

Ice board sails – About the twist

A modern windsurfing sail tend to have a lot of built in twist and at speeds several times the wind-speed a ice boarding sail with a lot of twist will only create drag. When ice-boarding you will prefer a sail with a tighter leech. To obtain that most ice board riders would prefer older sails with less built in twist. Another solution would be to experiment with the sail and mast combo, for example matching a hard-top mast with a windsurfing sail built for a constant curve mast. Less downhaul than recommended will also help to keep the leech tight.

Ice board sails – The size matters

As I said above, if there is snow on the ice or if the ice is rough you will need a large sail to keep the speed through the snow. However when it comes to black frictionless ice you will go at speeds several times the wind-speed, a large sail under those circumstances will create drag and you will loose top-speed. Most used sizes in sweden I would say is 5.0-5.5 sqm. Jeff Brown and his buddies in the US use specially designed sail for ice boarding, often sails as small as 3,7 sqm, and its no secret that they are very fast over there.

Iceboarding - Vallentunasjön - Sweden

Rider: Claes Nilsson Kvick – Wismount and GoPro 3+

Ice board sails – Wave vs Camber

Wave / freeride sails vs Camber sails on Ice? The question is quite hard to answer. If you talk to the Swedish riders there are at least two different schools. Quite a few riders uses small camber sails, others uses small wave sails. The interesting thing here is that the speed potential seems to be quite similar. Its just a question of time before both categories of ice board sails will hit over 50 knot in Sweden. Dean Withrow from the US has a personal best of 53 knot sailing with a Maui Sails TR6, 4.7 sqm.

Ice board sails – Disclaimer

As you may have noticed, reading through the article above, there´s nothing called the absolute truth when it comes to iceboard sails. I would guess that learning to know your sail will make a huge difference how it will perform. One or two cm more or less (more likely) downhaul can give you the 5 extra knots you need to outperform your buddies.

Feel free to have your say about Ice boarding sails. Together we are stronger!

Read more about ice board sails

>> Ice Board sail from Point-7 – Black Ice

5 minutes guide – How to rig a cambered sail

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5 minutes guide – How to rig a cambered sail

The popularity of Twin cam sails has grown dramatically over the last few years. A Twin cam/cambered sail often delivers more stability and power compared to a No cam sail and is more forgiving and easier to handle compared to a Full cam sail.

Follow the rigging instruction to avoid damaging the cambers

Rigging a cambered sails can be a bit tricky and its very important to follow each sails rigging instructions/manual, otherwise its easy to break one or two of the cams/battens.

If you buy a used cambered sail its very important to check the condition of the cambers and ask the seller to rig the sail and go through the rigging procedure/manual.

5 minutes guide – How to rig a cambered sail

– Pull the sail on to the mast without engaging the cams
– Apply minimal down haul
– Fit the boom
– Apply maximum out haul
– Gently pop the cambers into place
– Apply full down haul
– Do the final tuning

Important: How to de-rig a cambered sail

– Release down haul 10cm – 15cm
– Open the zippers and pop the cams from the mast. Close the zippers !!!!
– Downhaul the sail to the recommended luff length
– Release the out haul and detach boom from mast
– Gentley release the down haul completely
– Remove the mast from the sail.

Wndsurfing travels

Go Iceboarding

GoPro vs Garmin