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STARBOARD ISONIC 105
Boards magazine UK March 06
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Described as a pure slalom board and – as we’ve come to expect from Starboard – featuring an unusual design.
The Isonic is short and wide, but less extreme than its famous predecessor the Hypersonic (now no longer in
the Starboard range), most noticeably in not having the extreme concave underwater shape. It’s also noticeably
chunky and has a very short, low and square nose, with very low nose rocker.
The Isonic feels very stable in the water, and is superbly easy to get planing on. It’s extremely quick to release
and accelerates effortlessly, with excellent glide through the lulls. It has a solid feel underfoot, offering plenty
to push against when you need to power upwind. It is incredibly stable from side to side, but more noticeably nose
to tail – the nose seems pinned to the water and the board just flys. You might think it would be at risk of catching
but it absolutely doesn’t seem to be. Even in horrific chop or big rolling swell the board is beautifully controllable
and well mannered.
Underfoot the deck comfort is good too. The tail is thick and there’s plenty of dome to really wrap your foot
around (placed right on the rail – no inboard strap options), so it’s equally at home being driven hard upwind
as it is belting downwind (which it loves to do). All in all, the Isonic is a blisteringly quick and very
controllable board, making its very high top speeds easy and fun to reach.
The slight downside is in the gybing. While it’s quite possible and not even too difficult (on flat water) to exit with
buckets of speed, it’s not the most rewarding board to gybe, requiring a lot of foot pressure to drive the rail into
the water. However, it is still a vast improvement on the Hypersonic (notorious for its difficulty in getting going
quickly again after the gybe mark), and the performance is certainly adequate.
Guesters’ view: Most guesters said it both appeared to be and felt like the fastest board on test.
Even our least advanced riders found it very easy to sail once they had got used to the extreme strap positions; ‘really good upwind’,
‘stable and solid underfoot’ yet ‘smooth over chop’. Opinion was a bit mixed on the gybing but its popularity was
universally very high, giving a clear recreational thumbs up to good slalom kit!
Fittings: The Isonics come with two high quality G10 fins, in this case a 34 and 40 cm Tuttle, which give the board an
awesome range and make it very good value for money. The straps and deck pads are also very good, and just in case
you’re wondering, we didn’t leave it out in the sun too long – the graphics are Ipod inspired!
We tested the Full Wood version, but it’s also available in DRAM at £799
Overall: The Isonic is a full thoroughbred slalom board with undoubted race winning potential -for slalom racing it is unquestionably the board we’d all choose from this test.Yet it’s also so controllable and offers such a wide wind range (great with sails from 6.5-8.0m)
that it would also be a good bet for any advanced recreational sailor who just doesn’t want to be overtaken.
Recommended high speed blaster
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