POWER
The main difference with a freestyle sail is the ability to go from zero power and 100% control, through to huge amounts of power in an instant. The Style Pro is the most reactive sail in our line and if you are not used to the way the power goes on and off, it can be a little harder to handle. Comparing it with a standard wave sail, like the Vogue, the wave sail is more stable and the power comes on and off more progressively, which is more controllable. For sure you could wave sail with a freestyle sail and I know people that particularly like it for light wind riding conditions. However the power in a wave sail is typically a bit lower and a little further back which helps keep control when riding, and allows the rider to drive through turns better. Meanwhile the freestyle sail has the power higher and further forward which is less useful when riding, but great for powering them through freestyle moves. Additionally the aggressive way that a freestyle sail switches on and off makes smooth riding a bit harder, particularly setting rails going into bottom turns. There are other differences as well such as the tight leech and the higher aspect ratio. The tight leech stops the sail moving around too much in moves and keeps everything locked and controlled when ducking. They are basically feeding the sail into the wind, and a loose leech means that if the duck is not perfect the wind can easily catch the wrong side and unbalance the sail. The higher aspect ratio does 2 main things. Firstly it makes ducking easier and more importantly faster because the boom is shorter and secondly it speeds up horizontal rotations, which is what all the freestyle moves are. We also modified the batten angles, making them more angled, which created more support through the whole sail and makes it all a bit stiffer, which again makes the ducking quicker and easier. Everything is designed so that they can duck the sail quickly and easily whilst maintaining as much speed as possible. Like this they can set up their moves in control and then explode into the air when they need to.
The rigging of freestyle sails is really different. They have so little loose leech that it looks wrong. The sail does not release so well and you lose some speed, but they counteract this by having very fast rockered boards, and the control they gain when ducking is essential if they are to do the moves with speed. Weight is also critical so we reduce the reinforcement in the Style Pro, particularly up high in the sail, by not having batten pockets and having reduced thickness of materials through the head. In general these sails are used more on flat water so they don’t have to be built to withstand mast high waves like the wave sails do. Our team also all use the race mast, our Firewing RDM. It is super light obviously, but also a bit stiffer, which the riders like as it stays more balanced in the moves. The way these sails have developed and the direction that freestyle is going at the moment makes these sails very specialised really and not much of what we do with the freestyle sails gets used in the rest of the line. Having said that, what is amazing about the Style Pro is that it actually does all the old style freestyle loads better than the old sails. My moves are pretty old school and also very rusty, but if I take out the latest Style Pro sail my level instantly goes higher, even with the sliding moves. Other than the Compact Wave concept, the Style Pro is the sail I am most proud of for the way it has developed over the years together with the team and has become a real reference sail to the whole freestyle community.