The Boards & More Group – who own Fanatic, Ion, Duotone windsurfing & kiting – have decided to change the branding on Fanatic windsurfing, foils and wingfoiling boards all to Duotone for 2024 and going forward.
For the Fanatic officinado’s this will be a bit of a surprise – those who owned the Ultra Cats, Mosquito’s,Falcon’s, Gecko’s, Grips will all find after 40+ years of Fanatic things are on the change!
Rest assured Duotone are committed to windsurfing and wingfoiling and you will see the same Team Riders and Designers working hard on even more R & D. According to the Boss, Til – there will be more streamlining between the product lines, and bigger dedicated Teams in each sport which will improve the end product.
I was in Tarifa in July with Nik Baker and Tim Frampton checking out the 2024 product from Duotone – they are launching new wings; foilboards; foils and new windsurfing boards and sails.
After a delayed flight into Gibralter that ended up in Malaga – eventually arrived in Tarifa to have 3 days of differing wind conditions – ranging from 40 knots Levante to foiling in 6-10 knots.
Duotone have now incorporated SLS and DLAB into their windsurf, wing and foil products. In simple terms DLAB is the top end performance product line up, generally the lightest – SLS in windsurf sails is their high performance, seamless sail designs. In boards SLS is the premium sandwich construction whereas DLAB is the ultralight carbon construction. Although this originally started out as 2 specific materials it has been expanded across the product line.
Product highlights for me were the new 2024 Duotone Unit – similar to the Ventis has a long front boom handle, new shape, new material layout – it has a deeper gap between the centre strut and canopy (more pumping power) and its got a slightly more ergonomic shape so that your back hand position is more settled away from your body when winging.
The new Duotone Aero Carve front wing has been reshaped – they do 2 versions of the foil wing – one in SLS and one in DLAB – the new DLAB has a molded carbon fuselage which has two different tail’s available – which can be made up into a 60 or 68 fuselage – I tried this wing and it was so lively and fast in the 1100 size it felt amazing, you can tune it depending on your weight and skill with different back wing sizes.
Duotone Grip 3 windsurf waveboard – this is Duotone’s new replacement to the Fanatic Mamba – a tri fin design, fast rocker line, small channel in the tail and you can see Nik ripping into the tiniest of shorebreaks on this board. It feels lighter than the previous years model and they have removed unnecessary footstrap options , shortened the mast track and made some weight savings that you can really notice when using the board.
The Grip 3 feels like a classic onshore wave board, plenty of speed felt like it wants to jump and it still has the looseness when it comes to turning.
The new Duotone Super Hero SLS this is a new shaped sail in a new construction which takes Duotone into the seamless construction – even though I didn’t try the sail in waves it felt superlight in your hands; the moulded construction makes the sail feel very, very stable and in Tarifa’s notorious choppy and gusty conditions it felt great.
DUOTONE WINGBOARDS:
The Sky Style SLS 2024 – these have been really popular boards in 2023 and they have changed the shape by adding a bevelled rail to add more stability when stationery in the water – this also helps with touchdown and better release and on all models they have reduced the weight. I tried the 5’1 size and it felt super nice; both on and off the foil.
The new range of wingboards all have this bevell on the rail which makes the board feel more stable when you are about to get going – but still super quick to get up on the plane – I tried a number of sizes from the Sky Start, the Downwinder SLS and the Sky Style all felt a nice tune up from the 2023 boards.
We will have the new Duotone 2024 Units, DLAB Carves and the Sky Style & the Sky Style SLS all available on demo at 2XS, West Wittering beach. Call Simon for more details email: sales@2xs.co.uk tel: 01243 512552
