A few of us have got to try out the Naish Chopper over here in Wellington NZ in the past few weeks. Mostly in the smaller size (S) in 4.0 winds and cross-on to side shore conditions.

The verdict - Naish has come up with something pretty special.

I was out the other day on my 2012 4.2 Force in 30 knots side shore. It was feeling OK but it was starting to be bit of a handful in some pretty full-on conditions. I swapped over to the Chopper S and man what a difference. The immediate difference was in the weight - it felt soooo light in the hands - and I thought the Forces were light! Also very stable and settled - I felt like I was wresting a bit with the Force but the Chopper just let me get on with riding waves. On the wave it felt like I didn't even have a sail in my hands - I could concentrate on getting the rail set, and then off the top it was effortless to throw the rig around.

A couple of other reviews from the lads:

I had a go at the Small Naish Chopper today in 4.0m wind Plimi cross onshore.

The sail is amazingly light in your hands, really crisp/sharp feeling in the top turn.

In a straight line just sailing around it was very comfy and the sail felt very stable.

I rigged it once and during the whole session I never really had a thought in my mind that maybe I needed to tune it, it felt just perfect the first time.

Compared with the Force the sail felt a little more backhanded with all the power just in front of you.

Another thing I noticed it was really easy to get the sail out of the water while doing a waterstart. The extra boom length worked in advantage for jumping, gave it a bit more float, I don't do rotations so can't comment on that.

The other cool thing is that with such a sort luff there was almost mast high waves today on the set waves (you get bigger waves with the chopper)!

Will be interesting to try the larger sizes too.



And another one:

Tried the S today at an pretty gnarly Lyall Bay and was very impressed. Just as the promo material says, same power as a bigger sized still, in a much more compact and maneuverable package.

Handled the gusts with no problems at all feeling like a smaller sail, and cruised through most of the lulls feeling like a bigger sail.... Yep sounds like a contradiction but somehow it just works!. The power in the sail felt very stable and right in front of you (not further up the mast) and was completely controllable.

On the wave it felt like I was riding withiout a sail, foot is cut so that it doesn't catch in the bottom turns and the short length means the sail didn't load up in the top turn.

In the air it handled nice (no rotations for me today tho), nice compact feel but still had power in the hands if you want to float it a bit.

Rigging on the 370 mast and still having 25cm out the top was a little weird at first but the performance more than made up for it.

Lyall was pretty windy with most guys on 4.0, wind was very gusty on the inside and smoking out back, swell was a good size with some logo plus sets.....