Only a few years into windsurfing, but addicted (at age 52)! I use a wide range of boards ranging from Mistral Superlight and competition to Fanatic Blast short board. Always wanted to try a Kona one, and one is finally available in my landlocked US state (Colorado, where the lakes are still frozen!). Surprisingly it does not have a daggerboard.. Any feedback on the board? How will it be compared to my old longboards? I suspect it is a Gen one Kona 1 since no daggerboard, but not sure? It is red/white, and not the traditional yellow Kona. Thanks!

That's a Kona longboard windsurf board.

There will be people more informed than me but my understanding is that Kona as a brand with the Kona one design was sold from the original designer and their new brand is Exocet.

I was always a short board windsurfer but then brought a house bit not close to predominant spot bur better for onshore wave and surf. With a young family, I can drive a couple minutes and dail on offshore breeze and once I'm 2-300 m I'm fully planning but need the exocet 11'8" with 220 liters volume and 7.5m or 8.5m in marginal conditions. The Exocet windsup is wider, thinner and softer rail shape than the Kona One.

A few years ago I brought a mates Kona 10'5" "step tail no dagger board stick" and amazing performance in marginal wave conditions that you have board length and volume to easily get over white water and turns like a shorter board and they are much narrower than sup board.

The photos of your board isn't the Kona One but previous a Kona long board wave, please take photo of the board specification ?

Yes, the pictured red Kona is their longboard surf oriented waveboard. They had a 9' , 10' and 11' version. The focus was on gliding out and riding in. I liked the idea but never got to try it.

That's looks like the Kona longboard which shares some features with the One but has a completely different design brief. It's maybe the best mushy wave, small onshore wave surfsailor ever made. Very hard to find, very popular at east-coast USA and Gulf Coast spots. Looks like the 11'8" which is the best all around but the 10' is good too. Slashy, fairly fast for a wave board and it'll always get you home. If it's in decent shape it's an outstanding buy if you live anywhere near the coast. Too narrow to make a great flat water SUP but an excellent surf-SUP.

Thank you everyone! Appreciate the info, as I did not realize Exocet made longboards. I am inland and only on lakes with small chop, so not sure if the board is a good fit here (vs my Superlight w daggerboard). I suspect I could put a larger fin on it to improve the upwind capability.

This one is a different model bit shorter and wider

It's a real shame you don't have waves, that would be an ideal board.
But for your purposes not so much.

Good comments here.

Noticed you said Fanatic Blast. I'm definitely not an expert sailor, somewhere in low intermediate, and I have a 145 Blast and a 11'8" exocet and it looks similar in outline but is a lot heavier and has a daggerboard. My main complaint with that board is the weight. I enjoy foiling but I also do enjoy getting my longboard planing. It takes more than a shortboard but the exocet pushes through the disorganized chop way better than the Blast does after I upgraded fins. It came with a 34cm (I think) pretty blunt fin but I run a 40cm k4 fang and it does well. As Awalkspoiled mentioned, you could go even bigger. Someone told me they go with a 44cm carbon fin and really enjoy it.

With that fin, and without using the daggerboard, going upwind is not a problem. The daggerboard did help a lot in subplaning conditions but even so I don't have a problem taking a board that big and floaty out on a trip.

If it is built by exocet I did have some problems with the footstrap plugs stripping. I've yet to fix it but I will eventually when I have more room to do so.

Subplaning with 9.5:



Overpowered in gusts with a 7.5. I could've been on the Blast but it beats me up a lot more in this kind of chop than the exocet does:

US box fins don't come longer than ~35cm or so, the boxes just aren't that strong.

That is likely a Kona 11.5 (possibly a 10.5). It is a good board but unlike the Kona One, Carb One, etc., it is surf oriented, has more rocker, will be slower to plane. I rescued a Kona Surf (very similar 11.5 board but with Allgaier daggerboard) from a dumpster (hurricane victim) and sailed it for some years, was surprisingly slow compared to a proper longboard - but still fun in enough wind with enough sail. Others have identified a major problem with the 11.5 though - US box. It's not just that the long fins you need aren't available, it's that the box is not structurally sound enough for the leverage of a big fin. I would change the box to powerbox.

Kona link fin 46 cm power box, carbone is the kona to look for.

gorgesailor said..

bwm6300 said..
Great points. I was starting to suspect the same thing about the lack of strength when I was only finding small US Box fins!

I would double check that... I seemed to remember the early Kona 11'5 had a power box... great board in any planing conditions & glides well off plane just not great upwind off a plane(compared to dagger board...)

Thank you. Will find out when I pick it up.

thedoor said..

gorgesailor said..

bwm6300 said..
Great points. I was starting to suspect the same thing about the lack of strength when I was only finding small US Box fins!

I would double check that... I seemed to remember the early Kona 11'5 had a power box... great board in any planing conditions & glides well off plane just not great upwind off a plane(compared to dagger board...)

My red 11'5" has a us box

ahh ... good to know... it have thruster boxes too?

Beautiful 7 hour drive through the mountains of Colorado today to pick up the Exocet 11'5. Was totally worth it! Board is very light for a longboard - weighs approximately 28 lbs / 12.7 kg. Of course, that is compared to my older Superlight and Competition longboards. It came with the original 32 cm US box curved fin. I also have a 38 cm straighter fin I plan to try. It needs some easy fiberglass repairs for a few dings and small cracks on the edges. And some new footstraps. Can't wait to get it on the water. Thanks to everyone that gave me feedback about the board.