I'm very curious also, I've sailed the Cube 86L 2018 a few days in a row in schlog and surf back then and I was impressed with it's ability to DTL in good wave size even for that size(for me it was +20L).

Why so quad better for Side on PhilN ? ... remember Goya take attitude that quad is their sideshore , thruster their side on model .... ? Even though I would argue thruster has better traits for both ...

If you like the tail to slide a little more in side on - then Cube would be better / fins looser than custom 3 probably ...

In fact - we could proabably theortically extrapulate out performance differences between cube and C3 , should we not be lucky enough to get the ' Utah review' whilst many in lockdown misery ... I wager his underground verdict is CUBE clear winner - as bit looser , feels more radical to slide the fins ... ??

Theoritcal arm chair testing ... Put a 'maybe' in front of every conclusion ...

SIDE ON ....
More planted topend = CUBE
More low end = custom 3
Better upwind = custom 3
Crisper feel / Livelyness = Custom 3
Looser on a wave = CUBE
More fun if you like to slide the fins = CUBE
Best speed DTL in onshore = CUBE (sits nose down bit more - carries speed rail down on the wave bit longer)
Best backside turns / hacks = Custom 3
Pushing vertical in side on and pivot hit off the top hit to come back quickly = custom 3
Best jumper - ie turning upwind quickly in side on to hit angled ramp and throw a backie = Custom 3

Advanced level I would add -
If you like to add power to your turns = Custom 3
Better for wave shakas = Custom 3
Better for taka's = Cube

SIDESHORE ...

depends on yr style ... ??? either - OR
Looser = Cube
Harder hack / more spray = Custom 3
More drive / stability / hold on a bigger face / choppier wave = custom3
More vertical sailing = Custom 3
Smaller sideshore = Cube ?
Bigger sideshore = Custom 3
Front foot style bottom turn hard = Custom 3 maybe
More backfoot style , or sailing off the tail more = maybe Cube ...

Whats everyone else think ... ?

bigdaz said..
C'mon Utah, spill the beans. I've been hanging out for your review!!! Not many people get to have that many sessions to compare boards - we rely on hearing real world feedback from regular human beings!!!

just give us what you've got - people will agree, disagree, whatever... your opinion is valid and worth sharing.
looking forward to it. Cheers

Hey bigdaz - are you looking to go back to darkside side-on shapes ... ? from memory you had cube/super mini quiver 85/95 into selling up into pyramid thruster dedicated quiver - you feel your now missing something in your quiver you have to convince your wife of ???? and yourself ?? haha ...

seabreezer said..

bigdaz said..
C'mon Utah, spill the beans. I've been hanging out for your review!!! Not many people get to have that many sessions to compare boards - we rely on hearing real world feedback from regular human beings!!!

just give us what you've got - people will agree, disagree, whatever... your opinion is valid and worth sharing.
looking forward to it. Cheers

Hey bigdaz - are you looking to go back to darkside side-on shapes ... ? from memory you had cube/super mini quiver 85/95 into selling up into pyramid thruster dedicated quiver - you feel your now missing something in your quiver you have to convince your wife of ???? and yourself ?? haha ...

Haha, nope!!! Completely stoked on the Pyramid!!! Took me a while to get there, but feel like it's my perfect board.
Im just a gear nerd and love hearing about what people think on new gear, no matter what it is... so much good gear out there that I will probably never get to try - so it's cool to hear about first hand experiences.

I don't know on what you based your theory on winner in different category @seabreazer, I would be glad you explain, not that i don't beleive you..but for my personal knowledge!

I did not tried the goya, but one thing that surprised me with the cube was how much it could handle big waves in side shore. It was in Kanaha, never went under logo and the board was a blast in that schlog and surf conditions!! The only complain I would do for the Cube, for a a couple of hours I became over power and it was choppy and I needed to move the mast base, low the boom...did not spread the fin...but I was not as confortable with the cube compare to a Pyramide. Could be the technique also.

PhilN's comment re cube just feels a bit more fun - better keeping speed etc (and I alluded to it in my earlier post that best DTL speed would prob be quad cube ... ) ... I agree -

BUT- an interesting thought/sailing experiment would be..... if you indeed wanted to FUN up the custom 3 a bit more in side on ... you could look at tweaking fin balance , so instead of 18/10 say stock set-up ... you go 12front 16 back (or more radical 14 front 15 rear) - so a bit more nose down efficiency in the bottom turn and extra drive from bigger driving front fin (still wouldn't carry as much speed as a quad though ) ... BUT the looseness off the tail would start becoming a little more QUAD like off the top (as you've shifted the power balance in the cluster FWD to imitate quad power balance ... A good sailor would ignore the less carry bottom turn speed - and hook tighter bottom turn lines and off the tops ...

Here's my feeling though ... You can adjust a thruster more towards quad 'lose the tail ' feel with a smaller rear , but its harder to 'pivot up ' a quad to imitate a thruster in my experience if that makes sense ... (because quads imo you want to be standing a little further fwd on the board / and fins further forward , and more importantly - there's a limit on pivoting up 2 rears vs a single rear mounted furtherback) .... You will never get a thruster to sail better in 'quad like mode' than quad though ( I like quads too !) ... as reducing back fin size starts impacting amount of available easy drive in the bottomturn - which needs really good aggressive technique to tap into efficiently (ie a pro guy could go smaller rear and still get through his bottom turn with speed by using more rail drive and better sail drive ...) , but then still tap into drivey topturn even with less fin ... (again technique with the sail etc ) ...

Overall though - I think there's more range tuning available in thruster than quad ... For me there's a couple of moves that don't feel as good with thruster , but the other benefits offset that mostly ...

I have a question regarding board size. At 74kg, I'm currently sailing a 2014/2015 78l Goya Quad which I really love, but which is getting old. I'm wondering whether the 82l Cube or the 81l Custom 3 are too big for well powered 3.7m side-on conditions which we have in the North Sea? I fear that the 75l versions are too close to my weight; I like to have a little float capacity.

seabreezer said..
just a thought ... 81 custom 3 is 57.4 / 35.8 .... that could get bet control issue 3.7 weather ... and trying to get 'float' out of shapes like cube/custom 3 could be a challange for 3.7 ... you could also think of both ranges more highwind offerings , and go for the 80+ LTRS , but still with some control as narrower tails ...

custom 4 (bit more rocker / topend for 3.7 )
84 .... 56.8 (still narrower than custom 3 / 81 ) ,
79 .... 55.3 / narrower tail 35 ...
OR
pyramid 82 ...... 56.5 - only 34.5 - would handle 3.7

79 custom 4 could be the BOMB pick - and sick graphics ...(tail has bit more carry than pyramid ... , but more rocker for tighter 3.7 turns than custom3 / cube )

I agree with Seabreeze, Custom 4 79 would be my pick for your weight, and still provide a bit of float but not compromise it's control.

ursblank said..
Ok, interesting. From the tests I've read, I understood that the Custom 4 is not suited for smaller waves. Do you guys have an idea how the 2020 Goya boards compare the 2014 Quad?

I read that windsurf test as well ... strange - as they suggest its super fast and quick to get going (ie pretty universal for side-on etc) ... they say it has a front footed approach - maybe thats why needs bigger waves etc OR maybe the the outline somehow doesn't switch over to backfoot mode too well ? ... seems strange ... or maybe the grip factor is too high for smaller waves ? - if so - changing rears to smaller rears or more flexy would sort (lose the tail quicker / easier .... if backfoot mode issue - bigger rears and even smaller fronts might sort ... Remember - test teams mostly just test with the stock fins - and some of the issues / comments / opinions can be sorted with a fin change ... Again - shame its not a 5 box as could have given the custom 4 an extra dimension ...

I messed around with some 12 rear quad set-ups a few years ago ... kinda fun power slides for a few sessions etc ... but lost too much drive generally for general fun ...

13 skorch , 13 flex Leons and 13 stiff Leons could all be epic ...

If you want to make a slight adjustment to make yr stock fins better performance imo (ie wont be using then even for bigger sail stuff) let me know ... easy tweak u can do

Very very sad that the interesting but non topic related discussion scared Utah to post his experience. ??????

sprayblaze said..

seabreezer said..
I messed around with some 12 rear quad set-ups a few years ago ... kinda fun power slides for a few sessions etc ... but lost too much drive generally for general fun ...

13 skorch , 13 flex Leons and 13 stiff Leons could all be epic ...

If you want to make a slight adjustment to make yr stock fins better performance imo (ie wont be using then even for bigger sail stuff) let me know ... easy tweak u can do

Hi Seabreezer,
Some time ago in a hurry to catch the wind I found that I had forgot my rears. All I had left were 8 cm fronts and 10 cm fronts inthe bag and I had to do something, no buddies around. The forecast was rock and roll. Thank god all were slot box. So I put the 10 fronts as rears. It was a 70 l board a 4.0 sail 72 kg body weight. I thought that my seesion will be spoiled anyway.. but what a surprise- I managed to point the board at will.. and boy was it loose and FAST, no spinouts whatsoever. Maybe because I was well powered. During a break I did a small trick of mine- slightly displaced the rears which increased even more upwind performance and drive. Guys at the beach were scratching their heads thought I was nuts putting such children teeth on my board. But it worked and what a session I had. Imho all stock fins are oversized especially the rears and you can do away with way smaller stuff.

Couldn't agree more. The production JP ultimate wave 69l comes with 9cm fronts and 14cm rears.

i used 13 cm rears with no fronts for a while, it was crazy fun but could be a little skippy when it was choppy. Threw in 8cm fronts and it's perfect now. Production fins are almost always badly sized. I guess it's because a bad wavesailor will need more fins to make life easier for him, and is more likely to enjoy an overfinned board, and a good sailor will know how to fix the problem, so it sells better

I am looking at both these boards, read the whole thing. No review

I think that Utah decided to never come back from his 3rd session it was so good. We now need to ask which board is missing to know the winner. In any case, WGAF.
I have Cube 2017. Will I go buy Goya if someone says he liked it more - Nope. Plus I almost always sail mine as twin anyways. Can make it a 5-slot board easy. I personally feel that boards are like cameras, one needs to get to know one to really use it to the fullest. I also realized that I remember days and conditions when I had amazing time and not so the equipment I was on.