“All-in-one board range for waveriding, jumping, blasting and freestyle … as fast and early planing as always but now with greatly improved manoeuvre potential.” The rockerlines have been modified on all the JP Freestyle Wave range this year, with a little tail rocker added, but the performance stays pretty similar.

On the water:

The JP remains an early planing board but it is no longer a class leader in this aspect of performance. However, it’s still a very comfortable and extremely easy blasting board that is nicely quick. It is very all-round in style of performance, possibly a bit stiffer and more directional in feel than most but very good with big sails, very easy and satisfying to blast and very easy and responsive to gybe. It seems nearly as good at freestyle as the JP Freestyle if a small fin is used, getting good reviews from all the freestyle capable sailors. It offers good control in chop and high winds.

Fittings:

The pads and straps and deck shape are, as ever on JPs, extremely comfortable. The G10 fin is a sensible size and worked OK, but was quite wide and stiff and occasionally span out if pushed upwind. Sail sizes It offers a wide range, easily accommodating 7.0m sails or bigger on the long rocker flat and still well in control down to 5.2m. Popularity It proved very popular for freestyle with the experts and was well liked for its all-round performance too.

Overall

A very good all-rounder with very good wind range. It’ll get you out in just about any planing winds and offers a good balance of fun and performance. Despite not being particularly biassed towards true wave performance it is still a good board for coastal use and bump-&-jump. We’d particularly recommend it either for advanced sailors wanting a good combination of bigger sail performance and bump-&-jump with freestyle potential, or intermediate sailors wanting ease and comfort in a smaller board with a large wind range.