Naish Hybrid Freewave – RIP

Its been an expensive week for me… At last the wind returned so I was able to get out windsurfing. Wednesday afternoon was lovely, I sailed all the way up to Tywyn, then back to Ynyslas and thought I’d continue on to Borth, but just as I thought that my boom snapped and I was dumped unceremoniously in the sea. Luckily I was able to waterstart using the other side of the boom and sail back to the beach using my ‘asymmetric boom’, but it did bring my session to an early end… The boom was only 3 months old so will be replaced under warranty. I’ve spoken with Gun where I bought it from and they will replace it with no questions asked.

Then on Thursday I went out, and after half an hour landed from a jump and snapped my lovely Naish Hybrid Freewave board in two. It wasn’t a big jump, I never do anything particularly big as I’m not THAT good, and I certainly wouldn’t have expected it to snap that easily… The board is a year old and was the only board I’ve ever had from new, so it is pretty disappointing that I’ve snapped it as it was the best board I’ve ever owned. So far I haven’t heard back from Naish, but it would be good if they would replace it under the warranty as I’m sure a board should be able to take more abuse than I’ve thrown at it over the past 12 months… We’ll have to wait see.

Here are some photos of the damage… Don’t think I’ll be sailing it again.

Snapped Naish Hybrid FreewaveNaish Hybrid Freewave in two parts

8 Responses

  1. Avatar forComment Author Isma says:

    Hi Alan,

    I´m about to buy a new Hybrid 85. I havne´t found much info or reviews about it. Could you please tell me a little bit about the board. Can it be riden as freestyler?

    Thanks
    Isma.

  2. Avatar forComment Author Alan says:

    Hi Isma…
    Its a really nice, playful board, very short and fun to sail, but probably not ideally suited to full on freestyle as there really isn’t any nose to plane on for tricks that involve going backwards and the tail is actually quite narrow too. It also isn’t particularly early planing and therefore needs to be well powered up to get any fun out of it… It is no fun at all when the conditions are really marginal.

    Once powered up in the chop and onshore wave conditions though it is a joy to sail.

    Al.

  3. Avatar forComment Author Isma says:

    Hello Alan,

    Last time I contacted you about the Naish Hybrid was back in 2007. That year I went out a bought a brand new one, same as yours. Fours years later I still own it. It turned out to be just like you described it. Lucky for me, it’s still in great shape, but I´m an intermediate rider, just jumps and small waves on the Argentinian coast and some inner lakes.
    What board do you own now?

    Regards
    Ismael, Argentina.

  4. Avatar forComment Author Sunset says:

    Hi Isma!

    I’m thinkig about to buy a Naish Hybrid 2007.
    (There is a new one from stock anyway) I haven’t decided yet…
    If I understand you well you have much more experience with this board…
    What’s your opinion about this board? Could you commend it?
    I’m an intermediate rider like you from Hungary (Central Europe)
    Most of time I can riding on the inner lakes. The biggest lake of
    Europe is in Hungary that called “Balaton” (If you are intereseted in it, you can find it on the google earth 🙂 )
    So there are small vawes (about 60-70 cm [2ft])

    I hope you send a feedback soon

    Regards
    Sunset, Hungary

    • Avatar forComment Author Alan says:

      Yep, I’d recommend it as I love it. It isn’t particularly fast but it is just such a fun board to sail especially when properly powered. It is pretty short mind and is always hunting around for bit of chop to play on rather than liking to sail in straight line.

      Al.

  5. Avatar forComment Author Sunset says:

    Thank you the fast response Alan!

    Then I’m decided: I’ll buy it. I hope it will be good and fun as you wrote.

    Thanx again
    Sunset

  1. Wednesday, February 26th, 2020

    […] least I’ve had a bit more use out of that. I originally bought it in 2006 so it is quite old. I then snapped it after less than a year of use and got a replacement board from Naish and have now sailed it a total of 250 times – no […]

  2. Tuesday, September 13th, 2022

    […] on wave faces. I first bought it in 2005 so as alluded to above it’s quite old. I actually snapped the first one I had in the first year of ownership and managed to get it replaced with a 2006 model under warranty. So, […]

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Alan Cole

Alan is a Freelance Website Designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband with far too many hobbies: Triathlete, Swimming, Cycling, Running, MTBing, Surfing, Windsurfing, SUPing, Gardening, Photography.... The list goes on.