Has anyone here had any experience of Gun boards? I know Marco Copello made some of the finest and most expensive Red Line boards with the help from Anders Bringdal in the 90's but what is his modern stuff like? I like the look of that wood Helix board although I don't think he shapped that?

I haven't tried them myself, but would like to... I like the look of the two wave boards.

ajdesq had a look at them in the flesh a while back and said they looked well built.... I'm sure he'll comment here soon.

Al.

the 2004 graphics are 'interesting' though.

yours superficially...

preacherman

Yeah... Not the prettiest graphics out there are they... Animals and plants!!

Snakeskin on the Fire boards (a python by the looks of it!)
A Green Iguana on the G-Cross
A cactus on the Flame
and Zebra on the Thunder boards...

Shame they don't do all of them in the wood construction though like the Helix as that looks really nice.

Al.

The sight of the new Gun boards graphics finally made me passionate enough to register!

I'm not an arty-farty type. I don't care whether a board looks good or not. I do care if it looks so bad it becomes an object which I would personally feel ashamed to be associated with though. Please Gun - no graphics at all would be a huge step forward from those horrible messes (the wood finish one aside). They rank with some of the other true horrors of recent years. The F2 Maui Project with graffiti style scribble on it and the Mistral Beast, with something out of a 12 year-old's comic book come to mind. The only boardco who seem to do funky graphics well are Tabou. I'm still tempted to get a MadCow, even though it's a totally unsuitable board for me.

Gun - stick to plain white if you can't do any better. Rant over.

The only experiance i have had was with the 2000 model range and i had a 255 for a couple of months. It was an excellent board very similar to the goya range as the construction was pretty fragile, but light structurally tough and flicky!! the materials they use thou are top notch including footstaps etc. I am considering getting on of the little boards at the mo but its difficult buying one on the grounds of looks and the gun catalog!!

Who cares about the graphics if the price is good and the board does a great job so you can have load of fun on it; that is what more important. Think we are all missing the point some were.

If my car was bright pink and had the word C*nt sprayed on every panel, I suspect that I wouldn't be able to have quite such a good time in it despite it driving exactly the same way.

I'm afraid that most of us have a superficial side and mine extends to wanting a board that people aren't going to laugh at. Decent performance would be nice as well (!)

They're off my list until they pass their art GCSE.

Sod the graphics......Yep i agree in general everyone wants a nice looking board (personally a plain white board would be best!!) but the problem with these boards are that the mags and generally everyone who's has a commercial view on the sport refuse's to deal/ review gun. This is smiply down to two resons
1) they are cheaper than the traditional (rip off) brands such as North / Ezzy/ Neil Pryde
2) They are in fact as good if not better than these brands! with the quality often beating the competitors.

The question is do you trust Gun enough to risk forking out £600 quid or so on a board you know little about..... Personally having used gun for 5 years i have have 100% faith in them and Marco Copello.

the only way is to try them out, people will always be suspicious of different things.............. especially when every time they crop up on a forum there seems to be a salesperson saying how gun saved their eternal soul.
this was a fiarly common (funny) feature on the boards website.

yep, funny at first but it did start to get a bit tedious before the boards forums mysteriously died....perhaps the two are linked - now there's something for the conspiracy theorists!

IMHO I think windsurfing tends to attract it's fair share of individuals for whom image is paramount - and perhaps the thought that a significantly cheaper brand could actually do the job just as well is too hard to stomach.... hence all the ranting!

Just a thought.

Nick

Going back to the original question... I've had a Helix 125 for a couple of years and it is top. Often the fastest board on the water, strong construction (my first board and the nose has stood up amaizing well to many a mast impact) and for 1/3 off the price off any competitor board. I was away at Bitez last year and found that the Carve 120 is an almost identcal board in size and the ride.

I must admit that the graphics of the 2004 range have put me off, I suppose they are German after all! BUT they have some 2003 75l wave boards that have a much better graphic (identical in ever other way as far as I can tell) for sale on the gun website for just £499. The review from some euro mag puts it up there with the Goya but they sell for a grand! So I've put my money where my mouth is an ordered one.

Now that sounds VERY tempting!!!

Al.

only interesting if you can find them - where on the website Dynoben?

Click on the 'Nice Price' image in the header.

Al.

Thanks Al. Saw the heading for sails and didn't get any further, but it was staring me in the face all along. Tempting!

Except that I phoned them today to get one and they have all gone!

Al.

Shame they've run out.

Took the Fire 75 out at Rhosneigr last saturday but the wind was full of holds. Never done so many waterstarts in one session! Possibly because I've never been on a board that small before either. Had a much better time once I swapped it for my skate.

Sunday had a good couple of hours up and down the wall at West Kirby on the Fire. Feels really solid when overpowered, even got a few gybes done on it.

I saw someone had a Thunder board there as well, didn't see it in the water but looked like my Fire's big brother!!