We decided to head for SANDBANKS this fall for the legendary Southwest wind sessions happening every fall on one of the largest lakes in the world, Lake Ontario !  The forecast was pretty good and we had two days to warm up with lighter winds and on the last day, October 28th, the conditions clicked in ! 30- 35 knots of wind and huge swells out there that could go as high as the top of our mast ! I used the 22 cm KAKU with four friends who had the same fin except with different sizes. The fin was perfect for the onshore conditions we had as we needed to go high upwind in order to surf the waves...

I have been able to test the NAI'A 21 cm yesterday in 20-25 knots of wind and a 5.3 wave sail on my 103 l freemove board and the combination is just perfect better then with the MANO freewave on my board.  The fin holds well and the board keeps its speed and is still very much alive. I went upwind for 5 km with friends on larger sails and fins ! It will be a great fin to put on freeride boards also when the wind is blowing. Advanced Freestylers will prefer the 18 cm on their freestyle board. Its an amazing feeling to sail fins we are conceiving and see how effecient they are. I used to hate...

Quebec city is a pretty windy place if only we add 12 months of summer we could sail easily all year long with strong winds. For three years I have been invloved with the Defi vents et Marees and we this year we made the event at St-Francois, Ile d'Orleans ! Makani was there to show our local crowd the great work we have accomplished this year and we were able to demonstrate the quality of our products. Luckily enough we had strong winds around 30 knots for both days of the event so we used our KAKU onshore fins !  The event was a great success with 112 participants !

We tested our weed fins with many different board types of different sizes in variable conditions and one combination stands out in our test as being no match ! Freewave boards cant stand blade weeds ! Its probably even worst with wave boards but we did not push that much since we did not have the Pinao with a US box. The blade weeds with long straight lines going often further outside of the board are  like anchors to boards with more rocker lines. They keep the water line in front of your first straps thus your going slow and cant enjoy the liveliness of your baord. It also makes planning much harder as the board is stuck with too...

The Kohola is designed for freeride use but oriented more for speed then manoeuvers. The rake is very straight forward and the thin foil is aimed at going fast. I finally been able to catch the right wind to test the Kohola. I got skunked the first time at one of our local spot and there was so many weeds in Hatteras that we could not put the Kohola in the water. I only had a few minutes on my 6.9 windwing as seen on the image but yesterday was way better . Indeed, the fin was fast. I used it with a powerful freeride sail 5.8 on my freemove 103l. F2 xtc. I only had the 35 cm to...

The Kaku -  Onshore Wave Since most of us ride in less then perfect wave conditions we decided to work hard on a fin that fits those mushy waves we get in lakes and ordinary ocean conditions with gusty winds. The need to go well upwind is essential. We tested the Kaku 22 cm in the g-10 and vaccum infusion in different conditions. The sails used varied from 4.8 to 3.8 m. with winds between 25 to 35 knots and sometimes gusting close to 40. The boards used were mostly freewave boards and some pure wave like Quatro's 76l.. The fin worked best with 4.2 sails with the freewave boards between 75-85 liters. We sailed the fin in chop hop...

weed fin testing

The Pinao We got the Pinao also in g-10 and in the vaccum infusion construction and in the g-10 both a size 33 cm. I tested the fin in 15-25 knots condition at the canadian hole on a hot spring day and the sound was filled with weeds. I used a 6.9 cam sail with a 103 l. Michel, another freerider also tested the fin with a 7.2 freerace sail and a 6.2 sail. Needless to say that the Pinao g-10 worked way better then the vaccum infusion fin. Larger fins need more stiffness otherwise the flex makes you spin out and you cant hold powerful sails.  The fin in g-10 reacted really well and achieved its goal, go fast...

weed fin testing

The Nai'a We wanted to test the Nai'a 18 and 23 cm but only got the 23 cm on time for our trip. We had the Nai'a 23 in G-10 and in vinylester vaccum infusion to test. We tested the 23 cm Nai'a weed fin with sails ranging from 5.3 to 6.1 with mostly freemove, freestyle and freewave boards from 95 l. to 110 l. The principal goal of the Nai'a fin was to permit freestylers to get a nice weed fin to do tricks and stop worrying about cutting expensive fins and having to sail fins with bad foils plus spending hours sanding them. Most of them were disappointed with the results so we decided to design one just...