The experience 165 is everything T1 claims to be. Changing slightly Thommen’s motto, it is a “one family – one board”
For the past 7 years during summer vacations, my son Giorgos was getting up in the afternoon, missing the windy hours. He has grown up and weighting 65kg is no longer at ease on my ~100l boards he used to train as a child. He therefore asked me to give him a bigger board that he could tack & lift the sail comfortably.
At the end of last season, upon purchase of the board, we took it down to Shinias,in the Marathon bay to the NE coast of Athens, at the friendly beach & water activities center Karavi , owned and run by the Maniatis family.
To carry it safely, I chose a quality RRD SUP bag, since the dimensions of the eXperience 165 come closer to a SUP than a modern sailboard.
I first tried the board with the straps placed to the front, but soon realized, that in all conditions except from full blasting the Eva soft deck was totally supportive & anti-slip, while the straps should be positioned to the far rear/outside positions for serious speed sailing.
Not having more nice weather (yes we are spoiled), we decided to leave the full test for the new season, so here it is.
We tried it as a training board, as an advancing ride and as an alternative experienced riders choice, in winds ranging from 10-30 knots, with 2.5 Dacron training rig up to 8.2 cambered slalom sail.
Although the board is not heavy for its size (12.1kg with footstraps & fin fitted), it is not easy to get it to the water and out rigged, especially on a windy day, and even unrigged, no matter how helpful is the carrying deck opening, there is always some risk for minor damage, as the usual heavyweight/reinforced construction of this category was not adopted by T1. As a result you have a more agile, attractively different board, that is more prone to dings. Here are the scars at the end of our test, despite the care we took:
The looks as stated above is great for my taste, but upon close examination I felt it lacked the attention I would like .
The graphics on the tail are off-balance, the cut-out of the EVA soft deck near the valve is not symmetrical, while some brown glue spoil the white soft material. Finally, the lacquered surface of the wood is not as smooth as to be perfect.
The fin proved adequate in all conditions, except the combination of a heavy rider & the racy cambered 8.2 sail.
Instead of the 35 specs indicated fin, our board was delivered with a much smaller , hardly 28 one, which upon contact with T1, I was assured it is the correct size and I have no reason to disagree – In addition I can only praise the hull design that was capable of great upwind sailing, something that boards of similar displacement would match using almost double our fin size, rendering these boards inappropriate for shallow water training and beach starts.
On the training level, Nina (49 kg) demanded to sail on the eXperience, instead of one of the usual training boards, not caring about the extra volume & the greater lateral stability they were offering. She did fine (and in style), reintroducing herself to windsurfing after a 15 years gap since her first sailings.
On the intermediate level George (65 kg), was very happy riding the waves of santa Maria on a very windy day, using my 4.7 Simmer Icon sail.
I (70 kg) sailed the board with 4,7 – 5,7 – 6 & 7.4 sails, in small chop, big chop and waves up to 1.5m and I was greatly impressed by the comfortable ride and speed, while after you get used to the size, jumping is possible – elders may remember long boards on the jump back in the ‘80’s (I promise a jumping photo of the eXperience 165 next time a photographer is around under the right conditions.
I did not manage to jibe it on tight radius, but George (Tigana) Moustakis (75 kg), as more experienced did it and I took the pictures. George also commented how handy this large board feels and how nicely it absorbs the chop.
Our most heavy tester M (87 kg), owner of many boards including a 2.80m, 162L course race large F2 Thommen, had a nice ride using a 7.3 Natural North sail and at the end praised the board as a very interesting one.
I belive it is the most interesting intermediate level proposition on the market at the moment, and even I would choose it to surf in unknown conditions areas, in spots with frequent lulls, or for days I would like to sail without worries – no matter the wind fluctuations.
I look forward to try the upcoming small version eXperience 125 which will be available in 2014. It may be the true definition of Thommen’s “one man – one board”.
Nice post. Good to have a board that all the family can ride. Even better to have a family where everyone wants to ride your board!
Thanks William, although I’m not sure I would like a whole family to take tuns on my board…
Good job again, I surely would like to have one of those in my quiver for the raining days…..
Thanks again for the testing contribution. Remembering that you liked the big board, I hope you would ride it and not use it as a shelter…
Hi ZAOSAN thanks for your post with the positive and critic notes, very sorry I didn’t see it until now but I’m glad you enjoying the EXP165 as much as you do, sharing this with the outside world! last year we’ve lost because of bottlenecks in our factory, but the version 6.0 (carbon top) should be available around june this summer (2013) and that is including the brandnew EXP125, the new GUN115 and 4WD107!! ‘BACK TO THE FUTURE’ is drawing nearer! please check our facebook page and the new thommen1.com site which is under construction.
Best regards from the T1 head quarters in Holland!
Mark Thoms
Hi Mark,
I’m anxious to see your new boards, while I hope they will somehow be imported to Greece.
As for the already owned T1 boards, this season I will try the RS59 in high wing with a smaller MUF fin and I will try to paddle like a SUP the eXperience165
Regards
Dimitris (zaosan)
hi Dimitris,
again many many thanks for your loyalty towards Peter Thommen as a shaper!
I’m not sure if you’ve recently been to our thommen1 facebook page, but there’s some visuals on the new RETRO boards coming.
since we’ve lowered the retailprices to €1299, we won’t be able to fit in dealers or importers, but we’ll be appointing ambassadors in several major EU windsurfing markets. basically enthusiasts like yourself, who will promote and assist others finding the right thommen board. by the looks of it, you would be the right person for us in Greece!
I kindly invite you to shoot me a mail outside your blog so we can discuss this, provided you are interested!
thanks again,
Mark
PS: the EXP165 works great as a SUP both on flat water as on waves!
Hi Dimitri, thanks to your review and positive feedback, we have our own Experince165 now. I picked it up today in Hindelopen at Gearfreak.nl.
I think I’am gonna enjoy it as much as you do.
Cheers, Rob (Holland)
Hi Rob,
I’m sure you will enjoy your new board. I visited Gearfreak.nl., but I did not find T1 boards on sale at the moment. Maybe you got the last one, so it was good timing.
I don’t know your statistics & the intended use, but stay tuned, as I plan to try our’s with a ~40cm ride fin, an 8+m sail &a 95Kgs charging rider, while I have also ordered a very reasonably priced RRD padle in order to check the SUP capabilities of the eXp165.
Regards
Dimitris
Hello, I am Paul and I bought an Experience in 2011 at Stephan van den Berg in Holland. It is an faboulus board to sail. Mostly I am sailing with an Gaastra matrix 8 .0. It is perfect. My son also used the board since summer 2011. He was an beginner, but now, heis getting better and better.
My weight is about 90-94 kg. And with the matrix I can start to sail with beaufort 3-4. Until, a big 5. A lot of man with my weight and an smaller board are looking at my tail.
The Experience has one big disadvantage. It damages very fast. When the boom falls on the board, you can be sure, that there is an hole in the board. That is very disappointing.
Hi Paul,
There is no doubt that the board offers fun to a very wide range of riders. As you can see from my comments in the review, the elegant looks have the disadvantage of sensitive deck.
The new Thommens, have substituted bamboo with carbon and claim to have increased structural strength. I suggest that you fit a T- boom/mast protector, maybe even over a simple boom protector. This should help you keep your distinctive board in good shape.
Myself, I will try the eXp 165 with a bigger fin and a rider/sail combination like yours…