2024 Severne NCX

Severne Psycho 3 Review

2020 Severne Freek Review

Severne improves the Freek for 2020. Its still the same great all-around freestyle sail! For 2020 there were improvements in power and pop. Handling is still off the charts!

Severne Psycho and Freek Make a great combo!

I had an incredible year on the Severne Psycho and Freek combo! Both the 92 and 102 are incredible. I'll definitely be using the same combo for 2020. Same great boards and an improved Freek for 2020! Stay tuned for the 2020 Freek Review.

Windsurfing in Hatteras

I'm loving the Severne kit more and more every time I try it. This was a great day behind Ocean Air Sports in Avon, NC on Cape Hatteras. The 92 liter Severne Psycho and 4.0 Severne Freek were working 100%!

Severe Psycho Review

I just finished up the video review of the new Severne Psycho! This board is setting the bar pretty high and the other major brands really have some catching up to do. I can confidently say that the Psycho does everything better than my 2018 Skate. It has more pop, MUCH more forgiveness, a much smoother ride, and easily planes up just as early as the other best planing freestyle boards on the market. It's also a really easy board for non-freestylers to use as well. I've handed my board off to a few folks that just like to blast along and they all came back with the same reaction. It was easy, it went upwind and tracked like a champ and their jibes were improved right off the bat. The Severe Psycho IS the board to have for 2019!

2019 Severne Psycho and Severne Freek in action.

I'll have a full review of the brand new Severne Psycho freestyle board ready to go shortly. Here's a little action from an underpowered day on the 5.2 Freek and Psycho 102 followed by an overpowered day on the 3.6 and 92 liter. All I can say is the boards are going to be the benchmark the other brands are going to struggle to keep up with.

OBX-WIND 2018

The 2018 OBX-WIND event was held at Ocean Air Sports in Cape Hatteras this April. What an event! Easily the largest windsurfing event in North America. Check out the event video below.

Ocean Air Sports shop walkthrough

Ken takes us on a tour of Ocean Air Sports, one of the greatest windsurf shops in the U.S. I'm now running the Ocean Air Sports website and also giving lessons to those that want to learn at any ability level right here at the shop. I love this place! www.oceanairsports.com

2018 Fanatic Foil

I have to admit, foiling didn't seem like something that would be of any interest at all to me. Now that we're living in a windy location, I didn't even bother going out on anything bigger than a 4.8. "It's 20 knots or nothing" has been my personal rule that echoed in my head for the past 8 months. But, with the arrival of the new Fanatic H9 Windsurf Foil in the shop along with every available Foil Ready board from Fanatic and Goya at my disposal, I figured I might as well give it a shot. And I'm so glad that I did! The experience of getting the board going in so little wind with my freestyle sails I already owned was incredible! In 10 knots of wind on a 5.2 I was able to give a few pumps and I was on my way to windsurfing heaven. The closest comparison I can think of to anything I've felt in my 25 years windsurfing is that getting up on the foil for the first time was just like the first time I got planing on a windsurfer. Just incredible! I'm going to be picking up one of the Fanatic Foils as soon as I figure out which Fanatic board will be best. The great thing is that the Fanatic boards that are foil ready are also amazing normal light wind windsurfing boards! For this adventure, I chose the Gecko 120.

2018 Severne Freek

For 2018, my favorite sail still remains to be the Severne Freek! I've also joined the Ocean Air Sports team and we've got them in stock! The video below shows some nice features of the sail. What I personally like the most is it's absolutely top notch handling. The sail remains so balanced and comfortable even when I'm overpowered. Instant power up and depowering are possible without being pulled off balance. Of course for freestylers, we can really appreciate a sail that ducks easy. The 2017 and 2018 Freeks just land where ever you put them. This means you can count on the sail staying right where you let it go for the backwinded tricks and you can work on the actual trick instead of trying so hard to get the duck right. For non-freestylers.... people have told me how much they like not fighting with the rig on the jibes. When they flip the sail, on the jibe they are planing through more turns because the sail instantly powers back up after the sail flip and they stop falling off a plane because they don't need to wait for the sail to power up again on the new tack. EVERYONE will appreciate the lightness and smooth power of the sails. Through use of top grade materials and creative placement of reinforcements, the sails are extremely light and just as durable as ever. No-one will be disappointed with a Severne Freek!

Happy sailing and enjoy the clip!

Mike

2018 Fanatic Skate Review

Chinook RDG Carbon Boom Review

The Big News!!!

I've got some big news! I've officially joined the OceanAir Sports team heading up the internet dept. First order of business was to put lots of things on sale :-) More importantly, I'm creating not just an amazing place to buy gear online, but the OceanAir website will be THE place to go for everything wind and water related. I've created a youtube channel which will appear on OceanAir Sports' home page at www.oceanairsports.com. My 2018 Fanatic Skate review was just posted so head on over there to check it out. You'll also find local forecast info, up to the minute wind readings and webcams (coming soon), recommended places to stay, great places to eat, and of course, what's in stock at the biggest toy box on the east coast to check out some new gear. Come visit us at www.oceanairsports.com

Of course, I'll keep the blog up and running too if anyone needs any help with anything from gear choices to help making your first forward.

Thanks,

Mike

Go-Pro on a stick!

We had an incredible day at West Meadow Beach today. This one of my all time favorite spots. This is the low tide version of West Meadow. There is an 8 or 9 foot tide change every 6 hours or so. At high tide there are some overhead waves perfect for some big air. Unfortunately the go-pro on a stick only likes low tide but it did a great job filming for me.

I have to say, I'v never felt so in control of my gear in my life. The Severne Freek and Fanatic Skate combo is just incredible.

Windsurfing with Go Pro on a stick! from Mike Burns on Vimeo.

2017 Fanatic Skate Review

I'm mixing things up for 2017 and I'm back on the Fanatic Skate! I've been able to ride the entire range of Team Edition boards and the Skate doesn't disappoint! I've always been a big fan of freestyle boards, but the ones I like the most are the boards that will also work for the average guy looking to learn to jibe and get planing early. The entire 2017 range does just that. I feel more comfortable than ever in all the new school and old school freestyle tricks and my wife Christina loves them for the early planing and ease of use.

One of the major factors that got me started looking for a board other than the board I was on last year was that the previous brand ditched the power box for a shortened version of a U.S. Box. For 2017 the Fanatic Skate still has a powerbox and I can still use all my favorite Makani Fins that I already own. Now that I've had a taste of all the 2017 sizes, I can say for sure that the Fanatic Skate is the ultimate freestyle board!! Check out the video below for some details and thoughts on the new range.

2017 Fanatic Skate Review from Mike Burns on Vimeo.

2017 Severne Freek Review and Details

The 2017 Severne Freek is back and it's better than ever!! I've had a chance to sail all the sizes from 4.0 up to 5.9 and they all work perfect! Powerful with loads of control, these sails will work just as well for a bump and jump sailor as they do for the PWA level freestyler and everyone in between. Check out the video review below for more details about the 2017 Severne Freek.

2017 Severne Freek from Mike Burns on Vimeo.

Phil and Mike in Cape Hatteras 2016

We had another great trip to Cape Hatteras again for 2016. It's not only my favorite place to windsurf, but also my favorite place to just chill out and relax. Phil and his brother Tom were there for a couple week with us and we had wind 6 days a week which isn't uncommon for Cape Hatteras in April. The first 5 days of the trip were a consistent 30-35 knots, so 4.0 and 3.6 was the call. I also had some fun with the 3.6 on my 81 liter Starboard Flare. Perfect for when the wind is cranking and the 93 liter is just too big.

Big thanks to my wife Christina, Ace, and Dima for shooting!

Cape Hatteras 2016 from Mike Burns on Vimeo.

OBX-WIND 2016 Long distance race

It started as a simple idea to have a fun race out to the reef and back which is about 3 miles with maybe 20 people. It snowballed into 106 racers, 2 safety boats, 2 jetskis, 1 hobiecat, 2 top level PWA sailors, and 2 separate 12 mile races. This is the start of something very special...

OBX-WIND 2016 from Mike Burns on Vimeo.

Mike in Hatteras 2016

mike in hatteras 2016 from Mike Burns on Vimeo.