Appletree Appleslice V3
The V2 was one of our best sellers.
The V3 is longer, narrower, and friendlier for all.
Appletree’s Sam Shannon shares why.
Video Novel/Transcript
TJ: All right, we’re here with our good friend Sam Shannon from Appletree surfboards to show us what’s new in the world of wing boards. And Sam, it’s fair to say the Appleslice V2 was a hit for us. Man, we see them all over the river. There’s kind of this cult following of Appletree boards here in the Gorge and now we got something new, something fresh for 2024. Yeah we got the uh we got the V3. I’m super psyched that this board’s coming out. It’s going to be here in the Gorge next week. By the time you’re seeing this video Big Winds will have them. So the V3 is going to be the next iteration of our Appleslice lineup. Like TJ said, the V2 – we loved it. A lot of people loved it and we kept everything we loved from the V2; got rid of everything we didn’t. In a nutshell, I’d say the the V3 is slightly higher performing on foil and way more forgiving touching down in the water and getting up and going. So there’s no more nose pearling this thing. It does not, will not go under. It touches down and skips up really well and then it still retains all that agility and high performing on foil performance that we really loved from the V2. So how did we do that? What sort tech was involved? Let’s start with the bottom shape, and we’ll start dimensionally, just basically what has changed – so each board is going to be a little bit longer and a little bit narrower than the V2, which seems to be a common trend in board design. So far that’s going to be the same with the V3. So it runs from 40 L and bumps up every 10 L to 100 L. Right here we’ve got the 60 L. It’s a 60 liters and it’s 21.5 wide – so nothing crazy. But a little bit stretched and a little bit narrower on the bottom. And for the bottom shape it’s going to be an optimized rocker line. So we have a little bit more nose rocker, and a little bit flatter out the gate. So basically the nose is going to create a lot of lift when you’re trying to get up and go, and then it’s going to transition into this sort of flatter tail planing hull. That’s just kind of going to want to accelerate the board. Once you’re up on the surface and going it’s a way more forgiving platform for someone that’s not doesn’t have their technique super dialed, or if you’re just feeling lazy, or if you want to ride a smaller foil and lighter winds, you can keep the board much quieter and your timing doesn’t have to be a spot on as you’re pumping the foil and pumping the board. There’s a lot more margin of error. The rails on the side are also a much harder chime than the V2. The V2 had soft rails this is a harder chime. Again just focusing on that release out of the water. The rails are also quite pulled in. So while it’s 21.5 up on the top here it’s much narrower on the actual planing surface on the bottom um so it’s kind of a two stage right once you’re up on the planing surface you’re actually dealing with a much narrower platform. Then if we’re going up to the nose here – so that’s sort of talking about that forgiveness and that ability to really get going in the lightest of winds for beginner riders that don’t have their technique dialed. Now once we’re up on foil the touchdowns are like comically easy. We poached from the skipper range in our lineup. Not the V3, but the Skipper range we redesigned the nose and realized that the nose of that board is like unbelievable. So we took a lot of that DNA and put it into the V3 and basically there’s a little bulge under your front foot where your front foot would be up here. So you know if it’s a weird day out in the river or out in the ocean white water – hard to control the pitch of your foil – or maybe you’re just getting used to new foil or you’re new to it and you’re touching that nose down. It’s really just sort of displaces. That extra ball just spaces all the water out in a very continuous fashion. So it doesn’t give you any sort of like jam forward, jam back, side to side. It keeps your weight pretty evenly distributed so when you do come back up you either come up quickly and evenly so you’re not shooting up out of the water or shooting to the side or getting thrown over the bars on your front foot. It’s a very very consistent touchdown along with this sort of double concave up front there. So that’s sort of the highlights on the sort of bottom of the V3. Here are the upgrades to the deck. You know to the naked eye relatively similar to the V2. Couple things are different. There’s a little more volume up front to help with that nose pearling and the touchdowns and then your front foot has a little bit of recess over the back foot – just giving you a really nice controlled feel when you’re coming down a wave face or you’re at a higher higher speeds and going through turns. And then while it is a narrow board we kept the rail radiuses quite tight. And what I mean by that is how quickly it sort of comes down. So it’s not sort of a gradual turn here. You can still really offset your feet a lot if you want. And it gives you that sort of rail to rail control of a that a wider board gives you with the quickness that a smaller board gives you. So it’s sort of the best of both worlds and you can still offset your feet and have whatever sort of stance you want there. That’s the big change on the top big change in the bottom. I mean I’ve been riding this board now for a few weeks really excited about it. I can’t wait for TJ and the people here at Big Winds to get on the water and be able to tell you guys all about it. TJ: So a couple of other features that I might have you explain real quick – remember how we were ordering these in the factory in Portugal they were building it with tracks further forward you guys are using tracks that are now longer right? Sam: Yes, correct. The tracks are longer than the previous V2. We are now our own tracks. They have a fun little dialogue in there for reference. But yeah, they’re longer tracks. So the foil position – I’ve been riding a range of foils and we’ve got it out to a ambassadors have been riding everything we haven’t had any issues with foil position. You’ll have plenty of space to play around and get a dial just to where you want it so it plays friendly with pretty much any foil on the market. TJ: Very cool, another thing is is the construction the quality of this construction is certainly unique. I think that’s what appeals to a lot of our customers is the foam that you guys use in this board. Sam: Yeah yeah I should have mentioned that. Sorry sometimes to me it goes without saying but the foam in all Appletree boards, not just the V3. Like TJ said is all a waterproof super high dense foam so it’s really connected. You get no flex. You feel like you’re pretty much standing on your base plate. Something that everyone’s really really looking for. And then yeah, it’s a waterproof foam. So if you crack it if you’re traveling if you’re just in the Gorge for the week or on Maui or Baja – wherever you’re going and you have a crack, you don’t have to worry about it. The foam’s not going to intake any water so you can just keep go keep going and enjoying your session. You know at some point you should repair it but it’s not a pressing issue and you’re not going to damage the integrity of your board by any means. TJ: Yeah that’s definitely one of the biggest selling points I think on all of your boards is just the quality of construction that these guys in Portugal are putting into every board that comes our way. And then lastly, what’s this thing all about? Yeah that thing’s pretty cool so it’s a new it’s a new feature that we put in our board so under all the leash plugs now are going to be a little NFC tag and basically what you do is you put your phone over it like this and it scans a little item here and then it pops up with that. So it’s like a QR code so you click it and it scans it. You kind of have to play around and it’ll pop up with that little link and you can click on that and I’m already at the web page. And it shows you a whole bunch of facts about your particular board and you can register it so you scroll down it’s a Slice V3. You got your product passport and you can register your board so this board is registered to you and has all your personal information and we can track it. And then it gives you repair what you need to repair how to repair it what kind of you know cloth is needed. All your ingredients lists and it goes through all the repair process it goes through the care the technology that waterproof foam that I was talking about yeah it’s kind of it’s kind of a cool little feature to give you some more information about your board and you can just scan it with your phone and there you go. Yeah, I mean no need to actually use a Sharpie pen to write all of that information on your board anymore when you can just scan it that’s pretty cool yeah yeah I you know if you want to keep writing your name on the board that might not be a bad not a bad idea. Not a bad idea, but yea I’m excited about that and as it as that technology continues to get better the the information will be the information will be greater. So awesome. Well you guys there you go the Appletree Slice V3 brought to us from our good friends over in the factory at Appletree in Portugal and ridden by our good friend here Sam Shannon. Sweet stoked to get these in the shop you guys come on by we’ve got multiple sizes available and um yeah they’re going to be here by the time you’re watching this video.
