Keith Atkinson on the NeilPryde RS5

I am currently training with NEILPRYDE team rider Wojtek Brzozowski and the Polish windsurfing team in sunny Egypt. We are staying in an amazing hotel situated on the beach of one of the best windsurfing locations I have ever sailed at!

Its just fantastic here and I wouldn't rather be in any other place. It's blowing between 10-20 knots everyday, with hardly a cloud in the sky, crystal clear waters and nice and 30 degrees. Perfect conditions to try out my new RS5's! I have been mostly using the new 9.8. This sail has amazing range, and that goes for all of them. The RS5 has many of the same features of the RS4; rigging is the same process, its quick and easy. Sleeving the mast outside the cambers, which saves wear and tear on the sail that sleeving through the cams can cause.

I am using the NEILPRYDE 530 X9 (which is the matching mast for this sail) and the super strong and stiff NEILPRYDE X9 225-275 boom. The differences are that the RS5 has a softer and lighter feel, but at the same time more powerful. The boom being shorter in length compared to the RS4, the RS5 features a radical clew end (as you can see from the pictures). The shorter boom affectively makes it wider as a result; this allows the sail to be fuller for better performance off the wind. The rotation has also improved, as you flip the sail after a gybe or tack and sheet in there is no need for pushing the cams, they just click into place and you're away!

I'm really looking forward to the start of the season and putting my new NEILPRYDE stuff through its paces. After my training here, I'm heading to the Calema Midwinters in sunny Florida for my first event of the season, its gonna be awesome! keep your eyes on www.formulawindsurfing.org for the latest updates at the event.

See you on the water!
Keith Atkinson - GBR 56