Age: Much better known as the Fanatic Gecko 278, the first of the ground breaking 275 freerides and a test winner for the past two years.
Spectrum: Barring the much more expensive and performance oriented AHD 277 this is still the largest, easiest and most sea-kindly from this category. It is stable, tolerant of heavy footedness and easily controllable in chop and swell, with the width and volume to accommodate heavy sailors and large rigs better than any other. It's a little on the heavy side, which inevitably affects the early planing, and not quite on the pace of the most modern designs in terms of speed and acceleration. But overall it's still a very competent performer, and the extra width allows a large rig to be held and a large fin to be controlled with comparative ease, so it makes it easy to for sailors to get the best out of it (which is worth a couple of knots of boardspeed in itself!)

We have always praised it for its versatility and it carries sails from 4.5 to 7.0m with ease for true all-round performance in flat or rough water.

Gybing: Curve in the plan shape, good vee and hard rear rails make it one of our favourites for learning the carve gybe. It is a bit voluminous and heavy to be described as slashy or exciting, but it turns very predictably and nicely, with enough volume to provide stablity through low speed turns.

Sailor Standard: It remains a top recommendation as a first time Freeride 275, but now that it is only available weighing nearly 10kg, is unlikely to excite the second time 275 buyer.

We Like: Suitability for difficult conditions, ease of sailing and gybing, excellent price.

Overall: Three or four years ago it would have been unthinkable to get so much fun from one board in such a wide variety of conditions. It is still about the best all-round board available and now at an unbelievably competitive price. Fun with a big sail powering up in marginal conditions, easy to gybe, and fine with a small sail in rough conditions. Clearly it is not the best at any one thing and, at this weight not a performance board, but is still a fully modern shape and a great buy.
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