Cabrinha Link 44L, 4’5 2022
Reviews / Wing Foil
56,119
At A Glance
Cabrinha continues to bring high-performance products to the market, and this is no exception. The Link is Cabrinha’s sinker-style wingfoiling board, it also replaces the Autopilot for prone foiling. It’s available in 3 sizes; 37L (4’3), 44L (4’5), and 51L (4’7).
Cabrinha has carefully designed the shape of the hull to allow easy starts, with a double concave hull & kick tail with aggressive release channels. It has bevelled rails with a hard release edge. All aiming to allow earlier flight. The board features a full Dakine deck pad & has foot strap inserts with multiple angles to allow 2 or 3 strap configurations. It also has a handle on the hull, not essential on a sinker board I feel but actually, something I found really useful, just making carrying your kit around that much easier.
Construction-wise, the Link has an EPS core with a durable Composite Bamboo Deck with UD Carbon stringer. Resulting in a lightweight board that is strong enough to withstand the pressures that wingfoiling places on it.
On The Water
I used the Link 44L (4’5) with the new X-Series MKll 1240 and the Crosswing V3. If you haven’t tried a sinker board yet, then I highly recommend you do. Technology is moving forwards all the time and boards these days are much easier to get flying than in the past, with the Link being no exception. The feeling of having a small board when wing foiling is, in my opinion, ten times better. It feels so manoeuvrable in the turns, the rails rarely touch down, airs like ‘raileys’ are more achievable, and pumping is a dream.
So as you can imagine, I was pretty excited to give the Link a try. I was interested to see if the shape of the hull really would get me on foil quicker. When winging sinker boards, I find the most effective technique is to straddle the board with my legs on either side, lift the wing to start generating some speed, slide my legs around to get to my knees, and then stand up. I definitely find this manoeuvre easier on some boards than others, it’s all to do with volume distribution.
Fortunately, the Link has it spot on, the main proportion of buoyancy is slightly forward of centre, which makes getting to your knees possible. Then once to my feet and starting to pump, it was clear that the hull shape mentioned above, particularly the double concave, meant that the board released off the water and I got on foil quickly.
The stand-out session for me on this board was the one featured in the embedded video. Gusty conditions, but some fun little swell lines rolling in. That’s where the sinker board comes into its own, due to the low swing weight & size I could free fly the wing and pump really effectively. Meaning I could link to the wave behind or pump to keep up with waves when needed. I wasn’t quite powered enough for really hard turns on the wave, but the small amount of carving I did do with the Link felt effortless & fun.
Jumping it was great, for those of you looking to improve your freestyle game the Link is the perfect addition to your quiver. It rotated quickly, and when touching down, those double concave channels meant it popped right back up.
In the time that I had the board, I unfortunately didn’t have the conditions to try prone surfing it, so I can’t answer accurately as to how it performs. However, the dimensions, volume, and shape of the hull all feel as though they would lean well towards prone foiling. One thing I can say is that it definitely pumps well and would connect waves.
Overall
The Cabrinha Link is, without a doubt, a great ‘sinker’ wing board! The three different sizes leave plenty of options to consider rider weight & experience. It helps you get up on foil super quick, and when you’re up it feels effortless. Such a fun board to ride that is bound to up your winging game, whether it be waves, freestyle, or free ride that take your fancy. If you’ve been thinking about progressing down to a sinker board, this is a brilliant option.
Videos
This review was in Issue 13 of Tonic Mag.
For more information visit CabrinhaRelated
By Jack Galloway
