Industry Insider

Putting the AL into 360

AL360 are the Ferrari of the windsurfing world, specialising in top quality products, where no expense is spared and each product is made with passion. This passion for building, modifying and innovating started over thirty years ago in Italy and they are still going strong.

Although AL360 didn’t start out with windsurfing in mind - external factors and their passion for windsurfing soon led them into a new market, where they are continuing to grow and enjoy success thanks to their top quality products. They also support many of the world’s top riders from wave ripper Dany Bruch (Starboard / Challenger / AL360), to freestyle wizard Nicolas Akgazciyan (99 International / Point-7 / AL360 / Maui Ultra Fins), to the women’s PWA Vice-World Champion - Lena Erdil (Patrik / Loft Sails / Mystic / AL360) to name just a few. We caught up with Alessandro from AL360 for an interview to, which you can read below, to find out more:

PWA: Firstly, can you tell us a bit about AL360? (When the brand started, why and where the idea for AL360 came from - that sort of thing…)

AL360: "I always had a passion for building and modifying mechanical parts, therefore I attended a technical school. After a few years working as an employee in mechanical engineering companies, I could not wait to start my own business. So in 1978 I opened a mechanical workshop in my hometown, Rovato. From there it started to grow: the small workshop slowly became a precision manufacturing company using CNC and milling machines for high precision and high quality parts. As the business grew I felt the need for a bigger space therefore in 1996 I built the shed in Provaglio d'Iseo, which is still now the home of AL360.

During those early years my three sons were born. With one of my them, Alessandro, I shared a strong passion for windsurfing therefore it seemed natural for him to start working with me on windsurf parts as well.”

“For this reason we soon started to play with windsurfing equipment especially focusing on booms. The fact that we had all the necessary equipment to design and build mechanical parts allowed us to build the first prototypes for personal use. Eventually after some testing we developed our first fully functional aluminium boom.”

“In 2004 a period of crisis hit the mechanical manufacturing industry in Italy and this encouraged us to try to enter the market of windsurfing. Hence in 2005 windsurfing became the key for us to revitalise the fortunes of our business, so we entered the world of windsurfing focusing on the production of high quality booms.”

“That year we started with a small production of booms in aluminium and ergal, keeping our business in the mechanics sector as well. In the second year the demand for our booms grew, the market was starting to believe in the quality of our products and we started a more steady production.”

“The company continued to work both in the mechanical parts sector as well as in the windsurf until 2008. That year, thanks to the inclusion of our carbon line, we took the production to the next level, so we decided to focus completely on the windsurfing market.”

PWA: How has business been since focusing on purely on the windsurfing market?

AL360: “So far we are very happy with our choice. Each year we had a steady increase in quality and sales. For carbon boom we only have an average annual production of 2,500 items. But since the beginning of our carbon boom project we sold about 20,000 carbon booms to the market, not to mention aluminium and ergal booms and all other products we develop. Our strong point resides in the carbon booms production which represents the 60% of our total production.”

PWA: Which products do AL360 offer?

AL360: “Our product line consist of:

- aluminum boom monocoque (ALU-MONO)

- ergal boom monocoque (ERGAL-MONO)

-100% carbon boom E3 wave - diameter 28

- 100% carbon boom E3 slalom - diameter 29

- 100% carbon boom E3 race - diameter 29

- 100% carbon SLIM boom - diameter 25mm

Plus:

- our mast extensions: aluminium, ergal, wood, carbon

- mastbase

- and masts 50%, 80%, 100% carbon”

PWA: Your booms receive particularly positive feedback -- what differentiates your booms from what else in on the market? You still produce your products in Italy, right? What is the decision behind keeping the production process in Italy, over say somewhere cheaper to produce like Thailand or China for example?

AL360: “Actually we are enjoying great success thanks to the great reliability and resistance of our boom. To get to this point we have done a lot of work building many prototypes and having them tested thoroughly by our athletes. Our big strength at AL360 was choosing not to move production to China but to continue to produce 100% in Italy: this allowed us to have total control over the various steps in the production line and to be able to choose only the best materials. It’s not easy to keep production in Italy facing the much lower cost of finished goods purchased in China, but our goal was not to have a big margin on our sales but to give a quality and reliable product that could somehow justify our commitment both in the R&D and production phase.”

PWA: On your website you have a wooden extension -- is it really wood? And how does this compare to say aluminium or carbon in terms of weight and durability?

AL360: “Yes we have a line of wood effect extensions: they are not made of wood it is only an aesthetic finish to have different look from everything else on the market.”

“The differences between the extensions in aluminium and ergal on the other hand are all in the material.

The aluminium extensions are made of 6082-T8 alloy: they are suitable for a freeride use, but not wave use because in case of a bad wipeout the material can bend.

Mechanical properties 

PropertiesValue (thickness 0,5 = 1,5)

Tensile Strength Rm(N/mm³) 160-320

Shear Strength       Rp 0,2 110-270

Elongation A5 6-12

Hardness HBS 60-100

The use of ergal 7075-T6 on the other hand makes the extensions very resistant (equal to carbon). Compared to aluminium they have the same weight but much higher resistance.

Mechanical properties

Properties Value (thickness 0,5 = 1,5)

Tensile Strength Rm(N/mm³) 360-545

Shear Strength Rp 0,2 260-475

Elongation A5 2-8

Hardness HBS 104-163”

“For the carbon extensions we do not publish the technical data of the material and of the resins that we use because it is the result of a lot of hard work. What we can say is that we use unidirectional fibres that are arranged in layers to achieve the desired characteristics. Those extensions are as resistant as our Ergal extensions but with a much lighter weight.”

PWA: Finally, plans for the future?

AL360: “For the future we will continue to improve and develop new products as we always did.”

PWA: Great, thanks guys and good luck for the future.

If you’d like to find out more about AL360 and see their full product line please visit http://www.al360.it/windsurf/index.htm. You can also stay up to date with their latest news via their Facebook Fan page here.