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8 years kiting and I was so wrong about boards

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panchito
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8 years kiting and I was so wrong about boards

Postby panchito » Sat Dec 22, 2012 6:51 am

There is something I would like to share with you . I thought < after 8 years kiting , owning a total of 10 boards and having tried out probably 100 across all these years > I knew everything about " kite boards " shapes , sizes & styles just to learn recently that …

!!boy I was so wrong !!

So , let me start saying that most probably you ( middle age free rider ) are using an " ordinary " TT ? and you think you are happy with your board ? Well , I have bad news for you , the board you are using is crap , absolutely crap , you have been riding on totally wrong boards ( including me ) for all these years and it´s not your fault , the entire industry got stuck in one design direction 10 years ago and we all have been happy with it .

How the hell did I came to this conclusion ?

Well , let me show you my " usual suspects "
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the first is an modern free rider board , the second is a mutant ( or better called : surf twin ) both are top of the line boards & Brand and although they are a few years old I haven´t tried out nothing new recently that gave me the feeling that there has been a design leap during the last 3-4 years …. till a few weeks back .

I´m not going to bother you with the hole story How I got this board and to be clear , it´s not in any terms an " unique " design or something revolutionary , as far as I was able to find out , this board is a " woody " version of the Ocean Rodeo Mako series that have been around since 2008 ? or so but I can list you the " specs "

- Massive rocker
- very little flex
- extreme rounded tips
- 15 mm concave
- twice the volume comparing to " standard " TT´s

Sounds terrible right ?

Ok, I will tell you a bit of the story behind this board ….. I felt in love with it back then in 2009 when John was developing it and saw the first pictures and thought , when I have some spare money , I´ll order one for me and finally did it 3 years latter.
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IMG_0031.JPG (85.82 KiB) Viewed 4940 times
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IMG_0032.JPG (136.4 KiB) Viewed 4940 times
I was not expecting nothing groundbreaking and I was convinced at that point , it will be my " third " board to play around once in a while and brag about it but mostly likely , I´ll keep it on top of a rack in my room nice clean and shinny …

So , I got the board , put it together when it arrived and luckily got the chance to try it out that same day on what we call : a typical Tarifa winter ( west wind) session with choppy water & heavy swell and you know what ? after 5 minutes I came to the conclusion that I most probably will never touch my other boards in my life since it outperforms them in almost every aspect .

This board " glides " on top of the chop and only on extreme conditions ( when you hit a wave full force ) there is 0 spray , nothing , nada , nichts , niente . really !!!!

Honestly , how many TT´s have you ridden that does not spray one bit ? I haven't .

My first session lasted 2 full hours without knee pain or painful quadriceps muscles ( specially on my back foot side ) it finished cause the wind died otherwise I would kept going on .

So … what is the secret ? at this point I must confess , I have no idea since this board just wiped off all the logic regarding board shapes I thought I knew about ,but the "package " works extremely well , with any standard TT you go upwind using the rails right ? well , with this board you don´t , you ride most of the time like on top of a surfboard so your body position is totally different , more relaxed , you need much less pressure on your back foot to tack upwind , it outperforms both my TT and my Mutant together in anyway you can imagine. It is a hole new experience and I am convinced , once you try one out , you'll probably won't want to ride your TT again .

Ok , Ok … on flat water a " regular " TT will perform better and as supposed , you need a kicker to be able to jump since a square tip " cuts " better compared a rounded one but on open water I have never experienced such an effortless and sweet ride in my entire life .

By the way , you can´t try them out and like me , you have to order them " blind " ( unless you live at the George and / or run across someone with a Bellacera on the beach but I´ll guess the Makos are more sprayed around and if you have any chance you should try them out before you make your next board purchase decision . It´s worth the try , believe me .

I will post a more detailed review about the woody at the review section the next few days , check it out .

Regards and have fun


Franz

PS. English is not my mother language so …..

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Re: 8 years kiting and I was so wrong about boards

Postby flaps1111 » Sat Dec 22, 2012 7:22 am

Nobile 50fifty 2010. Best board ever, no spray, perfect balance 50-50 in each foot, total control in chopi water.
You are welcome.
:thumb:

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Re: 8 years kiting and I was so wrong about boards

Postby plummet » Sat Dec 22, 2012 7:56 am

looks heavy. how much does it weigh?

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panchito
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Re: 8 years kiting and I was so wrong about boards

Postby panchito » Sat Dec 22, 2012 9:09 am

flaps1111 wrote:Nobile 50fifty 2010. Best board ever, no spray, perfect balance 50-50 in each foot, total control in chopi water.
You are welcome.
:thumb:
Oh yeah ... specially catching waves and on the swell .... :rollgrin:

but then .... if you are happy with your TT , good for you ..

plummet wrote:looks heavy. how much does it weigh?
Don´t have a digital scale but both Shinn´s are about 4,0 kilos , the Woody a bit more ( less than half a kilo more ) +/- complete with straps / pads & fins .

So .... believe it or not all 3 weigh the same ( or almost )


Regards

Franz

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Re: 8 years kiting and I was so wrong about boards

Postby TheJoe » Sat Dec 22, 2012 9:51 am

I read your post and yes you don't have a clue about boards, and like you said neither does the kite industry. Boards should be stiffer and have more rocker. Think wake boards with a little less rocker and you get the ideal board.

Just funny how people are trying to reinvent the board when the wake boarding industry has all ready done all the years of R&D. All the kite industry has to do is start copying so of their designs.

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Re: 8 years kiting and I was so wrong about boards

Postby plummet » Sat Dec 22, 2012 10:17 am

TheJoe wrote:I read your post and yes you don't have a clue about boards, and like you said neither does the kite industry. Boards should be stiffer and have more rocker. Think wake boards with a little less rocker and you get the ideal board.

Just funny how people are trying to reinvent the board when the wake boarding industry has all ready done all the years of R&D. All the kite industry has to do is start copying so of their designs.

sounds like you don't know much about boards either!... hehehe... who wants a stiff power hungy rockered high rockered board? not me.

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panchito
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Re: 8 years kiting and I was so wrong about boards

Postby panchito » Sat Dec 22, 2012 10:27 am

TheJoe wrote:I read your post and yes you don't have a clue about boards, and like you said neither does the kite industry. Boards should be stiffer and have more rocker. Think wake boards with a little less rocker and you get the ideal board.

Just funny how people are trying to reinvent the board when the wake boarding industry has all ready done all the years of R&D. All the kite industry has to do is start copying so of their designs.

Really ? Did I mentioned that my home spot is Tarifa ? Does folks like Ricky Shapes / Jaime Herraiz or KC sounds something to you ?

Back in the good days , most of " the " board shapes came from Tarifa .... so I guess , I went thru 8 years of board development " on site " .

Have you ever tried out using a wake board in low winds ? and then .... Liquid Force boards are essentially wake boards with less rocker ...

Next please .....

Regards


Franz

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Re: 8 years kiting and I was so wrong about boards

Postby tautologies » Sat Dec 22, 2012 11:17 am

congrats man. Always super fun to find "the" board. I love the feeling when you get a new board and it hits the spot right off the bat. :thumb: :thumb:

I just got my new 5'9'' skater, and 6'3'' channel island...and are waiting for a paipo...a fine fine addition to my 5'4'' skater. Life is good :-)

:-)
a.

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Re: 8 years kiting and I was so wrong about boards

Postby Jbrook » Sat Dec 22, 2012 11:37 am

Core Imperator 5 is that board for me. So smooth and sooo good, a little pricey but hey you only live once.

JB :cool2:

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Re: 8 years kiting and I was so wrong about boards

Postby Toby » Sat Dec 22, 2012 12:19 pm

Can a wakeboard shape do all what we need for kitesurfing?

Didn't Slingshot start a new area with wakeboards coming from kite board knowledge and technology?


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