Shinn boards?

[MikeBirt]

Also; apologies for not having any blow up sex dolls to put in my pictures...

Oleg.. I promise to do better next time! Your photo made me laugh a lot.. Do you think that you could kite her if you put a deck pad on her and pumped her up enough?

[Oleg]

Hello Mike! Good to see you here!
Of course I could not kite her! ...no one could! she was a virgin and she will be forever.
She is no longer with us ..
The whole story is here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2323765&start=4100
PS: I like the new design for Player. Great board!

[MikeBirt]

Hello Mike! Good to see you here!

Hey Oleg, hope life is still treating you well... enjoying the summer I hope..

Some more revies on the Shinn boards again;

This is from the UK - forum member S29feb on here too I believe;

"I have the 130 Luigi (Brother) and the Waterbird on demo from and I got out on them both yesterday. As everyone says the finish on these boards is stunning and you really have to see them in the flesh and I think the understated candy striping of the Luigi range and signature base are a grown up, fresh approach that a large proportion of the kiting demographic will really appreciate over the more garish offers from others.

First up is the Luigi as I spent about 4 hours on this and most of it fully lit for most of it on a 9m with the wind cross on which meant some nice wind blown waves at Barassie beach. If I was to sum up this board it would be super comfortable performance freeride, which might be a contradiction in terms, but this board sometimes is and you’d have to try it to understand!?

To begin the pads and straps are excellent – like wearing slippers one other who tried it said, and they do this without compromising feedback so you get an excellent comfortable connection to the board. Next the outline shape and rocker result in something that can be fast and locked, belts upwind with ease but it can also carve and slash about in waves.

Yesterday I was powering through, over, around and down small close set waves that would have had me bouncing skittishly and tripping on my normal freestyle stick – a few people could not believe I was on a 9m yesterday and this is largely due to the board….. plus I wanted a boosting session as not had a proper one in months - and this board lets you rip as you can accelerate fast down one wave up the next with speed to go massive and it is just a pleasure to land in these types of conditions.

The Luigi can hold immense amounts of power in the rough stuff and you can still easily flick it round or turn into a wave hard and fast so very controllable. As the tide fills in on this particular beach we get some nice flattish spots and this allowed me to really try and get some speed up and I was surprised to find the Luigi can track fast in a straight line and can get up to speed fairly quickly – a little pop to toe and a hard carve let you throw some buckets.

If I was to find a weak spot in the board then it would be pop - its not that it does not have any, but it is just maybe not as good as a freestyle board, which is to be expected. Also for pop I would probably want the bigger one, but then I might not have had so much fun earlier in my session. Additionally the loading is more to do with the outline shape and you have to perform a fast carve-load and not simply stamp into it and use the snap of the flex so takes a bit of technique – when you do get it though the landings are super smooth and you’d be hard pushed to make it catch.

Actually thinking back if I was to sum up this board it would be FUN FUN FUN! Everyone who tried this board yesterday just loved it and if you are a freerider and in the market for a new stick then you seriously got to try this board.


The Waterbird – a quick first impression as I managed to get out when I was still powered enough to hold ground on the Luigi on my 9m but it was like a caged bird in the back of my car and itching to get on the water! I have tried the old Nobile skim a few times and I usually end up hurting myself, but I still like the idea of having one so the TT nature of the Waterbird really appealed.

The old skim you’d chuck in the water and unless you were really quick and coordinated (practiced I suppose) it would sometime point downwind; however the Waterbird holds stead and lets you re-direct and jump on with ease. When you do jump on you instantly grab as the deck pad is super grippy and you head in the direction you intend so getting off to a start is much easier as well.

Now something you probably learn with time on other skims happened to me yesterday as it was more intuitive was the moving of feet and weighting of my body to make the board go upwind. You don’t really edge (as you just push the board away or go too fast) but wiggle your front foot towards the centre of the board and weight your back and hey presto you easily go upwind….duh!

Even though it is flat the outline is easy going in small chop and I could hop over or even through some of it without catching it and face planting the way I used to on the Nobile. The TT nature of it is great as well and direction changes are simple and it is even loose enough that you can turn it sideways and slide into and power out your turn without bringing the kite up and stalling. I’m looking forward to a light wind session now to really have a play with this, but first impressions are really good."

[MikeBirt]

The whole story is here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2323765&start=4100

ps... that is VERY funny!

[MikeBirt]

Here is the Kiteworld test on the Luigi; taken from a number of test sessions though the first part of this year - the wind has been really bad in the UK... they struggled to get the testing done.. it took months to do properly. From what I know of the board, I'd agree with the test - it's very accurate..

The Hype;
Equally suited to first time buyers or high-performance freeriders the Luigi is a freeriding board that incorporates supreme comfort, increadible ease of use, effortless upwind and planing performance, all in a package that won’t become obsolete in a few months. Whether your cruising, jumping or wave riding, every session is made possible, fun and easy to use thanks to the boards shape, flex and deck design. For riders looking for versatility and no limits riding, put your trust in Luigi and you won’t be dissapointed.

Test Team Notes;
It could be the highly stripey graphics but the Luigi looks much flatter than it actually feels. We thought the Luigi must be Mark’s all out freestyle machine when we unpacked it, but after consulting Shinn’s dub-dub-dub site it appeared the Luigi was his freeride model. And actually once in the chop it’s not very flat or technical to ride, or at least it becomes less flat once you are riding it and putting plenty of forces through it. More on that shortly. The pads and straps are good. No fuss, they aren’t the softest we have ever seen, but provide very good grip and a nice mix of softness yet lots of support whist maintaining a comfortable abmount of foot movement without compltely locking your foot in one position.
On the water it has some very clever stiffness and flex which caused different responses from the team at different times. First session was windy at 7 meter weather and we found out that lightweights need not apply as they struggled to pour enough weight through the board as it needed to increase the rocker. Bully wasn’t around for that test session but a coupleof days later we got him out on a 12 meter in 25 knots and his 86 kilos of pure man muscle had no issues with anything “It went really fast” he said “and it’s really easy to control”. Meanwhile those sub 75 kilo riders found it very twitchy and very tiring on the back foot trying to keep the nose out; characteristics of a board that is just way to stiff for those riders in theose specific conditions. Howeevr as the conditions dropped in the next few sessions the board really came to the lighter riders – strange you may think. It feels like it has a double concave and, like Shinns boards of the past, has a very smooth feel to it in smooth riding conditions; like you are hovering on a little air cushion and that is prommoting a very upright, over the board stance. We could liken it it to how a bridle makes a kite feel; when you have no bridle like on a C kite it’s much more raw and full on in it’s delivery. He Luigi has this floating riding sensation, as if there is something between you and the water. The overridng sensation is one of smoothness. It’s moderate in speed; not the fastest superboard race weapon, but not slow at all. It’s lively and reactive, giving impressive response when you pushed it to do something which is the opposite of how you think it would react when you are cruising. Having both caharacter traits is a great quality in a freeride board, allowing those who what to cruise to do so, while not holding back for the more adventurous.

This is the sports tourer of the kiteboarding world. It’s got performance but it has that softness and comfort in the saddle for long journies in the saddle. The response and reaction is softer than a full on freestyle board but it is very progressive, giving time for riders who perhaps aren’t as quick at generating pop to still be able to do so. It carves very capably and has built in levels of comfort, handling chop as efficiently as it does the flat stuff. It really changes character for different riders in different windstrengths; lighter riders will find it lots of fun and very esponsive in light and medium winds up to 20 knots before they need to change down a kite size, whereas heavier riders will will really be able to pile loads of pressure into it and get so much back from it as the wind picks up. So choose your sizes according to your usual wind strengths accordingly. 128’s are back for lots of us, as are smaller kites!

KW Liked; The fact that a regular sized boards ade lightwind a lot of fun.

KW would change; Adding more freestyle performance would take away from it’s freeride qualities, which is where it is aimed, so were a bit stuck here…

Sizes; 134x44, 132x42, 130x40, 128x39

credits; http://www.kiteworldmag.com

[ronnie]

The Kiteworld test seems to be saying that if you are lightweight, the board works well in light winds and smoother water, but a lightweight rider does not make the board flex enough in stronger wind conditions.
Is this down to one board size being used in the test with different weights of riders, as I would expect the boards to be tuned to the rider size?

[s29feb]

It was me that wrote the review - before the Kiteworld one.

I was on the 130 and I'm 80kg and was holding it down in some nuking winds when others were powered on a 6.5 Wainmen Gypsey and 7m SS fuels?

It can take a ton of power and it sooooooo much fun with it

[MikeBirt]

The Kiteworld test seems to be saying that if you are lightweight, the board works well in light winds and smoother water, but a lightweight rider does not make the board flex enough in stronger wind conditions.
Is this down to one board size being used in the test with different weights of riders, as I would expect the boards to be tuned to the rider size?

True in some ways, but I did speak to the testers when they were out overpowered on 7's (they were all lightweights that day) and they said that the kites were lifting so much that there was no way that they could put any pressure on the board, so what they really needed was a moulded banana. As I understood their comment it was that you need to put weight on the board, if you go in survival overpower then the board is deprived of one of it's critical operating perameters... weight... to activate the flex patterns.. So, if you can hold the power it's ok, if you are lifted from your heels and forced into survival mode then it doesn't like it... time to change down, which is no issue as the boards are so efficient their low end is huge.
I had found it a handful when the wind forces me to take weight off the board - but the only way round this is to set far more rocker into the board and then it will loose all efficiency and feel (your wakeboard style banana)... you gain so much in normal load situations that it's a small sacrifice for conditions when you should really knock your kite down a size. I don't know, and to be honest doubt if that compromise can be engineered out...

so if you are a really lightweight rider - don't buy a really big luigi..

[brokenarrow]

I realize this is a pretty old thread, but here is a link to my blog where I wrote a short review on my experience with the 135cm Player. It is an excellent board.

http://mikecampanaro.wordpress.com/

[s29feb]

I realize this is a pretty old thread, but here is a link to my blog where I wrote a short review on my experience with the 135cm Player. It is an excellent board.

http://mikecampanaro.wordpress.com/

Mike - I had a 133 player and agree with what you say about it, but with a lot of chop at times where I ride I found it took too much back leg pressure from me and with an ageing right knee (the rest of me is forever young lol) it could be too much work.

I then demoed a 130 Luigi which was absolutley stonking in the rough and unlike the Kiteworld test I never found it uncontrollable -even one day when I forgot my 7m and was maxxed on my 9m it just happily sped along, over, through and round everything.

However, I missed that instantaneous load-snap-pop from the flex that you describe about the Player as the Luigi was more of a hook up loading carve which was great for boosting big jumps but left my s-bends feeling lacking.

The answer.... paint a Union Jack on it!!!! I don't know here you are but if you can try the Player Sterling edition then you got to. The tweaked tip rocker means you do loose a little efficinecy but this this thing is locked a la the full bhoona Player, but the pop is there and also just an ability to pretty much do anything - it carves well, it rides toeside great and is a joy to use in all conditions


Laters

John