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Hey Guys,
Anyone with experience with 2012 Shinn Monk??I am supposed to be trying one out at the weekend from our local supplier..He has a late summer sale and the price looks pretty good..Only thing is the biggest board he has left is the 135x42..My question is at my weight 98 kilos (215 pounds) will this board be big enough for days with 8ms (15.5 knots)..At the moment i have a Liquid force Recoil 137x41 that i use with my 12m F-one Bandit 4 and that gets my cruising comfortably when the wind is at 8ms..I have a Spleen 141x45 kiteboard and a surfboard (as back up) i use to lighter winds but generally i avoid going out when it is under 8ms.. Problem is that at the weekend when i am going to try out The Monk there will be a lot of wind...

Another thing ,The Monk is a freeride/freestyle board and not just a freestyle board right??
Any feed back in here would be great about this board so i am not standing on the beach at the weekend with the seller telling me what i want to hear just to sell some merchandise...

Thanks in advance for any input,
Alan..

should be more than enough.

I think you will end up buying that board at the end of your demo

I weigh the same as you and ride the 135*42 it is fine on those conditions but loves higher wind. I am looking to try a King George to give me a slightly bigger smile on lighter wind days.

Monk is the best twintip I've ever been on,....bar none.

i have the original monk 44, i need 15-16 cold knots with a 12m, different story in the summer, i also got the shinn street, that has a better lower end, once you demo that monk thou, you will buy it, monk is better as your smaller high wind board anyways, if i could do it all over again i would prob get the 132/135-42 for those tropical storm days...and have the street for the 15+ regular days

90 kgs

you'll see, the only thing i would change is add a 5cm wider stance, but that would be risking changing it...

i learned something about shinn boards today though, they hold so much power that when the wind picks up you dont feel overpowered, but your upwind performance suffers, you forget to depower the kite...

anyways i would suggest you try the 137street if you can

Well I have some qualification to help you I feel. I weigh 77kg and have the monk 2012 and have a 12m bandit. So weight and the fact that I have the 132 is the only difference. Now firstly the board after 13 years or kiting is the best board bar none I've used to date. Yes it freeride and freestyle which suites my mainly hooked in boost transition loop style. Now I have this board to take my kites to their limit as this thing holds an incredible edge. Infact I'm yet to break it. But you need to consider it for the right reasons. My low end is probably 14 to 15knots on the bandit. So the extra size board might not make the extra 20kg you have. Infact it probably won't. You don't buy this board for low end ability I have a sector for that. You ha e this board for aggressive ball to the walls kiting in my opinion. And my god it does that. Hope that helps.

Hey Guys ,
Thanks everyone for the input.
West Ozzy, if i buy The Monk 135 x 42 it will be my main board.I generally avoid lightwind days..Just wanted to try compare it to my current board in the low end..

Whabbits ,i tried out a King George last week and was really impressed..Thats what made me look into demoing The Monk..

Looking forward to trying this board out,everything i have read and heard is positive.

I was just looking at the http://shinnusa.com website and it looks like they have some pretty good closeout deals right now. http://shinnusa.com/closeout

al76an wrote:Hey Guys ,
Thanks everyone for the input.
West Ozzy, if i buy The Monk 135 x 42 it will be my main board.I generally avoid lightwind days..Just wanted to try compare it to my current board in the low end..

Whabbits ,i tried out a King George last week and was really impressed..Thats what made me look into demoing The Monk..

Looking forward to trying this board out,everything i have read and heard is positive.

Me its is the supershinn that had me ordered a Monk + a King George.
I am sure that you will be another Shinn believer

Jules