Hi Guys,
About time I wrote a few words about the 2011 Cardboards lineup. As you all know we were at the Exmouth Expo recently and we took some Cardboards up with us. The FR136, 148 Wave, 135 Tempo and 137 Pro.
Testing/riding conditions were dead flat butter to short medium sized chop. For the first couple of days, the footstraps were too big, but on advice from Dan, I cut away a piece of the strap tongue and made them smaller to fit all but the smallest sized feet. I believe subsequent footstraps have been changed and is no longer a problem on all new boards.
The boards appear to have changed markedly from 2010 as my head instructor said he rode some cardboards in Port Douglas recently and didn't like them, complaining of stiffness and not being too forgiving. I urged him to ride a couple yesterday and he came in grinning, admitting they were damn fine!
TEMPO 135My personal favourite is the Tempo 135 wakestyle board. This board has 5 concaves/channels and a very generous continuous rocker and small 40mm fins. The rocker and channels eat up chop and the board tracks very nicely but isn't locked in, you can push out with the back foot and the board throws buckets of spray but doesn't lose it's grip on the way. Other boards I have ridden lose traction when the fins cavitate and they slide until you pull the back foot in, the Tempo just pulls itself back in line making it super forgiving.
The wide plan shape and wide tips give amazing amount of pop and stomping it was dead easy to produce beautifully high loaded front rolls. I actually over rotated the first one as it caught me off guard. Landing jumps was a cinch as the channels seem to just align the board and the little bit of slip without losing traction allows you imperfect landings and control whereas other boards punish you with a fall.
I liked the way my riding became more fluid and precise as I started landing stuff, even in the chop, that I have had issues with on other boards. In short, I was able to ride at a higher level than I have been able to even after the long winter spell of no freestyle practice and it felt easy and fun, absolutely no effort! This board suits my style - Aggressive and fast.
FR136 (Freeride)The Freeride was my second favourite board and not far behind the Tempo for me. In fact that was the thing I was surprised at, I thought it would be more flexy and docile as an intermediates style choppy water board. Wrong!
Although the board is designed as a Freerider, it has lurking within it's makeup, the ability of a freestyle board too. The difference to other FR style boards is they tend to have nice flex for chop but then fail a bit in freestyle due to the tail flex and not releasing the energy when you stomp the tail, the Cardboards FR does. In fact it pops almost as good as the Tempo.
The Quad concave eats up chop and provides a smooth ride, easy control and feels a little more locked in than the Tempo, likely due to the 50mm fins and slightly flatter rocker. Upwind is a breeze and nice control at speed. The pop is quite amazing and freestyle is again, quite easy on this board which is actually a little deceiving from it's name. When I asked Dan about it, he said he wanted a reasonable difference between the Tyro and the FR, so the FR falls into the intermediate to lower end of advanced category in terms of performance whilst remaining easy to ride for beginner to intermediate riders.
More advanced riders should go with the Tempo, but for beginners to upper end of intermediates, this board is a daily fun ride.
148 WAVEThe Mutant is a real piece of work and is not quite as full on as previous mutants of yester year. The plan shape is symmetrical so the board itself has no bias to one end or the other. The fins however make the difference. Small 80mm surf style fins in a thruster setup give the board it's one way bias with the 50mm wake style fins on the nose giving control when riding backwards.
I originally set up the footstraps up with a natural stance bias but after riding it, have decided to put the straps back symmetrically. It is basically a twin tip that needs to be ridden as such but has surf fins for added grip and strong tucked tail outline for carving in waves. The board rides beautifully in both directions with no problems of the fins catching when riding backwards.
This may not be the ideal board if you live in flat or choppy water, but if you live close to a wave that you ride regularly, this is a strong contender for those that love versatility of a twin tip but with more performance for wave riding. The Wave 148 would also make a fantastic downwinder board for the likes of City beach to Scarborough and beyond, smashing waves all the way down. The bi directionality of the board allows you to just reverse direction to rest your back leg or to quickly change direction and get out of dutch should you suddenly find yourself about to be mowed down by a big close out set.
If you like whacking waves and your twin tip isn't really cutting it, the Wave 148 is the key. Practically unbreakable and the ability to boost and loop it as well as smash waves makes it very practical for riders loving twinnys in surf locations. An excellent alternative to lovers of the Airush Hammer as it does all the Hammer does, but also goes upwind well and needs less power.
PRO137To be perfectly honest, I thought this would be the board for me as I usually ride pretty hard and consider myself to be a reasonably advanced level rider. The Pro 137 being very flat in rocker and extremely wide in the tips is quite a handful. I found it very unforgiving and a bit hard to manage in frestyle, even in the smooth waters. This maybe due to the size of the board and not being used to such wide tips.
I think the addition of boots may give better control to the edging but it would take a very precise rider to get the most out of it. After coming in from a sensational ride on the Tempo, and then going out on the Pro, I didn't stay on the Pro for long enough to really dial it in. I gave this feedback to Dan and he explained the shape and design of the board was from a PKRA professional riders board which explains a fair bit.
It is fast and goes upwind like a demon but for me, it needs to be about 5cm shorter and a little more tucked in the tail so I can get more from it. Nice board but I can't see us selling many at Pinnaroo due to the extreme choppiness and it's not really one for me. I'm sure Dan will further the design of the board and produce something easier for the average punters if there is sufficient demand.
AKS has demo's of all of the above boards as well as the Tyro and they are available everyday if you are interested in a demo ride. We can order custom graphics for you and we'll absorb the cost of freight, saving you a further $30. We will also be stocking the boards in standard colour/graphic schemes for those that want their board NOW!
Cheers,
DM
Card
> 9 months ago, 3 Aug 2010
you would have been worried, glad you found it.
. Not much wind forcast but you never know that first seabreeze may blow in, i'll come down hold the camera and drink some cougar's.
