I have a 10ft 6in Nalu GT and enjoy the board but was wondering if the move to the 10ft le would be worth the cost?

I am 5ft 8in and 76kg and mostly ride shorter boards of the wider type.

I would appreciate comments from people who have had one in regard to performance and construction quality plus ability to catch waves compared to the 10 6.

Would it replace my 10 Nalu GT?

I think it would be worth it..

Check out Warwick on his at the 53 sec mark in this vid..

It's a very different board to the 10'6''..

Let's hope they bring out a cheaper GT version..

I am i similar situation weight and size - and wonder whether something round 9 6 would be better - why did Naish stop 9 and 9 6 production. ?

I've always wanted one of these since I heard they were coming out a few years ago. The price for a new one held me back.

I now have the chance to pick up a second hand 2016 model for a decent price from a mate who has hardly used it.

The one thing that's holding me back is the amount of reports over the last couple of years of people snapping them in half. Apparently the new 2017 model was given some strength upgrades, but they are still too expensive.

Does anyone have a 2016 10' Nalu LE that has been ridden regularly for the past few years that can say it's stood the test of time?

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JoffaDan said..
I've always wanted one of these since I heard they were coming out a few years ago. The price for a new one held me back.

I now have the chance to pick up a second hand 2016 model for a decent price from a mate who has hardly used it.

The one thing that's holding me back is the amount of reports over the last couple of years of people snapping them in half. Apparently the new 2017 model was given some strength upgrades, but they are still too expensive.

Does anyone have a 2016 10' Nalu LE that has been ridden regularly for the past few years that can say it's stood the test of time?

I have a 2016 that was actually the Naish demo board. I have had it for about 3months now in Demo at the shop as well as riding it frequently myself. I'm not the nicest person on my gear and I haven't had a problem. I rode it this morning in a sucky little beachy at Burleigh and competed on it in nasty conditions at Kingscliffe on the weekend. As with any board, people are more than happy to pipe up with problems but you never hear from them when everything is going well. The same was said about a lot of the early LE Hokuas, I owned them for years, flogged the hell out of them and never had a problem.. Pitty your in VIC, I'm seriously considering upgrading mine soon.

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seaFreaks said..


As with any board, people are more than happy to pipe up with problems but you never hear from them when everything is going well. The same was said about a lot of the early LE Hokuas, I owned them for years, flogged the hell out of them and never had a problem..

Yeah that's why I've asked the question in the hope there were more positives than negatives. Good to hear yours is holding up, gives me a bit more confidence.
I still have my old 2014 10'6 GT which I ride most weeks. It's going strong and my favourite board for all conditions.
Cheers for getting back to me, much appreciated!

Mate I have had one for a couple of years.
It's a fantastic board in all respects.
I'll not be parting with mine.

Thanks for the replies all (and the heads up McGuane).

Should have the board by Wednesday, hoping she goes well on a wave.

It's a great board. I've put it through all the paces and it has some different things going on vs many of the other longboards out there. When you see what they did with the rail shape, sharpness, v, rocker and lack of concaves, you'll know what I mean. More than anything, it's a high performance long board. It loves to have you step back and carve hard turns....and off the tops. I was laughing because it carves like a performance short sup. It's got good glide for the liters. Mine has held up wonderfully. As mine is a 2017, it's not light like previous years which was ridiculously light, but it's still light. Only negatives for me are the lack of nose riding. There's no concave to speak of and the v starts early, the nose rocker is moderate, neither extreme or flat. You can get five up there but it has a tendency to slide off and down the face. Also the sharp rails throughout the length of the board, don't lend themselves to small days or beginners. You'll catch a rail if you try to turn off the mid section or just back. On the other hand, those sharp rails give great speed and release when you want to step up your game. Rails remind me of the Black Beauty surf board which I've always kept in my quiver. Bottom line...this is a high performance longboard! It's not a ride and glide board or dedicated nose rider. I've tried all the fin setups and I keep coming back to the quad.

That pretty much sums up the board perfectly Shlogger.

I've had quite a few sessions now on the Nalu and have to say it's a great shape. I haven't ridden any of my other boards since I got it.

On Sunday my worst fears came true. I creased the board in 3-4 ft fat waves at a local point break.

I got caught on the inside during the first wave of the set and had to bail. My mate tells me the first one landed on my Nalu and I'm pretty sure that is what has done it.

I'm aware that this could happen to any board (given the right scenario), but I still find it a little coincidental that the very reason I revived this thread a month ago has actually happened to my board. I have six surf SUPs and, over time, have been in the same situation at the same location with all of them and this is the only one that has sustained damage.

I guess I'm lucky I got my board second hand for cheap, it's the only reason I took the chance given the amount of bad reports about the construction method. Don't think I'd be happy if I'd purchased a new one for $3K only to have it crease within the first few surfs.

So for anyone who comes across this thread and thinking about purchasing a 2015/2016 Naish in LE construction second hand or new, I'd recommend against.

Hopefully the new construction method of the 2017 boards have improved their strength.

Joffadan and I had been talking about the snapping thing for a while, since he got it - and as I was looking at buying one...as it surfs so well. It just can't be so coincidental that exactly the same thing happened as per some others.

I also think that Naish obviously knew about this issue as they changed construction for this model and changed its name for 2017.

I was one who purchased the board for the equivalent 3kAUSD and surfed it for 2 months. The deck cracked really out of the blue. When I had it cracked, I thought maybe was my board that had a production issue. Now, after all the things read (and of course this is just the visible part of the iceberg), I'm sure this is a Manufacturer fault.
We'd need to access quality records and design data to clearly understand if it's a design or/and production problem. Nevertheless, is a OEM problem. (Are the boards submitted to any stress tests in the design/prototype phase? Even low cost IKEA furniture are...)

When the clients pay 2k? for this sport equipment, something that's highly inflated, and when a OEM sees a pattern like this Nalu LE, they shoud ASAP upgrade the specs (even if a contract production was ongoing) to protect future clients investment and replace or at least compensate the client that lost their equipment with a voucher, etc. This would be fair.
Of course boards snap in certain conditions and a surf or a SUP board will end up sooner or later like that. But this is not that kind of stress. To sum up, I don't think this is ethical.

PS: As all the folks that posted, I really loved my Nalu LE and have already contemplated the chance of buying the 2017 Carbon Pro, heavier (more material) and with no complaints so far. The thing is, I know that I wouldn't forgive myself if a couple of months later I'd come to the conclusion that I had broke "3 large LCD$ at the $ame time" AGAIN. let's see if I can help myself :)

It seems that the shape has great appeal. Can you elaborate more on that aspect, and what does it have that other boards lack? Is it fast, a slower noserider?, turns from the tail AND the middle?, stability and so on. The more info the better. Not considering buying one, given the history, but it would be nice to know what to ask for.

It just works. You can tell the way it rides straight away.

- Flatter tail rocker gives more drive
- hard rails for the entire board makes it fast
- really low profile rails help carving
- rather healthy nose rocker compared to most longboards, and pulled in nose helps performance surfing

To me it's a shortboarder's longboard. Not a noserider, not a log etc.

I think Hoppo resumed the beast :)

If I had to choose just one word, I'd choose lively.

If I could tweak it, I would decrease a bit the nose rocker to allow more "effective" noseriding (loosing some "shortboard" aptitude)

Billekrub, If you were going to buy a 2016 LE model, I'd say don't. But 2017 carbon pro is an upgraded construction. Never came across any complaints in any sup forum.