Anyone tried the 2025 North swell?
I am eyeing up the 4'10" 65 litre one. It looks good but slightly wider than some at this size.

I did last weekend.

For your info i'm 189 cm / 90 kg and winging almost two seasons now. I used the 75 ltr/5.0 version off the swell this weekend for the first time, wind 20-30 knots, wing mode pro 4.2 and combi 1050 MAV2/S208. If i compare the board with a similar size and volume (Sky Style 4.11/75 ltr) board and same setup, i would say, the Sky Style is a little bit more stable in getting up and going. The Swell is planning a little bit better and has a more direct feel. Touch downs while turning in the waves are rare and no problem at all. The nose is quite wide, which will ( i think) make the board planning quite easy in combination with a flat bottom (lenght) but does not have a lot off volume, so it's a little bit twitchy when you get on the knees. It's not light but also not heavy :) It's build rock solid (first impression) the pad works perfect and "feels" good, and lot of possibilities the get straps on the right position.

I might be too harsh, but it looks very much a 2022/23 board design....short, slim and wide. going totally against the trend we seeing now of long and narrow...I am sure they will have their own reasons but North board catalogue is quite disappointing except the Horizon which is getting very positive reviews so far.

As someone who does freestyle, i'm still not sure if i like those "new style" "pointy" "midlength" boards so much. I'm now on a Ginxu 2 Pro and also have a North Seek of 2022/2023. The wide nose of the seek, makes landing so much more easy then the pointy nose/ longer boards. The Ginxu 2 gets promoted as a perfect freestyle maneuverable board. Yes the Ginxu 2 comes alive very quickly, but landing a jump is much harder. Also the seek bounces back way more easily.
I had the same discussion yesterday with someone on the beach, who is a jumper also. He is really happy with his f one board with a wider nose.

Its nice we see a new trend, but i still think its a personal preference. And i'm still doubting about what i prefer...

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SlowlyButSurely said..
I might be too harsh, but it looks very much a 2022/23 board design....short, slim and wide. going totally against the trend we seeing now of long and narrow...I am sure they will have their own reasons but North board catalogue is quite disappointing except the Horizon which is getting very positive reviews so far.

Swell is a different use than a midlength. It's a prone board or a high performance surf oriented board in the large sizes. It's not designed for efficiency onto foil like a midlength is but I'm sure the shape surfs better once it's on foil.

I'm looking at one of these as a prone board. All feedback relating to build quality is appreciated.

You can't prone something that wide under the shoulders, it's just too miserable to paddle. Also, they're so short that they don't have any paddle speed it's like the worst of both worlds.

I tried to prone my fanatic 75L once when the wind died and I was too lazy to walk to the car and swap the foil onto my Prone board and I lasted 30 secs before I realized how dumb it was.

It's a 4'6 20" 36L board (edit - that's 2024 model, don't know how it's changed for 25). Those dimensions are fine for prone. Maybe you're thinking of the Seek board which is a more conventional old school wing board design.

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TooMuchEpoxy said..
You can't prone something that wide under the shoulders, it's just too miserable to paddle. Also, they're so short that they don't have any paddle speed it's like the worst of both worlds.

I tried to prone my fanatic 75L once when the wind died and I was too lazy to walk to the car and swap the foil onto my Prone board and I lasted 30 secs before I realized how dumb it was.

Exactly. Float means nothing if the board is too wide and short.

Is 4'6 too short and is 20" too wide? Nearly every designer who has prone boards on the market has something almost identical to those dims.