2014 Nugget - anyone ride yet?

[letsgoflyakite]

It looks good too, not podgy like the older one.

+1 on the looks -- I love my 2013 Nugget, but is has about the stupidest and ugliest graphics I've ever seen. The 2014 isn't pretty, but at least it's less ugly and lost the faux-hip movie quotes and random words.

Ha. Yup, thats why I bought one of the last bamboo whips, saw the new 2013 graphics and cried. £150.00 extra for a worse looking board I feel sorry for the fish, they have to look at most of the one liners. BTW AGK, you should work in PR. 'less ugly' , killer !

[SupaEZ]

It doesn't retain the light wind capability of the old one.
Even looking at a photo you can figure that. 2 mins on the water and you know for sure.
It doesn't get going as well as the old one in light winds

That is according to the person you bought your 2013 Nugget from who owns the 5'2" and tried it

I have the 2013 Nugget and i would also think that too

Maybe it will take the 5'5" board to match the low end of the awesome 5'0" we like so much

Time will tell..........but i personally really love the wide round tail and the Quad set surf fins

The design outline should have remained sweet potato but made 5'5" x 22 3/4" x 3" for big riders

[coleman]

It looks good too, not podgy like the older one.

+1 on the looks -- I love my 2013 Nugget, but is has about the stupidest and ugliest graphics I've ever seen. The 2014 isn't pretty, but at least it's less ugly and lost the faux-hip movie quotes and random words.

Yep I hated the movie quotes too until I had a zen session on my nugget one day and when I was coming in I noticed it says "meditate on this I will"

After that I was cool with it.

[letsgoflyakite]

It doesn't retain the light wind capability of the old one.
Even looking at a photo you can figure that. 2 mins on the water and you know for sure.
It doesn't get going as well as the old one in light winds

That is according to the person you bought your 2013 Nugget from who owns the 5'2" and tried it

I have the 2013 Nugget and i would also think that too

Maybe it will take the 5'5" board to match the low end of the awesome 5'0" we like so much

Time will tell..........but i personally really love the wide round tail and the Quad set surf fins

The design outline should have remained sweet potato but made 5'5" x 22 3/4" x 3" for big riders

Yes. We rode both and swapped over. We both thought old was better in very light wind, and the new very nice, but edgier so to speak. Thats said, new will still be good in light winds compared with other boards. Old nugget just had a more 'fun' feel to it, still performed when it had to, and I could use a 10 instead of a 12, on our small waves, which I like. Then I jump on to TT for other stuff. To sum up, the new board is great, but the old had a unique performance magic that belied it's look and shape.

[SupaEZ]

Front traction pad and footstraps are optional extras now. Can see the footstraps as an option, but front traction pad?

The idea of not installing the front pad is that people can put wax and do regular surfing on them
Also many total strapless kitesurfers really like wax best for that direct foot feel on deck

All the 2014 surfboards from North are shipped board + fins only
You have to specify to your dealer that you want the front foot pad + center mini pads & straps
The dealer will order the additional items a using specific code for each model board

I think on the new Nugget they had to change the back fin design to offset the pulled in tail....
...and give it more grip...in order not to lose too much extra light wind performance

They must have tested it with the smaller 2013 swept back surf fins and it was not ideal

My SUPa 2-4 nuts sense

[tswierkocki]

You guys should check out the Firewire Sweet Potato in kite construction if you like the old Nugget. You can get any board in the Firewire lineup in any size in kite construction now. The Sweet Potato which is basically the same the Nugget comes in 4'8" to 6'4".

I got 5'8" Chubby Chedda in kite construction a few weeks ago. It is the exact board that I paddle surf but strong enough to kite on. So far the board is working out really good for me.

-Tom

[omg]

Tom, that's great to hear someone is real life experience on the board.

How's the weight of the board, is it heavy compared to pure surf version? And is the kite version without inserts?

Thank you!

[Babel]

If you are in the Clydesdale Div the New Nugget compared to the 2013 will be a -The Low end and the Glide through the turns. I can't understand why they Jack with Great designs!! They have also Screwed up the Whip for 2014. Tri Fin now and narrower tail.

not sure they jacked with the design....more like hijacked the baked potato and threw out the sweet potato design. by most accounts in firewire forums people are preferring to the sweet potato. i would bet that the same performance gains will be found with this years model as well. a bit more nimble and slashier. the rear fins for sure look bigger on 2014.

maybe they have some kind of relationship with firewire because these look like identical boards.

Yes, I bet they have. I think it's called sit back, wait until some else designs a great board, wait for the feedback, and then copy it type of relationship. Oh, and spend weeks and thousands in RD and come up with the of adding another sheet of mat to make it kitesurf specific.
Firewire should make a real dog of a board next time, that will screw north up

True at least North just took the design and applied it to the requirements of kitesurfing when FW did not do that yet. Much worse of a copy cat is Slingshot, since they did not even have the idea to apply something from some other area, but simply stole the complete design of the Nugget 2013 and came out with the space pickle. Yet, although there was no R&D whatsoever it is still expensive

[letsgoflyakite]

"True at least North just took the design and applied it to the requirements of kitesurfing when FW did not do that yet. Much worse of a copy cat is Slingshot, since they did not even have the idea to apply something from some other area, but simply stole the complete design of the Nugget 2013 and came out with the space pickle. Yet, although there was no R&D whatsoever it is still expensive "

Whats worse is the space pickle was waay cheaper, until they adapteded it for kitesurfing. Like a bit more mat is that expensive. Good to see firewire making kite specific. As well as beefing up,do they change fin angles, as kitesurfing will be faster?

[L0KI]

Slingshot Space Pickle 2012 & 2013 model years sold on wakeboarding side of Slingshot site.
Available in 5' 0" and 5' 4" sizes, with deckpad and no inserts.
Slingshot "borrowed" the idea from Firewire in 2011.
The 2014 Space Pickle 5' 0" kite specific (WVS construction and inserts) is priced lower than Firewire and $260 less than the 2013 Nugget.