plummet wrote:The nomad boards also look sweet. brokite aswell.
I have a Brokite (formerly Zero Gravity) out of Texas. I ride in Chicago and love it so I'll share some thoughts. I've ridden Slingshot boards, Crazyfly, North, Naish, etc etc etc. I used to ride Fuels now on SS RPMs.
Things to watch for with carbon is the stiffness and the springback. They tend to be stiffer and or snap back into shape after flexing faster than glass. That makes for a livelier ride than your glass alternative.
The Brokite board is very smooth when tacking...here in Chicago it is all wind driven and can get choppy on the good days. The Brokite smooths the ride quite a bit. I was just telling a friend about someone's comment that borrowed my board. When done the comment I got was "compared to my board it felt like I didn't even have a board on my feet". A good carbon board will be less tiresome and spaztic in choppy conditions making the ride smoother and the day more fun. Compared to an OEM board, the Brokite is a sweet ride and I'll never go back to mass produced boards.
For jumping and wake style you can load up the Brokite pretty well and not kill the pop. As a 200lb dude that likes to handle pass and kiteloop, the 130x40 wake shape is a great all around board that I also actually ride on waves. On trips to PR or CostaRica, I get to travel with a short board that is easily controllable. The boys in PR a few years ago scoffed when we showed up with wakestyle boards. After we ripped it up in overhead conditions they told us we ride waves like pros. I can throw some serious smack in 9m conditions on a 130 in overhead and hold it down riding waves very aggressively and be totally comfortable in these conditions getting massive air off the backside when tacking back out into the swell.
I tried a Crazyfly and it wasn't the same. The ride was better than an OEM board for sure but there was less life and freedom in that board. I don't know the shape my friend had. What I can say is he now rides a Brokite as well. Those are the only two carbon boards I've ridden in recent times. there was another brand a buddy had, it was a POS. I don't remember the name and think it was someone starting out making boards. It wasn't manufactured very well so I'll just leave it at that. Good luck.