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Best Board Pro/Balsa 130

Posted: Sat May 08, 2004 9:01 am
by frez
Initial thoughts on this...

My board is Best Board Pro with a Balsa core upgrade. For all intents and purposes I believe therefore that it's a Balsa 130. Best might wish to comment and confirm this. I have 2" Grip Fins with Wide Adjustable footstraps and Deck plates. Bought heel loops as well but haven't tried to fit them yet. They look very small but I'll check that out later.

I won't comment on the construction techniques as I'm not a tech-head. Board has moderate plus rocker and good amount of flex. Narrow concave on the underside. Footpads are very comfortable. Wide adjustables are comfortable also. I have size 10 US feet and found that footstraps at the tighest setting were just snug enough. I have a wakeboard background so it might be that I am just used to the tight fit of wake bindings.

Conditions on the one day I have been out on it - Initially 13-15 knots building to 25 knots gusting to 33+. Using an Aero II 12 I kept going until gusting 18-24 knots and had to give up. I weigh 83kg. Water conditions very choppy but no waves - just swell.

Was on the board for three hours straight. Extremely comfortable on the feet and no chafing or cramp. Very happy with the footstraps. They could be made a little smaller in my opinion.

Board handles chop very well. Despite being overpowered on many occasions it did not skip out at all and felt very solid underneath. No tendency to nosedive and required no extra back foot pressure to avoid nosediving. Even a three hour session in lots of chop didn't leave my legs very tired. A real comfortable ride(!).

Toeside was extremely comfortable. Very easy to drive upwind toeside on this board. Very easy to edge and kill speed toeside and heelside when hit by gusts.

No real point commenting on upwind abillity - it was effortless on a windy day but the real test will be in light conditions.

The board holds a ton of energy when edging hard for jumps even in heavy chop. Did not get pulled off edge when sending the kite at any point. Awesome! Very very very happy with this. More limited by my bottle for edging real hard and sending the kite real fast than by the board's holding ability!

2" Grip fins did not cause any problems with sliding transitions. Having said that I much prefer to bunny hop 180 pre/post gybe as sliding the board round is gay. Digs in like a slalom ski carving...nice!

Wakestyle pops up easily and effortlessly for no- whip jumps and tricks.

I rate this board very highly so far. I'll be interested to see how it peforms in 10-14 knots on my 20m Rhino 4 and in slight chop and waves. Apart from maybe smaller footstraps I can't find a fault with it. And at the price....!

Bunch of people at the beach have asked for a go but they're not getting their hands on it yet!!