Postby AGK » Wed May 22, 2013 12:54 am
Another new Nugget owner who really, really likes it!
Background -- kiting about nine years but not that frequently, most lately with Ocean Rodeo Mako 150 and 165s and a Slingshot Celeritas. Pretty competent but not particularly talented (this review may be most useful if you are curious how the board rides for non-experts).
So far I've had 6 sessions -- four strapless and two strapped -- with a 6 m and 10m kite on flat water chop. Everything from well-powered to underpowered.
It's pretty idiot-proof to ride -- very easy to get going, and stupidly easy to go upwind on. I know these kind of comparisons are not always that useful, but the other day I was able to stay upwind easily on a 10m and people with 12-14 m kites and surfboards or twintips either didn't bother to launch or couldn't stay upwind. I was really surprised.
Jibing is also really easy compared to the Celeritas -- it carves smoothly,keeps speed through the turn, and is so stable that you can do less than perfect footwork and still recover and save the jibe after switching feet.
The ride is not like a twintip or the Celeritas -- I come from windsurfing and for me,it's like a really loose and slashy bump-and-jump board. I like kites lots better than windsurf sails, but I have never really liked kiteboards more than windsurf boards -- till now. It rides up over chop, can actually stay on and surf big wind swell, and is overall just really, really fun to ride.
Two other benefits that are great for me and may not matter to many people: 1) I always have trouble keeping speed up and holding ground toeside. This board makes toeside easy for me. 2) Usually a session of an hour or so leaves me with sore knees (i'm old) -- the Nugget leaves me with zero knee pain so far.
The one thing so far that is wrong with the board -- for me -- is strap placement. I know many people will always ride it strapless, but I will be happier in big swell or waves for now with straps, and I'd like to jump it. The front strap is fine and easy to use (and jibing with the strap is about as easy as jibing strapless) but the back strap is wayyyyyyy too far back -- it's pretty useless. My back foot so far has never wanted to go further back then resting against the front of the back strap. If North is going to put inserts on the board, they should pay attention to where they put them (I haven't had the board out overpowered yet -- maybe that's where having the back foot so far on the tail works?)
For me, this board was a great purchase and makes me really excited to go kiting.