What board do I want?

Horsegal984 · Newbie Joined: 19 Jul 2010 Posts: 5 City: Kannapolis

Ok, so we currently have a Free Motion Drive (139 I think) with O'Brien bindings (Link?). I like the bindings, but not really a fan of the board. It feels heavy and like it's plowing in the water. Hard for me to turn and manuver. This past weekend I got to borrow a CWB Swirl 56" and LOVED the way it felt. It was narrower and a bit longer than my Free Motion. So question is, what board handles like the CWB Swirl? I don't need anything too fancy, still working on jumps and w2w, and would like to aviod breaking the bank too.

Thanx!

mgs917 · Addict Joined: 17 Sep 2008 Posts: 532 City: Spartanburg

First of all 56" = 142.2cm so the cwb board is 3cm longer which can feel significantly different.

So you probably want to look for a 142cm size board, but if you give us your ht and wt that will help us with suggestions.

I would suggest looking on ebay or searching sites such as boardstop and evogear and looking through the closeouts for deals that wont break the bank.

And to answer your actual question I have no idea what boards ride like the swirl. Sorry.

Horsegal984 · Newbie Joined: 19 Jul 2010 Posts: 5 City: Kannapolis

OK thanks. I'm 5'7" and 160lbs. Does the length of the board influence the feel more than the width? Obviously I'm pretty new to all this, and at this point all I'm really certain of is I don't like the Free Motion board.

Oh, and I ride goofy if that matters at all

JeffreyCH · Posted: Jul 20, 2010 6:17 am Post subject:

Are you male or female? I would guess by your screen name female? Seems like female specific boards are lower priced. At your height and weight, I'd suggest something in the 137-139 range.

It's all about surface area of a board, a shorter wider board will ride a bit slower, while a longer, slimmer board will ride faster. This also depends on the rocker style, 3-stage is slower with more pop, continuous is faster with less pop.

Goofy only makes a difference in how you set up your bindings, most boards are asymmetrical, a few aren't.

Horsegal984 · Newbie Joined: 19 Jul 2010 Posts: 5 City: Kannapolis

Female. Although if I can find a unisex board so fiancee and I can ride the smae one that would be awesome. Less gear to haul to the lake and then I can talk him into buying it. Laughing

I like the look of the Ronix Vault 139, but does having a heelside/toeside mean it's desgined to ride normal? or just a difference between back/front?

Thanx!
Kat

JeffreyCH · Posted: Jul 20, 2010 4:27 pm Post subject:

Yeah the Vault has a front and back, which will make it weird if your fiancee doesn't ride goofy.

Anubis_79 · Newbie Joined: 11 Jun 2010 Posts: 40

I've been thinking about this and was wondering if it really made a difference. There are specific toe side and heel side edges, but the tip and tail are symmetrical...are they not? The board itself will be laid out for a regular rider, meaning the toe side edge will be on the right side of the board. A goofy rider would just end up riding with the tail as the tip. I can't fathom the board companies designing a board that suits only one style of rider, and I haven't seen any "goofy" versions of toe side/heel side boards. I'm thinking that as long as all the fins are the same, the board would be fine for either regular or goofy. I'm not an expert though, so maybe contacting Ronix and asking them if the Vault will suit a goofy stance would be a good idea.

Horsegal984 · Newbie Joined: 19 Jul 2010 Posts: 5 City: Kannapolis

Thanx for the replies! I've got a friend looking into it for me, hoping Anubis is right and we can both ride the Vault. Since we have to change the bidings to fix the angles it's not going to make much difference which way we have to change them. As usual I'm the oddball! Ride goofy, play southpaw...

So anybody ride a Vault?

Anubis_79 · Newbie Joined: 11 Jun 2010 Posts: 40

Why are you changing the bindings? Adjusting the stance width or adjusting how much angle they're ducked out? I'd try and find a stance you can both use. Constantly screwing and unscrewing the bindings will just wear out the threads rapidly. With the symmetry of pretty much every new board, save the ones with toe side helpers, it's not going to matter if you set it up regular and have the "tail" of the board as the tip when you're riding it goofy. I ride goofy and that's how my board is set up, but anyone else who uses it rides regular and it's no different. You shouldn't have to go switching which way the toes point, and with a Vault you won't want to be doing that anyway as it'll mess up the toe side helper.