Cable board advice
 

I am new to cable riding. Just started last summer at Wake Island here in California.

I rode my buddy's board quite a bit (2013 LF Flx limited hybrid).

It was a pretty sick board. For you cable pros out there...what other boards ride similarly to this board?

I appreciate the advice...

I ride a CWb Vibe and like it,You can use any old board to slide but I did notice non slider bases are sticky on the rails.

I also go to Wake Island and it was fun.....Im betting it will be packed this year!!!
And hopefully Velocity opens soon since it is about 2 miles from my house....lol

DEMO DEMO DEMO\ you will find one for you..

Liquid Force will be at Wake Island on May 24th. You can demo their boards and boots for free, including the pass to the park.

http://www.liquidforce.com/f4a/

I ride the obrien baker on the cable, it is very fast on rails, and so far seems to be unbreakable. it has tiny molded fins on each side, about .2 , they are so small that they dont affect you're rail riding what so ever. flex points are prime and landings are super soft. definetly my favorite cable board out there.

http://prowake.com.au/media/catalog/...-wakeboard.jpg

jb is a good rider and sponsored by obrien, so of course hes going to recommend obrien

cwb, hyperlite and liquid force are all made by same company - cant go wrong with slingshot, ctrl or jobe

you should disclose that you are sponsored rider before giving advice or recommendations.

it makes your company look like a tool. Even though you are only a regional team rider for obrien, you should disclose that before making a recommendation.

you don't see any other pro riders making recommendations on this forum.

CableRider1, who cares if he is a regional team rider.... HE gave a recommendation to someone who asked.... no one asked for your opinion or thoughts on how it makes his company look. That is J.Bs job, to promote the company who he rides for and push their product. Being a sponsored rider has nothing to do with anything other than he clearly knows his companies product and believes in it. Advice or recommendations from a team rider (Pro or Regional) should be valued because we know our product and how it works, and all of its features. That being said, cougarfan83, check out LFs Peak, or Super Trip, or the Deluxe. Look at the podium pics from every Cable contest and the Wake Park World Series last year, 9 times out of ten winners were on a Liquid Force board. Boards being either the Peak, or Super Trip. I ride the Super Trip 139. Has tons of flex, and even with Side fins removed still handles and edges really well. Has a nice spine down center of board to soften landing, and the Grind base is awesome on all slider surfaces. Hold up really well!!!!

Thanks
 

Many thanks for the advice so far. It is helpful and gives me a place to start. I don't mind that JB is a sponsored rider for Obrien. Still advice that I will consider. It's all helpful to me. Thanks again gents!

didn't mean to spark a nerve on being a regional rider - imho something like that ought to be disclosed when he makes a recommendation. thank god we don't have all 500 regional riders on here chirping about their favorite boards!!

LF peak is another great choice

Sorry I forgot to disclose that I too am a Regional rider only for Liquid Force... Whoops!!!!

What did you like about the LF FLX board? Do you want a board to track well, slide rails well, flex/press, air tricks, etc? That will help you find a selection of boards that you can then try and demo or go on additional values such as warranty or local availability. I prefer Slingshot Whip and CTRL Supreme, well tracking boards with preferred flex and still slide well. CTRL has some really good product this year.

Given my limited experience riding cable, I don't have much to compare it to other than the stock boards at Wake Island. I believe they are the Trip. I didn't like those boards because they would stick on the kickers and rails. The LF FLX was great on the rails and sliders. I don't do any air tricks yet. Mainly, I am looking for a board that slides well and that tracks decent. I don't have the presses down yet, but would like to advance to that level so a somewhat flexible board would help.

Bandwagon!
 

Hey dudes, I just started riding the Ronix Bandwagon on the cable this season and have been loving it. It's got a wider profile than most boards so that means that you can ride a smaller one with the same stability of a big one one rails and carving around. This is a really unique board too because you can actually lock straight into a press. What I mean by this is if you were to ollie onto a rail with a "traditional," flex board you would have to rock/flex into the press. With the Bandwagon there are three flat spots on the board; tip, tail, and middle. The advantages of these flat spots are that you can ride these on the rail right away. Landings off kickers are pillow soft as well. It's a really different board so give it a go and then try it again!

I love my slingshot reflex

Ha, no you don't, you just land in a press when you know what you're doing. I have to ask, what makes a shorter board better for cable or give it an advantage specifially? How are landings pillow soft? How does it compare to the FLX, like what the poster is asking? I get what cablerider's point was....

Jeff (OP), different companies bottoms are going to slide different, it's odd that you found such a difference between two LF boards, but that can happen, too. You'll have to find what type of bottom surface you prefer. Also, cable is the new focus money maker for the board companies, they're trying to gain as much cable market share as possible while some are actually still entering into it. They've also obviously encouraged their local and regional riders to market and create an online presence. I am not sponsored, and most of these guys are likely better riders than me, however I would definitely take most of these amateur gorilla marketeers with a grain of salt, and like Bill suggested, demo as much as possible.

Part of how much a boards sticks may have to do with it's previous wear. I bought a used Peak that felt fairly sticky and bought a new Tex that was fairly slick. My suspicion is that if the Tex was worn and the Peak was new it may have been the opposite. OTOH I bought a new CTRL RX that felt like the bottom was made of glue. And it held up about as well as if it was made of glue. BTW, boardco has the 2012 Tex for $180. Not real flexy, but slides nice (even with molded fins) and grips well for learning air tricks.

http://www.boardco.com/products/1193...rd-2012/?bc=no

come into norcal mastercraft in rancho cordova and i will get you dialed in for the season.. Wake Island should be opening soon!

I have a 2013 CWB Vibe 142 with about 4 sets behind the boat in great shape I will let go if the price was right?

This post may be a little late but I felt like weighing in…

I used to ride the FLX ('11 model I believe) and then went with the '12 peak and '13 peak the next year. Now, as far as cable boards in the past year I have rode enough to comment on:

Slingshot Windsor
Slingshot Shredtown
Humanoid Plank
LF Peak
LF FLX
LF Deluxe
LF Watson Hybrid
Ronix Bandwagon
Ronix '14 Bill
Ronix Pheonix
Ronix '13 Schnook
Ronix '14 Carbon Schnook (think that's what Ronix calls it)

All of these boards have their pros and cons which is why going to the park and really riding as many boards as possible will show you what you like. If you continue to ride cable you will develop your own style and your board preference will probably change as well. The FLX is a great board, but really flexes a lot between the feet and flattens out a lot with landings. I really have enjoyed the peak over the past year+ because of the flex pattern and the board really tracks well for hard cuts into transfers, kickers, etc.
The peak and deluxe will both allow you to lock out some presses with most of the flex under your boot/in the tip (consequently these boards will break at this point generally when they've had enough). However, you won't get that "noodle" feeling in the middle of the board where you're pressing hard and the board really never stops flexing which was my major drawback on the FLX. The Bill & Windsor both ride this way more or less as well. Many of the other boards I listed are a little stiffer (better air tricks/softer landings IMO) but as someone who may only hit the kicker once every 20 laps or so I stick with boards for rail preference mostly.

The other major thing has been discussed and is the base. How fast do you want your board on rails? LF will have the "slowest" slide and will really dig into UNIT rails. Slingshot is normally on the other end of the spectrum and I would put Ronix somewhere in the middle. Everyone likes something different. I'm assuming Wake Island is all UNIT? If you're riding a lot of trex rails eventually your board may feel a little different.

Finally, remember cable ridings all about the nose & tail! The middle of your board shouldn't exist…

I ride my brothers 139 O'brien Paradigm and it is probably my favorite board ive ever ridden. It has so much flex and is perfect for both boat and cable!