Obrien 2011 Proto
 

Had A chance to Try it out this weekend, I ride slingy But, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Looks like obrien is stepping up. heres a few pics.

<a href="http://s30.photobucket.com/albums/c317/seabonn123/?action=view&current=billobrien.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c317/seabonn123/billobrien.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>


<a href="http://s30.photobucket.com/albums/c317/seabonn123/?action=view&current=billobrien2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c317/seabonn123/billobrien2.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

video here. at the end there are some close ups. the board has some really different contours on the top of the deck. most boards have been relatively flat and featureless (especially on bottom)
http://www.wakeworld.com/news/feature/sean-obrien.html

I saw it in the SOB video, I don't think I've seen a hybrid flex board with that level of top shaping yet.

Yeah And from What I understand, They are thinking about putting removable plates in the tip and tail to adjust flex. But Not sure if they decided that or not.

how much flex compared to the other Obrien flex models?

This was the stiffest of the protos, but i have not ridden another obrein flex so i can't compare them. I would compare this to the LF FLX but a little less flex

Sean,

From what I hear from Chris J, this is thing is going to be sick!! I cant wait to give one a ride!

Nitnzel

It is definitely a sick board. It's stiffer than O'Brien's other rail boards and LF's FLX and Hybrid. Here's a shot of Bill Parker taking it for a ride. There will be a lot more info to come.

Love your vid Sean, and I have been talking to Chris about this board for quite some time! Can't wait to take one for a spin! I went riding for the first time this year yesterday, we have had an extremely mild winter, the lakes are already thawed out, and it was 60 yesterday, the water was 41 and butter!

Keep ripping it up, I am glad you like the board, it's about time you get your own!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2753/...2e51e6f714.jpg

Sooo...is this going to be the O'brien O'brien?

Glad to hear that you're already making it out on the water. Hopefully we can get this prototyping done and you can hop on the new board sometime soon. 60 air isn't much colder than what we are getting. At least it's glassy for you. The wind is howling down here this week.

O'Brien O'Brien seems like a little much to me. Some of my friends want it to be the O'Brien Squared. Not really feeling that one either. I've got some ideas, but I'm open to suggestions.

I honestly like the SOB

The O'Brien Echo

By the way, the video on the front page is sick. I have watched the riding parts like 6 times. The second kid from Japan was flying, really killer stuff.

O Brien Echo - Pure gold

What about just O²

But I do like SOB as well.

So, what's up with all this 2011 board business when 2010 stuff has not yet hit the shops?? There's even something on the front page (http://www.wakeworld.com/news/feature/sean-obrien.html)

I appreciate development timescales are long in this game, but this is not a good trend for wakeboarding. I mean, you buy a magazine today (March 4) and it's the April edition. Before the end of March you can buy the May edition. And if wakeboard co's start doing the same by the end of June I'll have a 2015 please.... And dates will be meaningless.

pureblue- The O'Brien Echo is one that we haven't come up with. Nice work. You are talking about Shota. The kid is unbelievable as a rider. He has so much talent and style. They are staying with me until the end of April, so expect to see some footage of them within the next to months.

Both the O² and SOB (not sure if O'Brien will like this) have been thought of and as far as I'm concerned are still possibilities. Still trying to come up with more ideas to throw around.

Timmo- It seems kind of crazy to already be thinking about 2011 product, but we are just in the prototyping phase. It takes companies a while to put out new products. When it comes to the boards, there is a lot of testing involved in order to make sure that we are building good product. We don't want to throw something together at the last minute and say "Here you go. I hope this works." We ride the prototypes and then spend a lot of time on the phone discussing all the positives and negatives and what we would like to see changed. Then we get the next proto and cycle continues until we are completely satisfied with what we have put together. Remember that everything has to be finalized well before September so that it makes it to Surf Expo. At that point, dealers get to see the product and place their orders, which a lot of the time won't arrive until December.

It's safe to assume that every company out there is testing new product for 2011 (unless they are not making any changes to their line). It just isn't one of those things that's not usually publicized.

As for the mags, think about it as a time frame for when you can expect to receive a new one in the mail. For as long as I can remember it has always been that way, so I wouldn't plan on seeing that changing.

Obrien Echo is nice. it also gives a bit of meaning for "bounce" or "reverberate" and such which goes with the flex features/construction no?