Cable park
 

How bad would a cable park damage a board that's not made for it. For example I have the 2013 parks modello that isn't atr ..thanks

There won't be any significant damage unless you get a nasty hit on the obstacles, hit a loose screw, or probably hit the tip/edge portions of the board. The most you'd probably get are just scrapes at the bottom.

Unless your board has some molded fins or deep edge channels I'd say its pretty fine. That's where most of the damage happens when you use a boat board on a cable. Other than that it's mostly just wear and tear moving forward.

I could ride a Motive for many months without any significant damage. A lot depends of the kind of obstacles. The Unit XL kickers are pretty kind to my board, but flat ramps can smash molded fins pretty quick. Transfers and ollies onto rails can be rough on a board.

I'm going to disagree, and say you'll risk some good damage. If you're asking this, you probably haven't hit many kickers or sliders. It's likely you're going to damage the edge of your board, and that risks long term damage to the board.

a couple years ago I gave a buddy an old '07 board of mine to ride at cable when he was in a sudden pinch for a board and after 2 days there was damage up and down the edges of it... didn't matter much since I wasn't going to ride it anyways... maybe a newer board would hold up better, but still definitely a risk.

I have never been to a cable park and would really like to give it a try and if I like it I will get a cable board next year but I wanna try it out this year but I'm thinking it'd be better just to pay a little money to rent the gear

The plastic obstacles will barely leave a mark. Hit it.

Rent one where you go. If you care about your board, or would buy one after you find you enjoy it, it seems better to rent. The obstacles won't leave much of a mark on the bottom, and kickers won't do much, but the first time you slap the edge on that nice smooth plastic your non-slider edge splits.

See if they will let you put your bindings on their boards wherever you go.

I frequent the cable park a bit. The cable park I go to provides "beginner" boards but you can't hit the features with them. You have to rent the "Advanced" board to hit the features. After going to the cable park once (I used an old boat board but only hit a couple of features, still kind of chewed up the base a bit) I decided that I would be back enough that investing in a cable specific board was both financially smart and would provide more enjoyment. I'll never regret that decision.

I know someone who took his boat board to a cable park just a couple of times and completely destroyed his molded in fins.

I posed this very same question about 6 months ago.

I would start on your board for a few laps and avoid the kickers, rails and boxes until you get comfortable. I recently hit the cable park for the first time and used their rental board. It was a decent slingshot board but it felt almost like I was learning to wakeboard again. I changed way too many variables at once.

Start on your board and get used to the different pull provided by the cable. It's definitely different so get used to that while riding the board you're used to. Imagine if the boat you were being pulled by had a 20+ ft tall tower and kept making abrupt turns between 45 and 90 degrees.

After a few laps if they have nice equipment such as Unit I'd hit a kicker or two while still on your board. A few hits won't do much, if anything to your board if they have nice smooth gear. If they have a bunch of home made stuff with junk they found around a farm then skip this and go right to the rental board.

Then go grab a rental board and you'll be throwing in a few more variables. You'll likely be switching to a very slippery, featureless bottom flex board with no fins and worn out boots. As others have mentioned use your boots if the rentals are crap and they'll allow it. Get used to how slippery the board is and then start hitting the kickers and what not again.

Logically I think this would be a good progression. I went straight to the rental board and spent half my time looking like a spaz getting the feel of the slippery board while simultaneously getting used to the very different pull of the cable.