Review -- 2013 Liquid Force Custom Thruster
 

I demo'd a Liquid Force Custom Thruster 4'10" with hopes of upgrading to a surf style board from a broadcast 5.4. Once I got used to the board I was a able to have fun with it, but I just couldn't like it as much as I wanted to. It is very thick with round rails so it doesn't feel like I can cut into the side of the wake as well as I'm used to (this also caused a weird spray where the edge is in the wake). I also had to work hard to stay in the wake -- I had thought the thickness and buoyancy of the board would make speed easier, but it was not the case. I'm 190 lbs, had to center myself a bit more to the front to stay in the wake, and the board pretty much pearled a bit with each pump -- not enough to fall, but it made it harder to get a lot of speed. The good points were that the board's narrowness and light weight made it easy to snap turn off the lip and manipulate it with my feet. It also has some nice pop when you stomp the tail. Kind of bouncy. I thought I'd be able to turn hard and sharp at the bottom due to the narrow profile but it felt like to round edges don't carve in.

Anyhow, I think I will stay with my Broadcaster until next year. I would have gotten a huge end of season discount on this board, but I still didn't like it enough to buy it.