Breaking boards
 

Hey guys,

This is my second year wakeboarding and I bought a 2012 harley LF board in the middle of last season. It recently broke, from a wake to wake - no kickers - no sliders - just a simple wake to wake. Is this common with LF because my buddy broke his 2011 harley and they shipped him a new 2013 harley and HIS broke a few days after mine (mind you his issue is the bindings). Is LF just a cheap company or is harley's board ****? i love the feel of the harley, smooth, fast, good pop and landings almost as smooth as my friends old CWB with a continuous rocker. but I'm thinking i should pruchase one from a different company any suggestions? ive been mostly looking at byerly and hyperlite, will there be any issue with my bindings fitting on those? but on the other hand ive used the harley, im comfortable with it and i like but I dont want to have to go through returning another board! I ship from the states to canada btw!

Any advice is appreciated.

thanks in advance

Dave

Im not to sure about why the LF would break, but if you are looking for a great board defiantly look into O'Brien

i have store credit to Buywake and they dont sell OB a local shop does so if it comes down to it ill seriously consider OB

Allo slingshot wake to help you with that....

All boards can and will break. I've broken LF and Ronix, a few Ronix. I love Ronix though. My local shop and they have taken care of me. Pays to have a local shop

I started riding the Harley in early 2012 and went through four of the 2012 143 cores and I'm on second 2013. Normally I would have moved on, but I absolutely love that board and LF's warranty department has been on point with sending me new boards. I heard they were having problems with the 2012 mold, but I'm not sure how much truth there is to that statement.
Just like Delta Force mentioned, buying from a local shop is the way to go.

I broke a CWB Marius on a backroll last year. CWB sent a brand new one for me. They take care of their customers

Boards break... Unfortunately some of your top brands are designed here but made in china so every once in a while a bad lay up of glass for a season strait of one model is just a bad year. It's not LF just a bad line (and I ride for Hyperlite for the record, so you know I'm not just trying to be pro LF or somethin). It happens, I break boards a couple a season and broke 8 last year. All depends about how you ride (if you land on an edge or flat based, if your a "power rider", a really big guy, land tail heavy, etc.) I'm riding a Nova core right now and take it to the flats and haven't broke it yet or lost its pop, so sometimes it's just luck of the draw in some 'creative' fall.
My buddy is an amateur rider and snapped a carbon fiber handle in half not even fallin that rough. LF should warranty that though if it didn't hit sliders

I broke 2 Harley 2012 boards last season and replaced it with a witness instead as the shop told me they where having trouble
with a batch of Harleys and couldn't guarantee that i would get one from a new batch, both doing wake to wake jumps and both right
infront of the back foot area. Awesome board aswell.

I rode one particular company's boards for about 5 years, loved the shapes, great performance, but I broke a board nearly every year. One model broke twice in one summer. While I still love that company, I needed to make a switch, and I started riding on a Slingshot and that's stood up to an excessive amount of abuse off wake, rails and kickers. All boards can break, and I anticipate someday my Slingshot will too, but this board has definitely been the most durable board I've owned.

Try the byerly ar1, I-beam construction, fast, soft landings, great pop, super fun to ride

All boards do break but over the years I've snapped more LF than any other brand. I once had a Witness snap in less than 20 laps at a cable. SS had been the most durable by far but I don't care for flex behind the boat....

As a couple others have said I would break 2 or 3 LF boards per season, took me 3 seasons to finally break a slingshot.

SS is awesome for that

another vote for slingshot. built in the states, just bellow canada's bottom left corner.

if you are not a fan of flex than you can try out the slingshot lyman or other ballistic line boards with less flex. there are new boards being added for 2014 if you don't mind the wait. should be even more choices then


As for your boots. there is a way to fit just about any boot to any board. you might have to buy new hardware or use washers or something, but you should be able to find a way to mount your boots in any situation.

I was absolutely against flex, but the SlingShot Kine (A ballistic series) had just Slightly more flex than some "standard" board's I'd ridden before. I'm sold.

Go with slingshot and dont look back.

Thanks for the input guys, I just have a hard time changing. I learned on a CWB, and have rode a harley pretty much every time ive been out in the past 2 years. I love it and when I switched back to the CWB after my board broke it didnt feel as good. I rode the 2013 harley today and it felt pretty good, I have $316 to buywake.com i think that I can use at any time so I will def wait for the 2014 models. As for local shops, the Harley would run about $1,100 at a local shop so i figured buying it on buywake for 599 would benefit me financially, however in this situation I feel a shop would have been better to deal with.

Hey, you never quite know what's going to happen until you put a board through a beating.

The message I see from these posts is: If it ain't holding up, don't be afraid to swerve and try a different manufacturer. Or, who knows, maybe they made that board a bit more beefy for 2014. Never know!