A few years ago, it took me alot of trial and error to find a board I really liked.. the perfect combination of enough pop, handling chop, landing softly, controllability, etc. It ended up being the Liquid Force Trip... I bought a nice, red white and blue one, made right here in the USA... I like it so much, I bought an extra for myself, and 1 for my wife.
Now it's getting time to replace these boards because they're getting dinged up. I rode my friend's brand new Trip over the weekend, and it's just not the same board
. The best way I can describe it is "volatile". It has more pop, but I'm completely unable to predict it. When I hit the wake, it feels like an explosion... but I have no idea how big the explosion will be, causing me to over-rotate inverts and spins, and smack the water like a kook... It lands so hard, my knees are still recovering from this weekend. The side fins have been replaced with molded, channel-like "fins", and now, on the surface, it seems sketchy and unpredictable in chop, but in glassy water it behaves itself just fine. Oh, and it has a logo on it that says, "Made in the United Arab Emerates" in place of the "Made in USA" logo.
To be fair, I can see that this new Trip design has it's high points, but it's just not the same design that I grew to know and trust over the years. If they were going to build a different board, they should have picked a different name, and left the Trip alone.
Where do I look for a board that rides like the Liquid Force Trip from 3 or 4 years ago?
Hybrid Mode
