Shane V.S. Shane hybrid

So yes the title says Shane, but, as a fairly new rider thats looking to start doing some rails next season, I don't really know what board is right for me

Some stuff about me (I don't know if this helps for style of riding or any of that stuff, but I figured I'd put it in just incase haha)
I'm about 5' 10" and weigh about 133 and am 17 years old
I'm going into my 2nd year of freestyle snow skiing this winter ( can do certain rails, but there's nothing really big that we have at Powder Ridge for me to try, so I've mainly kept to some smaller a frames and battleship rails)

Right now I'm riding a 134 2006 Hyperlite Motive, that I got for $75 bucks almost brand new haha... and this year I'm riding behind a 2011 Tige Z1 with surf ballast (1600lbs) at around 22mph, but right when I started learning how to jump and get some pretty decent air, I dislocated my shoulder, so I don't really know what I can really get

and next year I'll be riding behind a 2012 Tige Z3 with pro ballast (2000lbs) with the 6.0L



one of my questions is: how important is a grind base? If I go with the regular shane (for example) how much would grinding on it ruin my board

I'll have some other questions too, but it kinda depends on what the answer is for this haha

anyway, if there's another liquid force board that you would suggest, let me know, because my dad's boat dealership just became a liquid force dealer, so price isn't really much of an object

First off, if ur just getting into riding...do yourself a favor and pick up The Book dvd set or another good instructional video set. U will learn alot and it will help you.

Until you are doing w2w jumps with ease and few other tricks I wouldnt be riding with the loaded ballast. Get your technique down first, you dont need a huge wake to do this, sometimes its a negative impact on someone learning.

If your going to hit any rails/kickers i would highly suggest a grind base. Also look at the rockers of these boards, you might not want to go with an aggressive 3-stage if you're still pickin up the basics. The Witness Grind (Tom Foshee's pro board) is a great popular board for rails and have friends who ride behind the boat with. Watson Hybrid is an excellent choice (I ride 70%boat, 30% cable) and its a great ride, Shane Hybrid is another popular choice just dont know anyone who rides it behind boat, Harley Grind is another choice that is good behind boat & rails. U will find guys riding regular boards on rails but they just take more abuse and have better chance of having fins damaged etc.

But the rails will kill your board and even if it has a grind base, once u hit a rail the warranty is void.

Hope this helps a bit, but ask them if you can demo the boards or find friends you can try out. Sounds like you're looking towards Liquid force which is why I mentioned the above.

+1 for the grind base. I have worn the bottom off my reg Shane at Cowtown. Just got a nice Henshaw Deluxe this weekend. It is much more fun to ride and slide when you dont feel like you are destroying your stick.

not to go off topic with board brands but I just got out on my first set with my 2012 RONIX one (142). I have to say it is the most forgiving board I have ridden to date. I started the season on a trip 142 and I am real happy with the outcome of my purchase. two of the biggest differences were
the nose did not catch on the way up the wake
the landings were very soft feeling....

So I think I'm gonna go with the Shane Hybrid then, I know its not the best idea to start off with an aggressive 3 stage rocker, but I'm not going to be able to get a new board for a while probably, so I think I'll just have to grow into it so to speak

Alright, so another question, for our rail that were going to be making next year, were using a really crappy pontoon that were stripping off everything above the floorboards off, and probably some other stuff, maybe put a rail going up to it on certain sides, so you can have some options, but we were thinking of putting some 2x4's on the edges of the boat to grind on that, is wood a good material to use, or should we get something different?

you can grid pretty much anything.... wood is slow or sticky at times

If I kept it wet and slippery would it work as well as metal, but not ruin the board as much?

or we do have some fiberglass resin, would that work?

back in the old days we would slid ski jumps... they are fiberglass and really did not leave much of a mark on the boards. wood is good as long as none of the nails or screws back out.... had that happen to one of my old neptune boards and left a pretty good gouge in it...

are you against pvc pipe?

No I'm not against it, but to have that mounted on a square edge you'd probably have to cut out one quarter of it, to make it fit on there, and PVC is rounded so that would probably make it harder to learn on, am I right in thinking that? I'm not trying to shoot it down, but that's just kinda my thought process

also, does anybody have experience riding the hyperlite motive (2006) cause I'd like to know what other people think of it so I can have an idea of how much change I can expect

lol pvc is making a comeback! hahah yeah you may run into mounting problems, but as far as the harder thing, i promise if you start your rail career off on one trek or like a pipe instead of a wide box, youre going to progress your skills so much faster. if you can do it on one trek, you can for sure do it on a box, if you can do it on a pipe, you can for sure do it on a box. You may not be spinning while on rail as early as if you were to have a box, but if you learn your ollies on/off onto a thinner feature, youre just going to build skills with a more concrete foundation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0iasPfCkMg :38 - 1:50
and im not saying youll be jd webb, but i just thought id plug this in

I think I'm going to see what I can do with fiberglass for now, mainly because it gives me a lot of options for size and still won't ruin my board, and by the sound of it, be more consistent than wood

so now back to a couple questions with jumping, I have been getting a lot better at standing up right before I hit the wake, and while also at my maximum carve right before the wake also, but I still can't seem to clear the wake, this is all going at 22mph, but my main thing that I'm thinking is that maybe my rope is just too long, I'm using a 70ft rope right now ( http://www.amazon.com/Airhead-DSD528.../dp/B002BT2722 )

I tried shortening it up today by about 10ft, but by the time I tried it I was already really tired and one wipe out on the top of the other side of the wake pretty much took me out for the night

I'm excited for the next time I get to go out and try that rope length again, but I'm just wondering if that's a big part of my problem in jumping

I think 22 mph is too fast for someone at your skill level. I recommend slowing down to 18-20 mph and shortening the rope accordingly. You will have much more confidence and progress much faster as the falls will have less impact. There's no shame in it, remember when everyone first started riding back in the 90's this is how we did it. Most of the tricks were invented on short ropes.