want a soft landing board for someone old who sux!

I'm looking for a new board, coming from a 139 omega, I go w-w, one spin move, but want to improve. I'd like a bigger board that will land softer for my old knees.
I'm looking at LF Shane 140, CWB Trans/Abs, maybe Ronix one or ??

Trip 146

how big are you? and do you want to stick to the 3-stage boards?

also what is your price range? do you want to stick to 08 boards and older or are you ok with the new '09 boards?

LF Shane
CWB Marius
and the Slingshot boards were the three most talked about soft landing boards on these threads through '08. I recall several votes for th CWB Faction too

the CWB transcend added a deep long (tip to tail) center spine in '09, similar to the one on the faction board that ought to make a killer soft landing board.

The only board i personally have tried from the list is the Slingshot boards. flex just makes sense to me for soft landings. However te bottoms are very flat and featureless. some consider them boards for experienced riders only and others, like myself think they are ok for anyone. definately a board i'd recomend demoing first because of how different the ride is... Heck, I and anyone will recomend demoing all the boards on the list... if you can?

i almost forgot... the LF Ennen model is a "flex" board WITH bottom features. so if you like the idea of flex but not a featureless bottom you could go this route... humanoid wake will be releasing something like this later too. but the whole "feature-less-ness" actually makes te board very fun to ride IMO, teaches you to rely on your edge, and can actually help to slide out of sketchy landings once you learn the control

dude the cwb trancend even the 08 and older 07/08 absolute s land soft.I ride the platinum series boards .i am 5'8 165 and i have been riding ten years now 5 of thosenyear round here in texas ,im 38 yrs old and i have a bad left knee,no meniscus left in t.

yet im still landing 4 inverts pretty consistent and im a out in the flats rider meaning i throw crows and fronts way out in the flats and the last two cwb boards i have been riding are the softest landing boards ive tried.

nothing against slingshot but i tried a set on a recoil and it landed harder then my absolute or trancend..

I currently am on an 08 138 transcend platty and i have no issues with hard landings..

the only knock on the absolute is it was really slow,the trancend was atad faster and a ton of pop with soft landings..

i hear the 09 is even better.

I'm 47, trust me the Liquid Force Watson is the softest landing board I've been on.It has a slight v-bottom. Take out the center fins and butter slids are easy and fun. I quit boarding for a year cause landing hurt my knees. My son got a Watson, I tried it. A 134 and I am 195lbs. I loved it and got me one. Great board. We have a 134 and 142.(teen's board & Dada's board. Demo one or get one one Ebay!

i agree skibum the watson does land soft good board but it lacked the pop my transcend has,so you can go bigger and land just as soft,great deal imo

I rode the Absolute for 4 years and thought it was a soft landing board. That was before I had a chance to ride a Marius or the new Transcend. Honestly I think the Marius is the softest landing board ever, but I ride the Transcend. For traditional boards it's all about the center spine, one that runs the full length is best.

The flex type boards can land real soft if you land tail heavy. You kinda have to retrain yourself to land differently. They can be weird to figure out and take some time to ride to their potential.

Good luck, have fun.

Wow! didn't know that about the CWB boards. We have a Prodigy and no one likes it. We let rookies use it. We think it is slow and heavy. But it is smooth. It just never fit the style of anyone in my boat.

....true the cwb boards are extremely soft landing for traditional boards. I personally vouch for the marius. Although I like the 2007 better. While it is a slower board...it is a board that puts you in control. At this stage if your looking for soft landings you should not worry about cranking a huge jump but jumping consistently wake to wake....landings will always be smooth and soft. I also have a lf lyman which is a rocket and lands soft...but the board is not as easy to control as the marius in my mind...you have to know what your doing.

haven't ridden the CWB transcend yet but I personally believe that the CWB Pure has the softest landing of any board I've ever ridden.

Hyperlite Murray----softest landings I have ever had for this old back. Comes in 135, 140, 145.

LYMAN

Slingshot flexes when you land and absorbs the shock like springs in a car.

- Marius
- Lyman
- Bside

all land soft, imo.

LF Shane is the softest I have ridden.

Jack, I am 34, weigh 200lbs and don't want any issues with my knees. I ride the '08 Watson 142 and it is awesome. I will split time between that one and the '09 transcend 142 (platinum). Either one is going to be good for landings.

for this 54 year old the softest landings i have yet found are the 08 murray and the 06 absolute platinum. i have since bought an 08 byerly monarch and an 08 transcend platinum, both on closeout but haven't ridden either yet. i bought them specifically for their reported soft landings. i always buy the largest size (length) even if it is a little oversized. definitely helps with the landings. good luck and report back what you end up with.

CWB Marius
CWB Transcend
Hyperlite Murray
All great choices.

Demo,Demo,Demo, if you can.

i've ridden most of the boards listed above. for my old ass knees, the shane had the softest landings.

Thanks for all the posts, I'm 5'9" bout 175 and ride behind a CC Pro Air with about 1500# of ballast. Good sized wake, but not huge unless there's 5 or more in the boat.
Is the Omega a 3 stage? Mine is a 05 or 06, mostly white w/grey accents. I'd like to stick to an '08 until I figure out more what I want in a board. Oh yeah, ex slalom skier, so unlearning some bad habits for wakeboarding...

The Omega has been a continuous rocker board throughout it's time. There are so many to choose from Jack. 3 stage rocker will put you in the air for sure. You may lose a little speed. More rocker less speed more pop, less rocker more speed less pop. The way boards are made today, you can get a progressive 3 stage board, like the '09 CWB Transcend or Phil Soven's (S4) new board. It's an answer for the best of both worlds. HOWEVER, the LF watson (any year) is a very good 3 stage board with lots of pop and very good speed. Plus, it's wide so at 175lbs you will be very stable with soft landings. I hesitate to say that a shane is a good board for you because it's fairly loose and takes some getting used to. I've ridden it, it's very different from the Watson. The Watson and the Transcend lock in on edge very easily and release well off the wake. My advice is to Demo everything. You might love the Shane. Who knows.

The cwb marius has the softest landings of any board I have ridden. It is very wide and has two center spines making it not only an amazing board, but also a board with crazy soft landings.

Do not forget about the bindings. I am 48 and ride a Watson and a Lyman. I would select the Lyman for softer landings than the Watson. But the biggest difference was picking up some 08 Vantage bindings last year. I could tell an immediate softening to landings in the flats compared to my older Watson bindings. Maybe the Watsons are just compressed out.

I had an Omega for a year then bought a Watson under the advice of our local pro. HUGE improvement in my ability to ride.

I agree with AMO about the Shane. Good board, but to go from an Omega to a Shane would be rough. As everyone said above DEMO DEMO DEMO.

skibumdan,

you're right that old prodigy wasnt a good cwb board for soft landings.it was heavy and hard to ride but cwb has improved their pro line many times since then and the platinum boards are very very light pop huge and land soft..they are a tad slower because of all the rocker but the trancend has improved its speed the last few years..

great stuff

btw im on LF bindings so im not just a cwb snob for sure..

later

shane is only loose if you use smaller fins, which i did. otherwise, the stock fins on the 140 make it really grippy.

I thought the same thing as Joe. When landing, the board would straighten out and start tracking, no matter what my body position was and I started getting sore knees. I rode the board without fins for a while. I didn't thing it had particularly soft landings.

Ronix DHV1 142!!!!!! Crazy snap and soft landings. The covin is a great board too, I rode it for a while and it's a really smooth board all around and would be great for "old knees".

Cant go wrong with the murray.

so smooth

Hey John....SUP! It was good to meet you when I was in Orlando...I will be back in April. Hope to see you & Robbie.

Whats up bro! Can't wait to see you either. I'm pumped your coming back!

See you then.

Hey jack,
I have a new 2008 cwb marius 140.. I'd love to sell it! I'm in northern cali..

Hyperlite B-Side. I rode CWB & an old Obrien wearing knee braces in 2007 and thought I was going to have to get my knees scoped by the end of the summer. Concentrated off season workouts on legs and bought a B-Side and rode all of 2008 at 47 years old without problems or knee braces.

Do lots of squats, lunges, etc. in the off-season and get a B-Side. Oh, and buy and then consume mass quantities of Aleve.

(Message edited by skidaddy on January 26, 2009)