Whats your favorite board and why?

IF YOU'RE A CABLE RIDER THEN EXPLAIN WHY AND IF YOU'RE A BOAT RIDER EXPLAIN WHY FOR THAT ASWELL.

WORKING ON A FEW THINGS RIGHT NOW SO NEED SOME GOOD IMPUT let them rollllllllll[/SIZE][/SIZE]

why are you YELLING?

I'M DIGGING THE HL BSIDE!!! ('10 & UP) Especially with the '12 systems.

Board is fast, loose and great pop.

Right now, it's the 2012 Slingshot Recoil. I ride it behind the boat and on the cable, and it rips both ways. I like how loose it is, especially when I'm riding finless at the cable. It has enough flex to lay into some nice presses on the water or on a rail, but it's no wet noodle and it's got a mean snap back. That translates into pop! It also seems to be much better made than the 2010 Recoil I recently broke, so hopefully it'll last me awhile even with the kind of beating I put on it.

Lovin the LF Witness.

Behind the boat: Ridden by Benny G (do I need to say more?) Locks in on approach, rides up the wake smooth and lands with good forward speed.

At the cable: Ridden by Tom Fooshee (do I need to say more?) Molded fins release well, rocker maintains speed on landings.

Obrien Format for boat

super fast
holds edge great
huge pop
light
soft landings
perfect for landing in the flats and w2w
releases from the wake well with the delta base

I'm still getting used to my Lyman so I would have to say my 07 Ronix One. I rode that board very well it had consistent popal and landed fairly soft.

I love my '06 CWB Absolute to death behind the boat. I ride in the long island sound of the CT coastline, and its almost never flat. The long molded in fins really hold you down on the rough water, without being too restrictive as i love my powerslides and griding the wake. I also don't ride behind a wake machine monster, just a sea ray 220. I'm honestly astonished at how much air i get with this board on a small wake. Ive spun a 540, and land 360s consistently. The diamond also makes for soft as hell landings. Really reccomend it

Boat.....

CWB Marius (current shape). Mainly because it fits my riding style. Very consistent loose when i want it to be but enough grip to pull out some awkward landings. Its a good balance of all aspects of a board

Liquid Force Squirt - Boat
This may make me sound like I'm 700 years old but aside from the original Skurfers and the Hyperlite injection molded boards that set up the industry to 1) exist and 2) succeed, I don't think a more Earth shattering board ever came out. I think there have been some very impressive and needed advancements made along the way, but the Squirt is a board I can come back to - even as recently as 2 summers ago - and ride as my primary board. I've modified mine to allow for a wider stance but apart from updated bindings it is the exact same today as it was in 1997. They got SO much right with that board and it's the most influential design for a deck that I know of. And it was copied for good reasons. Totally appropriate. The Squirt came out when wide, light boards that can accommodate all sorts of rider sizes was not the norm. The exact reasons are almost too many to list. They got so much right, and the board went on to influence lots of other winners from LF, such as the Super Squirt, the Nectar, the Substance, the Helix, and all things Watson.

I personally ride a 2005 Liquid Force Substance as my primary board and I have 2 of them in storage for when my main one goes. So yes, I hang on to older stuff but only when the next-year or next-generation replacement options aren't, in my opinion and mine alone, better than what I have. I think that's the case with the Substance so I ride an old one. So that's my second favorite board.
1. Liquid Force Squirt
2. Liquid Force Substance
3. Hyperlite Murray (specifically the one which became the Belmont shape)

BOAT
O'Brien DECADE

super fast three stage
Rounded edges in the Center for butter slides and board slides
Light
Prefect release off the wake so it doesn't drag upon release

I ride boat 98 percent of the time so I haven't been able to ride to many cable set ups yet. I have had very good luck with the Hyperlite Franchise and Tribute! I transfered from a LF PS3 to the Tribute. The first two weeks I rode the tribute I landed around 12 new tricks, granted I was at West Coast Camps when I did so but the board just feels how boards are supposed to ride. I have since graduated to the Franchise, it has more pop than the tribute and tracks a little quicker and the sharper edges also help make landings a tad bit more solid, however the drawbacks are that if you land flat and out in the flats it it feels like your landing on concrete and edge catchers are way easier than on the trib. But overall I love these two Greg Nelson shapes and continue to keep both in my quiver of boards. Great job Greg!

help... So[LIST]

• fast
• continuous
• wide
• suttle 3 stage rocker maybe
• molded in fins
• screw on fins
• skinny
• sharp endges
• grind base
• flex
• hybrid
• stiff

Are you saying you want us to choose which of those characteristics apply to our favorite boards?

from the ?list?


wide (the skinny board died years ago)
subtle 3 stage/ hybrid (think Goldilocks "not too___ and not too___ but just right in the middle"
bolt-on fins (so you can change the board's attitude)
sharp edges at the tip and tail and rounded in the middle (most boards are doing this now "variable rail")
grind base, its becoming more and more a necessity
Flex or stiff? me i prefer flexy, but this is another area that we see a blend and hybridization of the two styles just like with rocker and rail types. Hybrid flex board will be a crowd pleaser


personally i ride almost 100% boat. and i Love anything Slingshot. they introduced what a "flex board" really should be, made wakeboarding so much more fun for me. buttery presses and messing around on the water. great pop. SOFT landings. made in the USA

2011 CWB Vibe.

I'm loving the Vibe. It's really fast when you put it on edge. It's a nice blend of flex boards and standard boards. Loose off edge. Featureless base. Really a blast to ride.

Originally Posted by TheHebrewHammer

Are you saying you want us to choose which of those characteristics apply to our favorite boards?

yeah tell me which characteristics you like on your favorite board. As much detail as you can.

Alright then. I like a board with a durable grind base and removable fins because I like to ride the same board on boat and cable. I like a flex board that can do it all. I tend to like softer boards that flex easily. The Slingshots I've been riding lately are not the most wake-focused flex boards out there, but I still love they way they ride behind the boat. I don't feel like I need to move closer to a "true" hybrid that has molded bottom features and a stiffer flex pattern.

I've been a 3-stage guy ever since I moved up from my beginner board, but I'm not opposed to trying out other rockers lines. I haven't had the opportunity to try a lot of the boards I'm interested in because my shop doesn't always carry everything. I'd like to try out some hybrid rockers or maybe even a continuous board like the Hyperlite Franchise. I like a good balance between wide and skinny. I feel like there isn't all that much variety in the industry right now as far as width goes, and I believe that's because we've worked out the ideal range of width-to-length ratios that work well. Finally, I like a really loose board that I can slide around on. I love surface tricks.

I find that each brand has a really unique feel that is relatively consistent across the whole lineup. I've never ridden a Slingshot or Liquid Force board I didn't like, so I'd have to say those are my favorite brands right now. Conversely, I've never ridden a Ronix that I liked. I hate their fin setups because they make just about any board feel a lot tighter than what I want. I have very limited experience with O'brien and Hyperlite, but I loved the stuff I tried from them. My shop doesn't have these brands, but I wish I could try more of their stuff. I didn't like the one Byerly I tried (the Conspiracy) because it was too tight. That's pretty much the ultimate deal breaker for me. I just can't stand feeling locked in on the water.

2011 CWB Marius
1 FAST
2 Continuous rocker for consistent take offs
3 Easy transition from edge to edge
4 Wide for better pop off the wake
5 Looks sharp too.
Cable board is a Liquid Force Watson Hybrid
1 Fast
2 Hybrid rocker for good pop
3 Grind base for durability
4 Double convex rails for soft landings

Man the squirt was a Bad A board. Those were the days when POP was invented. Another building block for boards from LF was the Trip series.

I was a huge fan of the 04 Hyperlite Parks, that board was fun, tons of launch built into that thing.

My knees have fealt the years of landing in the flats and I like a looser board now. The LF Shane is my go to.

CWB Transcend:
It's not the fastest board out there, but has speed when you want it
Blended 3 stage, so it brings lots of consistency to your pop, but will also boot you
Pretty wide, not as wide as my old (07) Marius, but pretty close
molded in fins with adjustable extenders to tailor the release off the wake the way you like it. Personally, I rock it without
Somewhat sharp endges, depends on where along the rocker line you look. Closer to the tail it has a bit of a concave cut out on the bottom, so when this meets the side wall, it is a bit sharp, but otherwise, not too bad.
grind base - Unfortunately - no.
And it's a traditional board, so it's stiff. Although when you snap one, they get pretty flexible pretty quick!

For me, I moved to this board from a Marius pretty reluctantly. I loved my Marius, but when it broke, I had to look elsewhere as it wasn't made anymore. After riding a bunch of different boards, I bought a Transcend. I've had multiple friends with new boards (won't throw any of them under the bus, as they are quality shapes) who have ridden it and offered me money on the spot to let them take it home. Two of them sold their boards within a week and had one in the mail. It's something about the speed, tracking, yet ability to break lose we all love. The consistent, yet big pop helps a lot as well. I can ride about anything, but I love my Transcend. There's a reason when the shape was updated from 08 to 09, it didn't change much, and hasn't changed since.