Premier vs Era vs B-Side?

I've been riding Premiers for the last 5 years, I currently have an 06 and ride it finless. I was looking at trying an Era or the B-Side either for myself or a spare. I can make assumptions based on the shapes, rockers, and descriptions, but has anybody tried 2 or all 3 of these boards that could offer some comparisons based on experience? Unfortunately I live somewhere where testing them myself is practically impossible...Thanks in advance.

I rode the 06 Premier for a year, then the 07 Premier for a year (obviously the same shape) both finless. To me, the board was super slow and heavy as hell, but had pretty good pop and average landings. This thing is a beast on rails though and my 06 is still rocking as my jib stick and gone through some major abuse.

The B-Side is supposed to change considerably (for the better) in 2010 so you might want to wait to see what the new characteristics are... I've never been on the Era and can't comment on it.

My advise would be RONIX ONE... I left the Premier looking for a faster, lighter board with the same rocker shape as the Premier and bought a ONE and never looked back. Slightly more agressive pop but very similar, MUCH faster and MUCH lighter. Landings are way more forgiving as well. This board is absolutely money and is a perfect transition from the Premier since they are very similar. In know you wanted comments on the Era and B-side, but I have to say the ONE is the perfect board to graduate from the Premier.

My $0.02

(Message edited by xbones on January 13, 2009)

I have had an 2002 Premier and I have been riding the 2006 Premier for the last two seasons. I would also be interested to find out about the rides of the new Era and the B-Side. I have been looking into getting a Ronix One Dark Core as well. Is the Dark Core worth it?

The B Side is a premier on steroids! If you like the premier you will LOVE the B-Side!

The bside is a faster board than your premier and much looser if you plan to ride it finless. The era is a bit faster than the premier and is lighter than your premier as well. I rode an era all last year and loved the board and this year i was on a bside and premier quite a bit at the end of the year and enjoyed both of those as well. I don't think you can make a bad decision between the era or bside if you are currently on that premier.

i have riden all three, and the B-Side takes all the good stuff from the two other shapes and improves on them. For example...the last premier shape, i felt, cavitated a bit when cutting. The lines on the b-side are much smoother and the board tracks a lot cleaner than its predecessors. The molded fins on the b-side a re a bit longer and more defined, and this makes for a better hold. The b-side still has the cupped rails just in front of the molded in fins, so the hard edging is still there. Other than the edge of the board there are no sharpe parts. The molded fins and channeling along the board are smooth and round over (no sharp edges). This gives the board forgiveness, smooth transitional edging, and you'll be less likely to catch you edge when doing a surface 180.

The b-side has more surface area. This translates to more pop. This combined with the same "subtle 3-stage" rocker of the premier and era make for a more powerfull pop, with the soft landings of a continuous rocker board.

The b-side has very little material in the tip and tail, and this reduces the swing weight. The board is heavier than most of the boards in the hyperlite line-up, but since the swing weight is so low, I really cant tell the difference (in weight) when riding a marek or sub6.

All-in-all...the B-side is one of the best designed boards i have riden...ever. I wish then made it with the "nova core", but there is always next year!

If anybody knows WakeViolater does! He kills it on the premier and BSide!

"Ching Chong Chang"!

Thanks guys, WakeViolater, do you ride it finless or not?

No fins in that pic. I don't know many riders who still rock fins...

I tried it with fins for the first few sets. I usually dont ride any board with fins, but I try stock (with fins) to see if there is some reason I should ride it with fins. This is especially true for the hyperlite imperial. I did not like the way the imperial rode without fins.

I ride the b-side without fins. it has the perfect mix of control and looseness, to me, without the fins.

how fast is a Bside compared to an Era? I ride a ronix one and love the agressive pop but just a little to fast of a ride in the water for my taste. I rode an Era from two years ago, and it felt really really sluggish.

On the fins issue, I rode my B-Side with fins for a while because the fins are so small but really fell in love with the board when I went finless.

i ride a premier right now. my brother has an era and we tried a b side. he likes the era cause its a little more grippy and i like the premier cause i like the looseness. they both pop about the same. the b side we didnt really like. it rode to much like a byerly legacy. if your use to premiers just stick with it or an era. you wont like the b side just cause its what your not use to. forgive my spelling

i'd say the b-side is "middle of the road" when it comes to speed. I dont know how to compare it to any other brand because i only ride hyperlite...they have the best warranty in the biz.

Jared I think you are wrong.

I would take the review from somebody doing a huge OHO anyday!

Found a great deal on boardersmall.com and went for the B-Side, hopefully we'll get a warm weekend soon and I will post what I think of it. Thanks for all the help.

Premier is slow and mellow. Good smooth consistent pop.
Era a little faster but grippy because of the fret rails.
I was expecting a lot more out of the B-side in some ways hard to explain how it rode. It was faster than the premier but not as consisten pop.
But to each their own, and everyone wants something different out of a board!

If anybody cares, I rode the B-Side today (finless), and liked it alot. I could tell what some of you guys were saying, it was definitely different on edge cutting out on my toeside edge, but I started figuring it out. The B-Side accelerates much quicker initiating the cut into the wake, great for progressive tricks, the pop was big and very consistent (more than the premier I thought, makes sense with significantly more surface area and slightly larger rocker). It released off the wake a little sooner, and landed about the same. Despite having more speed, it made my riding a little bit more wake-to-wake, which I like. Overall it performed better with slightly more weight on my back foot than the premier both edging and jumping (don't know why). On my 3rd set of the year I rode as good as I have since the middle of last season, so I'm happy with the board, and would recommend it to anyone considering it. Still love the premier though, it's not going anywhere. Thanks for everybody's input.

Rode again -- I think the more weight needed on the back foot is definitely due to the wider tip/tail. I love the board and feel very comfortable on it when doing tricks and when edging towards the wake, but when I edge out hard on my toeside to do a heelside trick, my back toes go in the water and the edge feels very weird anyways, like it's not tracking well and I just need to change something, it won't let me cut really hard to get all the way outside the wake. I do not have this issue at all doing heelside edging or even jumping toeside. WakeViolator, (or anybody else) do you have any experience with this issue or advice?

Ryan weird that exactly how the Ronix One felt to me when i rode it last year.I couldnt get over the ts rail letting water over my toes and it acted as if it didnt want to track the line i chose,kept trying to pull the edge back out of the water a bit.it was subtle but kept me from buying the board.