Date: 5/27/03
Author: David Williams

As an online wakeboard and accessory shop, Wakeside has done something a little different. They've created the Wakeside Design Studio to create high-end wakeboarding products for which their customers are looking. Wakeside's initial jump into the "design studio" was with Titan Wake Accessories. The result is their new Battle Rack.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm lazy, or very busy if you want to put a positive spin on it. Any way you slice it, it's the reason why my board racks look like crap. They were polished aluminum when I got them, and looked fantastic, but now they're more like dull, pitted and bug-coated aluminum. It's just too much work for me to keep up with polished aluminum. That's why the first thing I noticed about the Battle Rack was the chrome plating. It's like the dual gas tank fills that are just now starting to show up on most boats. It makes you say, "Duh, why didn't they think of this a long time ago!"

If it's done right, chrome has got it all. It looks great, it's durable and, most importantly, it's easy to take care of. Now slap a few layers of that stuff onto a board rack with a unique cut to its jib and you've got something that's going to turn heads. The finish on the Battle Rack is immaculate and one look at these pics will tell you that they've come up with a very cool looking way to hold your boards to your tower.

The method for physically holding the boards isn't anything you've never seen before. They use a tried and true method of sliding boards into rubber-coated forks and wrapping a bungie cord around them. In the case of the Battle Rack, there is just one bungie cord for each rack, which makes things a little easier than some of the four-cord systems out there. The rack keeps a solid hold on up to two boards with no squeaks or rattles.

Each rack clamp clings to the tower via four hex bolts and two set screws. I always like to see the set screws on there so that I can be sure the rack will not be twisting or sliding on my tower. The rack we tested was attached to the clamp via a unique lift-off latch option that makes rack removal with no tools a cinch. Although this costs a bit extra, it's great for those of us that have to remove their board racks in order to fold their tower. Now I don't have to pull out an allen wrench to do the job. I thought for sure the trade-off for these cool latches would be rattles on the water, but a day out on rough seas at the opening day of our local lake proved me wrong. I didn't hear a peep out of these things.

If you've got a Titan tower, you can also order these racks with the spinner option that allows the rack to spin 360 degrees around its clamp, which makes pulling the boards off of the racks a less hazardous ordeal.

So I guess I can't really ask for too much more from a board rack. The Battle Rack is functional, easy to remove and adjust, looks as sharp as any rack on the market and will keep those looks for years to come. They make a version for just about every tower on the market, so if you're looking for a board rack, you should definitely check these out.

The standard Battle Rack is available exclusively from Wakeside.com for $315 each or $600 for a pair. It will cost you an additional $89 ($169 per pair) for the Lift-Off option and an additional $169 ($299 per pair) for the Spinner option.

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