Im just wanting to get a surf board and wondering what the best brand is? i want straps but no nothink about them?

depends what you wanna do, I have been riding an old 6'1 thruster and really enjoying it, it is remarkably easy to ride with no footstraps, the big bouyant board allows you to cruise at a slow speed and wait for a wave then depower the kite to surf... the downside is that with strapless is you can't backroll or jump and getting out over the waves takes a little practice.

I have tried the new cabrinha s-quad and it was fantastic, really great carving and excellent on the water feel

Quad fins seem to be the go for kiting if you can get hold of one - lets you ride a lot faster and is much more predictable to kite on. Be prepared to write off anything made from polyester, and even some epoxy boards. Go for a kite specific one if you can!

Quad fins do seem to be the latest Fad with several Kite manufactures keen to sell you their latest and greatest. Interesting though that most of the top kite SURFERS choose to ride three fin thruster type shapes by experianced surfboard shapers.
I quess time will tell, but didn't surfing go thru the quad fin faze a few years back?

I was skeptical too - it seemed like a gimmick to me but once I tried it, I immediately noticed it was better.

Lots of surfers I know ride quads these days too, i dont think its just a fad. Time will tell though!

Fair enough. Still the last time I saw someone surfing on a quad was my mate and his fancy quad channel quad fin Salty and that was 30 years ago! sadly he and the board have passed on.
Still I'm open to old ideas, so we should swap boards next weekend at the Raglan Freeride out back on the bar.
PS bettor for what... going fast at Shoal bay??? :twisted:

Quads are great for quick turns on a wave wherever / whenever - but if you want to GOUGE waves - a thruster is THE weapon although it needs more input from the rider.

Unless you've got consistantly good waves to ride, a quad is probably more versatile, & easier to ride than a thruster.

I've been riding both quad & thruster for years - my comparisons :

Quad = Flighty, turns with little effort
Thruster = Driving, turns on rails

I would suggest that you ride as many boards as you can, 1 board is not going to suit all the conditions. I prefer to ride different boards for different sessions, mix it up. I've had some great sessions on a 7'10"mini mal (thruster with loads of rocker) - many a forum-boffin would say that is not possible

Quads were an 80's fad in surfing history, the boards did not become popular, although in recent times there has been more uptake from the Tow-in surfers, & now kiters. The modern version of the quad is shitloads better than what they were making in the 80's. The essence of a quad fin is that it removes the necessity of having to drive the board around so hard - as you would on a thruster - this is also the reason there are no ASP or WQS Quad riders - If the pros don't drive their board around hard enough, they don't make the cut

Cheers for your informative analysis, Skyrider, I new you'd drop in sometime. Probably the most qualified rider to comment.

At the end of the day though, especially with kite Surfing, performance is up to the rider not how many fins your surfboard has.

If you want to get into kite SURFING grab any Surfboard and get out in the surf at every opportunityand ride and ride and ride...
Poly will be way cheaper and more 2nd hand options, however may not last as long.
Epoxy is more expensive however will last longer in general

"i want straps but no nothink about them?"

be sure to at least try strapless for a while - maybe a bit harder (thats why it is more fun..) and no go in huge choppy waves where you would need a real heavy board anyway to keep control, but you have so much more feedom to move your feet to the best position

I have 2 sets of deep heel dents on my board which shows this.

enjoy, surfboards and kites are highly underated

east coast 9/10 goodbye

One conjunction, two syllables Freewave.

Gav does sling shot have a surfboard? im shore iv seen a sling shot one and an F1 board that looks cool?

Yes Berwick they do.
2006 and 2007 they did a 5'5" and a 5'11" see link below for details:
www.slingshotkiteboarding.com/products.cfm?id=20

For 2008 the 5'5" has been dropped and a 6'2'' added along with new graphic's.
The new 6'2" is a squash tail and provides excellent planing ability, glide and drive in the waves.
Designed to be paddled into waves or ridden with a kite depowered on the wave, with or without straps.
I've ridden it strapless and strapped and its awesome...looks awesome too. Only two left, one is on display on the wall at Ballistics along with the Slingshot line up of wakeboards and bindings.
I have a couple of new 07's left along with one well used but still going strong 06 5'11'' this is the board that features in most of the 'big wednesday' shots on the news section of this site... yes its an awesome tow-in board as well.
Will let it go to a new home for $400 bucks
All the boards a epoxy with ESP core and Divynacel wrap.
Will have all boards on display and demo and the Slingshot Raglan Freeride next weekend(dec 7th 8th and 9th)
Gavin 0274 504508

any 1 tryed the RRD toxic wave or the wave pro?

You're always welcome to try my Legend (surf TT) anytime dude, you know that!

But there you go, hoeing round the brands again - where's the love?

F-one also do the Signature (surf directional)

Damn son, you got a stylie Euro kite now... you gotta get a Euro board.

Anything to combat that naf little pink car your company makes you drive :oops:

come on phil you love the colour pick. it was even better when i had a pick waroo with my pick car :?

id be keen to give your board a go some time, it looks fun

We all owned a pink waroo at some stage I guess Berwick

Looks like it's gonna blow it's ass off Fri & Sun then cruise next week

Yo got that 8m Era yet? You might need it :roll:

do they sell pink ERAs?

damn Phil we both took huge chunks out of that 35 knots yesterday. by the time we had fisished riggin up it was on a patchy 10-15. double jinx.

i was grovellin on the Fuel and wished i put the bfk up. maybe one of those surfboards next time round you reckon?

PS: 8m ERAs turn fecken fast