A few months ago I upgraded from my 08 rip 34 to this board, and have now had it out in a variety of conditions.. underpowered, over powered, flat
water, chop, and bigger chop.
First lets talk about pads. WOW. these things are like riding on two patches of air. the -08 pads were very stiff, but i liked that because I could
feel the board very well. I am very suprised that even though the new pads are so comfy and soft, I can stil feel the board really well. Also, the
adjustment system works great. I have not had real issues of slipping out of them. when I screwed in the pads I rotated the connection point a bit so
it made the pads kind of pinch down on the crest of my foot better.
Ok. First thing I noticed. This thing is like riding a Cadillac, in rough multidirectional chop, just point and go. the board will drive through it
without hardly any user input. the flex tips really do their job in this type of water!
Underpowered.. this thing is great. instead of riding the board on edge, I've learned to ride it more flat and rely on the fins. its nice because with
all that area, once you get enough speed even in these conditions, the board is so big I can always get enough pop to throw backrolls or little stuff
to keep a light wind day fun. Actually, this board is causing me to think about selling my 19m.
Overpowered is a bit different on a bigger board.. I definiely struggled at first to keep my edge down when loading up for a jump, this is still a
problem I have, but I am going to make my stance wider and a little more heel biased to overcome this. (oh ya, the foot pads allow for a ton of
adjustment in placement).
jumping.. landings are pretty nice on this thing. I think the concave really helps. the thing I've really noticed from my 134 tho is that extra
length.. there have been MANY of time when im messing around and on coming in for the landing think.. oooo NOO.. im too far forward im sure to catch
the nose.. this is goign to suck!.. but literally EVERYTIME.. the surface area in the nose absorbs the landing and i have yet to actually catch the
nose.. the rip 34 was far less forgiving.
thats all for now.. let me know if I missed something.
Kites: 14m Vegas, 15m SD3, 10m rebel, 4m radsail
Boards: GI mtn board, Flyradical 139, plydoor 154
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