TT105 - Boards Mag test March 2006

6th Apr 2006 @ 08:42:11 AM

The (equal) widest of the 2006 freestyle crop, the RRD has very tucked rails and a large spock tail. There’s no tail rocker and the nose is low too. Old-School & Freeride: It’s one of the bigger feeling freestyles, and very stable for non-planing moves such as heli-tacks. Early-planing is relatively good but reduced slightly by the drag from the duck-tail, and it’s a similar story for going upwind. It’s 100% freestyle – this isn’t a board that makes you want to go blasting; you feel as though you should be trying moves all the time. It’s one of the best carvers of the freestyles, wellsuited to 360s both upwind and down. New-Skool Freestyle: The pop and balance were fine, and it clearly stood out from the other freestyles as being the most slippery through moves. If you weren’t careful, attempted vulcans slid around into spocks with just the tiniest bit of back foot pressure. Great if you can use it, and giving the board a real expert’s feel. Guesters’ view: A very popular freestyle, though clearly specialised. Was felt generally to be one of the most “loose”, “throwabout” and “poppy”. Overall: The RRD works well as a dedicated freestyle for flat water, not quite preferring the lightest winds but the easiest board to get to slide, and the one that wants to slide around more than the rest. It was popular with all the freestylers and suits 5.0-6.4 sails.