F-ONE Kiteboarding Pocket Carbon Custom 120 x 46cm 2022
Reviews / Hydrofoil Boards
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At A Glance
The Pocket has been an incredibly popular board for F-ONE for a few years; it’s a short foil board with low volume for freeride and freestyle foilers. For 2022 the R&D team introduced a new take on the design, the Pocket Carbon Custom. Built with performance in mind, it packs a little more volume into the design and is a little thicker at 4cm. It retains the DNA from the original shape, short with a stubby nose, but this board is a little more squared off in the nose and tail.
The biggest change is the super light construction; considering the volume and thickness, the Pocket Carbon Custom weighs less than three bags of sugar and packs just as much punch. The SLIM Tech Carbon Custom process utilises a CNC-shaped PVC foam core. This is then carefully wrapped in layers of carbon and vacuum bagged to reduce weight and maximise fibre efficiency. In addition, the hand-crafted lamination makes the boards exceedingly light and strong.
Available in three sizes, a 110 dedicated strapless board with no inserts and 120 and 130cm versions with inserts for a y strap configuration. All the boards come with a full-size deck pad for comfort.
Sizes: 110 x 45 - 15L, 120 x 46 - 16.8L, 130 x 47 - 18.6L
On The Water
This board is light; it’s incredibly light for its size and volume. Anyone who foils will be aware of the arm ache carrying your foil to the water, especially in the early days. With a carbon foil and mast and this board, you can dramatically reduce the overall weight of your set-up. That’s good for two reasons, well, maybe three. Firstly, it hugely reduces swing weight, which is perfect if you are into freestyle foiling and jumping. Secondly, that low weight will lower your wind range, less weight needs less power to get going, plus the extra volume will help you pump onto the foil too. Lastly, well, it’s just easier to carry to the beach.
Underfoot the board is very stiff, and all your movements are transferred to the mast instantly. This makes it incredibly fun to carve and play around on. It took a few runs to get used to the short stature; I was on a 130 before, and stepping down, it felt strange having my front foot so close to the nose, but once you got dialled, the board just felt effortless in the carves, and now I wouldn’t go back.
We love the hand-crafted finish on the board; it looks sublime and feels fantastic in your hands. Along with incredible performance in the air, on the water and through the turns, it’s a winning ticket for us!
Overall
Incredibly light, exceptionally stiff and with enough volume to get you out of trouble when landing tricks and get you foiling before your mates, the Pocket Carbon Custom will be a tough board to beat. We’ve loved every minute of riding ours and can’t wait to get back on it!
Videos
This review was in Issue 94 of IKSURFMAG.
For more information visit F-ONE KiteboardingRelated
By Rou Chater
Rou has been kiting since the sports inception and has been working as an editor and tester for magazines since 2004. He started IKSURFMAG with his brother in 2006 and has tested hundreds of different kites and travelled all over the world to kitesurf. He's a walking encyclopedia of all things kite and is just as passionate about the sport today as he was when he first started!
