Cabrinha Secret Weapon 5’6 2015
Reviews / Surfboards
56,118
At A Glance
Now for something radically different… The Secret Weapon is a new board from Cabrinha this year, it’s a modern take on an old design; short and wide it resembles the popular fish style boards from the 70's. A brief nod to this design is where the similarities end though as there is a bunch of tech going on with this shape and the construction too…
At the heart of this board is a super light EPS foam core, the new layup for 2015 then includes a layer of bamboo on the top and the bottom as well as cork to reduce vibrations and offer good damping. The final product is super tough, we’ve had ours on test for a few months and it has withstood numerous flights and plenty of rides in the back of the van and isn’t showing any real signs of wear.
There is a Futures Quad set up for the fin configuration - footstraps and fins are sold separately this year. This may seem odd, but it reduces the cost and allows you to either choose a stock set up from Cabrinha or go for a more luxurious set up. We’ve been running ours with a medium set of Stretch Quad fins in Honeycomb construction from Futures and they have been working perfectly.
On The Water
The Secret Weapon is so far removed from a traditional surfboard it will take a little bit of getting used to. Don’t get this board confused with the “noseless” designs on the market either; it is in it’s very own. It’s super wide, just over 50cm wide to be precise. To give you an idea, the equivalent sized North Pro Series CSC board is 44.5cm this year and the Slingshot Angry Swallow is 46cm.
Equally this isn’t a “Nugget” styled lightwind beefcake aimed at the larger riders or solving the issue of the wind not blowing, it’s a radical departure from the norm that is designed to be shredding in the waves. Naturally, it works great when the wind is light, but it can also hold its own when the wind is pumping, although the ride can be a little bouncy, we’ll get to that later on…
On the waves this board needs a lot of backfoot drive, you need to commit to the rail too, in order to get it to engage in the bottom turn and this is the technique we mentioned earlier that you need to get the most out of the Secret Weapon. When driving hard off the backfoot this board has a snappy aggressive turn in the pocket that will surprise you. It’s really easy to bust the fins out and get the back end round for those reverses too.
It is well suited to smaller wave days, the extra volume and planing area keeping the speed on to get round the mushy sections. In addition, it can handle its own when the swell gets bigger, although for a fast, down-the-line speed train type wave you might want something a little more dedicated. If you ride Euro slop with the occasional wave trip to somewhere decent you won’t feel out-gunned. It gets going really early and is great fun to ride, just remember to commit to the bottom turn and be ready for the back end to get loose on the cutback.
When the wind is really pumping the Secret Weapon can become a bit of a handful, the wide shape gets a little bouncy. The same is true for super fast down the line waves too; this isn’t a board with a really comfy high-end speed. It is much more orientated to slightly less hectic conditions.
The wide nose combined with the shorter length means you should ride this board a fair bit shorter than you would normally go, make it great for aerial tricks too. The board has a good surface area to enable the wind to push it onto your feet, yet it is short enough to be spun with ease.
"The Secret Weapon is in a class of its own…"
Overall
The Secret Weapon is in a class of its own, it is radically different, super wide yet great fun to play around on. Ridden aggressively and in the pocket it will reward you with snappy turns and a loose back end. Well built with a solid construction this board will deliver miles of smiles all round!
Videos
This review was in Issue 50 of IKSURFMAG.
For more information visit CabrinhaRelated
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!
