Naish Kiteboarding Skater 5’2 2017
Reviews / Surfboards
98,602
At A Glance
The Skater is a square nosed, thruster setup directional board from Naish. The first thing you’ll notice when you look at this board is the outline is very similar to that of a twin tip. Naish have packed technology and high-end construction elements into this board to make it very durable while offering excellent performance. The Skater has a honeycomb impact cell added to the core along with a bamboo laminate to ensure the board can withstand strapless freestyle tricks. There is a sizeable single concave and triple angled channels to the tail to the board. These features are new to the Skater for 2017 aiming to give the board softer landings, smooth rail-to-rail transfer and superior grip thought out the riders turns.
The Skater comes with Naish’s honeycomb core fins, which are lightweight with optimised flex.
When you first get your hands on the Skater, you will instantly see its fantastic build quality, not to mention its simple yet stylish graphics. It is fully decked underfoot with pads and the option to add foot straps.
Sizes: 4’10”, 5’2”, 5’6”.
On The Water
We rode the Skater in a variety of conditions, ranging from clean rolling waves to super choppy 1ft mess. Instantly even in the choppier of conditions, it was apparent how well the Skater slices through the water, it’s incredibly smooth to ride even in the chop. We didn’t see the usual bounce off the nose that some directionals create. It just glides on through.
Getting into the cleaner conditions the Skater is still butter smooth, but you can get a feel of how direct it feels underfoot. It is very responsive and grippy, yet there is an incredibly smooth flow to its turns. You can sink in the back of the board for pivotal smashes and really draw out your turns off the rail with ease.
“The perfect weapon for strapless airs and slick carves.”
The Skater is pretty quick to ride; it picks up speed quickly and provides great stability at the same time. While it's not going to be as fast down the line as some directionals in the Naish range, it excels in stability and comfort.
The deck pads are awesome, not only do they look good they offer plenty of grip and are comfortable to ride on all day barefoot.
Learning your first strapless airs on the Skater is easy. The board provides fantastic pop and getting off the water isn't going to be a problem. Landings are smooth with very little bounce from the board. The cut off nose of the board is wide and provides a solid landing platform if you're only popping a 180 and looking for revert landings.
Overall
The Skater is an easy transition into directional riding for those new to these boards; it is also the perfect weapon those wanting to pump out some strapless airs and slick carves on the wave. It’s another quality board from Naish that is very versatile and suitable for many abilities.
Videos
This review was in Issue 62 of IKSURFMAG.
For more information visit Naish KiteboardingRelated
By Robin and Sukie
With years of kite sport experience combined, you can be sure you’ll be receiving the highest quality of knowledge on the best equipment the industry has to offer.
