Nobile Kiteboarding 2HD 137 x 43cm 2015
Reviews / Twin Tips
39,091
At A Glance
The 2HD from Nobile has been in their line up for a few years now, it is a freeride inspired design that aims to be fast and fun. It’s a board that likes to be ridden large, the wide girth on this model might put some of you out there off, but don’t knock it until you try it…
The name of the board stems from their Double Hydrodynamic Rocker technology. Rocker line is a crucial element to board design, a flat rocker is fast, but not much fun and tricky to ride. A more pronounced, curved rocker is slower but a lot more forgiving.
In the 2HD Nobile have a flatter section for speed, but then have incorporated another deeper rocker stage to the profile of the board. Essentially you have a double rocker line, hence the catch phrase and the name of the board. In addition, the 2HD features their added pre-stress technology which increases the pop, as well as their Complete Anti Vibration tech and an elliptical progressive concave bottom shape.
In terms of construction the board has a wood core, but also features Nobile’s Honeycomb Construction which places a honeycomb section in certain areas to improve the flex and reduce weight. Triax fibres are then used in the layup to ensure the flex is exactly what Nobile want.
On The Water
This is a smooth board to ride and you notice that right away, the flex pattern is mixed throughout the board with a stiff mid section and flex tips. These combine with the double hydrodynamic rocker to give an exceedingly svelte ride, even in really choppy water.
The 2HD gets going really early with its wide outline and it also provides the rider with a very stable platform for landing tricks. This is one of the features we really enjoyed about the board and not something to be overlooked. The wider outline makes the board really forgiving and easy to ride.
Pop is excellent, the wide tips giving you a solid area of water to push off against whilst the flex and the added pre-stress core combine to ensure there is a solid flick off the water as your stamp on the back leg. We had so much fun riding this board, it’s just so easy to get great performance out of it and it is fast too.
Upwind is excellent and perhaps our only gripe was the elliptical concave bottom shape whilst offering great grip and upwind ability did give some harsh slaps on some of our landings. A minor niggle really, and a nod to the more modern channelled boards in their range that we have ridden that eliminate this.
Despite that though, it was not nearly enough to wipe the smile from our faces. Even the dedicated wave heads amongst the test team were out pulling tricks left right and centre on the 2HD and even seemed tempted to ditch the surfboard for the afternoon.
"The 2HD is a really fun, fast board to ride that is exceedingly forgiving!"
Overall
The 2HD is a really fun, fast board to ride that is exceedingly forgiving and smooth through the chop. Don’t be put off by the generous dimensions, these combine with the clever technology and shape to create on of the better twin tips on the market, a definite favourite amongst the test team!
Videos
This review was in Issue 50 of IKSURFMAG.
For more information visit Nobile 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!
