Wainman Hawaii Joke Joke 138 x 41.5cm 2016
Reviews / Twin Tips
22,708
At A Glance
The Joke is Wainman’s first twintip, their pride and joy, which they’ve been developing since the beginning. The Joke's claim to fame is an industry first ‘3D’ bottom shape that is made by the convex bubble placed on the centre of the board. New for 2016 the Joke is lighter and slightly stiffer in construction, it also boasts deeper bottom channels for superior upwind performance and double deck contouring for optimal pop and reflex.
Straight out of the box the boards appearance is awesome, the space theme, which looks like Luke Skywalker designed it, is bound to turn heads. The pads and footstraps are extremely comfy, and the board can be ridden with boots too of course. With four inserts, there are loads of adjustments possible to get the set up perfect for your preferred stance.
Alvaro Onieva, WH Pro Rider on the new Joke: "The new Joke is such a solid board for wakestyle behind the kite: the big rocker and stiffness provides you with a great pop and stability to ride in choppy conditions. It's also super fun to ride it in kicker waves...This board definitely is a spaceship!"
On The Water
In the past, with the small wakestyle fins, the Joke hasn’t been known for its upwind prowess. To address this in the new board Wainman added deeper bottom channels to the 2016 model and this has more than fixed that problem. Considering the aggressive nature of this board the upwind tracking ability is unbelievable. It is now an entirely different, much improved, machine.
The Joke is a pleasure to ride, the double deck contouring mean you get an incredibly explosive pop and the landings are forgiving. Even if you are way off balance it is surprising how often the board will essentially ‘catch’ you - a great confidence boost. We rode this board a fair amount in choppy waters at our local sport and found it to be pretty comfortable, despite the stiff construction. On flat water though the board really comes alive, it’s fast, aggressive and exciting to ride!
Something that could be easily overlooked is the channels along the top of the board which offer excellent grip for board-offs. (They give you something to hold onto when you are putting your feet into the straps too, so if you haven’t done it yet, then now could well be time to ditch the handle!) Competent intermediate riders right up to high-level freestyle tricksters will get a lot out of this board. It’s easy to ride and forgiving, but packs a heap of performance in too.
Overall
When Wainman Hawaii say ‘high performance’ they mean it. This board ticks all the boxes if you are looking for an absolute freestyle weapon. It’ll take you to the next level of your riding with its 3D bottom shape helping you land tricks you wouldn’t believe possible. Make sure you try the Joke out to see for yourself!
Videos
This review was in Issue 56 of IKSURFMAG.
For more information visit Wainman HawaiiRelated
By Jack Galloway
Jack is a fanatically keen kiter from the South West of England, he loves riding just about anything with a kite from foil boards to surfboards and everything in between. He's competed in the Red Bull Ragnarok snowkite race on numerous occasions as well as some world class kite racing events. He's our Web Editor for the magazine, as well as one of our testers where his vast knowledge of the sport and different kites and boards comes in handy!
