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KITEWORLD SUMMARY:
You can jump on this board very early on in your kiteboarding career and have fun on it. One of the best intermediate boards the team have been on. Great attention to detail throughout, and it’ll do anything you want it to.
MANUFACTURER'S HYPE:
The Style is an all-round, accessible twin tip - balanced, fluid, fast to plane, stable yet very incisive and tremendously efficient. It’s straighter than the model above it in the F-One range - the SK8, and it also has a different flex curve needing less power to function. It planes instantaneously, accelerates while eating up the chop and never saturates in speed. There’s very little volume so it’s extremely light and very flexible. The flex has indeed been improved upon from last year, along with a new outline and redesigned inverted rails meaning the high-end range of use for the Style has improved.
TEST TEAM NOTES:
NEAL: The most striking thing about the Style is the tips they’ve stuck on it. They look like the biggest gimmick, but they do actually work. You immediately notice from the pads to the straps to the flex and outline in the board and the tips taking away the chop, that it’s the smoothest Cadbury’s Caramel ride you will ever have. Anyone who has dodgy knees will really appreciate this.
MAGGIE: The only question I have is how long are those tips going to last? I’d be really interested to know how the board rides without them.
GEORGE: It’s a big enough difference in feel compared to other boards that I’ve ridden to make me think that it’s mostly to do with the tips.
NEAL: It’s all about release.
GEORGE: It looks pimp, but when we all first saw it we all thought it had the equivalent of stabilisers on it. Do you remember when we were testing it and I shouted to you, ‘This board makes you a better kitesurfer!’? It did at the time, I was loving it.
NEAL: Fixtures and fittings are easy to assemble, very comfortable and quality. Very easy and super-comfortable. Maybe just a little too comfortable. If the board was a little stiffer and still had those tips it would be perfect. But it’s really great as it is.
GEORGE: The rails have a nice bevel on the underside - another reason why it’s such a good ride and turns nicely, too.
SIZES:
128 x 35cm
129 x 37cm
130 x 39cm
138 x 35cm
139 x 37cm
140 x 39cm
148 x 3 5cm
148 x 37cm
www.f-onekites.com
This test is in issue #16
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