A hard charging board for challenging conditions
THIS TEST FIRST APPEARED IN ISSUE #93 IN JUNE, 2018
TEST TEAM NOTES:
What a board for hard charging Cape Town conditions! If you’re looking for holding an edge, going fast and sending it for big boosts, the carbon Trax is a beauty. F-One have a special sensation in the rail with their ‘HRD Helical Rail Design’ which offers stacks of grip but is genuinely smooth and fluid. It’s not a knee burner, but instead provides lots of feel in its traction.
The carbon keeps the board relatively light (but not as light as the Fusion on this spread), but instead seems to be used to add stiffness and performance to the ride feel. This 136 is a bit smaller than Chris would choose to ride as his normal board, but we literally could never get him off the Trax because it carries such a good ride speed but at the same time offers load of control. You can be macking towards a ramp at 30 knots and if you suddenly need to do an evasive move, you can bring the Trax to a halt very quickly and calmly. The pick up in speed is something else, too – and you can soon be travelling at 30 knots again in the other direction.
The relentless speed and ease-of-control are the standout features and although there’s a lot of rail grip, for a small board you don’t feel overly locked in or need to focus too hard when you want to force the tips out to make a turn. The Trax feels like a kiteboard, not a wakeboard and for fast, hooked-in kitesurfing it’s hard to beat. Dive the kite and within an instant your kite, your board and you are totally in sync and travelling positively as one unit. It just feels good and you can do instant handbrake turns, whether on a wave face or to swerve someone. There’s never any delay, it just goes, and then likes to floor the gas pedal again. It’s always sat at 4,000 revs and ready to go.
There are boards that are more comfortable underfoot and better for a flowing trick style for more unhooking. There is still some suspension in the Trax, but you’re not on a pocket of air, though you’re certainly not knocking your knees out, either. No complaints about the pad and strap set-up from F-One. You can adjust the width that the strap is set it and there’s also plenty of angle and stance width options. Good balance between comfort and hold in this relatively simple and straight forward system with enough contouring in the soft pad to get some extra toe and heel grip.
SUMMARY:
You could hold a ship at bay with the edging control and grip that the Trax provides. Light and capable of all styles of freeride tricks, from fast pop to being tossed around for board-offs and inversions, where it really comes into its own is if you want to go out scare yourself by achieving your biggest boosts. The Trax isn’t going to let you down and it’s always ready to point and shoot!
KW LIKED:
Sublime grip and driving control at speed.
KW WOULD CHANGE:
Who wants more fluffy comfort when you’re constantly sending it to the moon?
TRAX BALANCE POINTS:
Build quality: 8.5
Fixtures and fittings: 8.5
Speed: 8.5
Pop: 7.5
Drive: 8.5
Flex: 6
Comfort: 6.5
Looseness: 5
Grip: 8
Upwind: 7.5
Slider proof: No
Boots applicable: No
Freeriding: 8.5
Freestyle: 7
Ease-of-use: 8
SIZES: 140 x 45, 137 x 42, 136 x 40.5 and 135 x 39cm
