Kiteworld Magazine | The original international kitesurfing magazine

Very adept handling in tough situations that makes your sessions feel easy

THIS TEST FIRST APPEARED IN KITEWORLD #104 IN MARCH 2020

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Tested by: Chris Bull and Jim Gaunt. Find their details and test score breakdowns here.

TEST TEAM NOTES:

The Poison feels like you’re snowboarding in powder, but that’s not to say this board is overly soft. It’s unaggressive, but still smooth and with a quality bite. Imagine snowboard turns, where you initiate the motion and decide when you want to bring the bite. You drift into it and then engage the rail at the perfect moment. Everything’s possible on the Poison.

BUILD YOUR CONFIDENCE

The flex is uniformly spread through the whole board. This helps it go from heel to toe, giving you the confidence to be super progressive when you’re carving downwind with a large radius. The RRD boards do have a reputation for being quick, and the Poison is no exception, but this year the Poison is very untechnical to ride well. This is helped by the quite pronounced rocker in the tips which cuts through the chop really well, too. The benefits of the thin rail are that it bites very easily without a lot of effort through your heels, but also doesn’t feel too sharp or abrupt. Pros and intermediates can equally get along with this because RRD have combined speed with an interesting central section between the straps that adds comfort and control when ridden flat.

Most thin railed boards need to be biting and slicing water the whole time. The Poison is far more relaxed with a broader spectrum of grip so that you don’t have to be consistently riding it hard on the rail. Thanks to the deep longitudinal hull channels in the middle of the outline there’s plenty of flatter drive, too. The Poison is, however, very easy to lock in and fire at a kicker, holding loads of speed with confidence.

As for the straps, they allow for lots of movement and have a decent sized track for any stance. There’s also a four way Velcro adjustment in the straps so that you can get the perfect fit – including for smaller, women’s feet. The ABS track channels are also reinforced with carbon.

SUMMARY:

Back in the day, the Poison was very flat and undoubtedly the fastest gun in the west. Now it’s extremely playful. When the wind gusts up and you need the grip, it’s there. This is a board that can take you from intermediate riding all the way up to your full potential, no problem. As well as this regularly being a board that we grabbed out of the garage by choice when testing different kites, it was also Jim’s wife’s favourite board too for it’s easy speed, pop control and tightly fitting straps. The Poison really will be a joy for all.

KW LIKED:

Very adept handling in tough situations that makes your sessions feel easy. A real powder-session maker and allows for easy access to high performance.

KW WOULD CHANGE:
The straps tighten down nicely, even for small feet, though perhaps the foot strap itself could be a bit less broad in how much of your foot it covers.

BOARD BALANCE POINTS:
Build quality: 8.5
Fixtures and fittings: 8.5
Speed: 7.5
Pop: 7.5
Drive: 7.5
Flex: 7
Comfort: 8.5
Looseness: 6.5
Grip: 7.5
Upwind: 7.5
Slider proof: NA
Boots applicable: Yes you could, but it’s a joy in straps
Freeriding: 8.5
Freestyle: 7
Ease of use: 8

SIZES: 140 × 43, 137 × 41, 136 × 40 and 135 × 39cm