mazdon said...have had these convo's arguments with mates heaps of times who are more into going down a specific style path and can't understand TTs in waves anymore
i think it all comes down to personnel preference
for me, i love to mix up on heaps of different boards, surf strapless through to TT, mutant to skim board - all different challenges for kite flying and adapting to wave/water conditions
a note on the mutants (i have a shinn wave in the cupboard) - if you are planning on using it to ride switch occasionally (eg to get out of the **, or truck upwind better in lighter conditions) they typically don't ride as well the other way and you work really hard not to nose dive, but it may be different for other models
jibing it would save that problem but i am lazy and maybe not even good enough to boot
therefore i agree with griffinkites that it does not do either exceptionally well, but it can't hurt to keep it in the quiver for random occasions...right?!
Agreed, the Shinn Wave is a challenge to ride tail first since there is no lift, but once mastered it's not too bad, even out through the surf and it trucks up wind tail first. I ride a lot toeside on mine and have a sliding spreader bar which helps enormously. I've changed the footstraps to soft Cabrinha surf straps which allow more freedom of the feet and reduced the nose fins to Underground 40s. I've also swapped to a bigger fin on the toeside thruster which gives extra bite in forehand bottom turns. (see photo above) I can push it as hard as I can and it holds the forehand turns with ease.
My only criticism is that it needs softer (surfboard) rails at the widest point and a V in the tail to assist in rail to rail transitions.
