When I had been kiting for about a year I finally decided that it was time to move up a step. I had had some buggying lessons previously but didn't have the money for a buggy (besides, it wouldn't fit in the car). Boarding was the obvious choice.
Not wanting to spend too much money, I shopped around and managed to pick up a board for £85. The company was mindless, and if the board has any special make I haven't found it out yet.
First impressions:
I got it home and took it out of the box to assemble it. I wasn't immeaditely impressed by the quality - some of the components needed to assemble the board were rolling around loose it the bottom of the box and one of the dustcaps from a tyre was missing. (I'm now down to one, all the others have vanished).
As I was assembling the board, again, I wasn't particularly impressed - some of the components didn't fit as well as they might have done and the design hadn't been thought through in some places. In particular the wheel nuts were resistant to biting down properly whatever I tried, leaving my board with an unpleasant rattle.
http://www.racekites.com/images/reviews/mindless01.jpg [/img]
The board:
When I finished assembling it, it looked quite good. I took it outside and (never having boarded before) spent the evening rolling down tiny slopes. The next day I took the board out for it's first try with my kite. I wish to gloss over that particular first session, and shall lift the curtain a few days later, when I could sit down relatively normally again.
I did eventually manage (amid many painful mistakes) to get going reasonably well on the board. I have to say that despite the apparent poor construction in some places, the board handles well and has survived being jumped on, kicked, rained on and fallen off very well, though it now looks somewhat battered.
One minor gripe with how the board handles is that the steering is not particularly responsive or sharp when compared to more expensive boards (furnace creek, for example). However I find that this does help when learning to board - the wobble factor is reduced. A point it it's favour is its relatively light weight compared to other boards - this helps when learning to jump with it.
Over the time that I've had it (over 3 years now), bits of it have given up the ghost. The screws that hold the trucks in place appear to be made of pot metal - you have to be very careful to avoid stripping the heads. The trucks were more pot metal, and bent when I started jumping. I've since replaced them with some scrub ones, which are much nicer. Some of the binding fittings are also going a bit rusty, but nothing that affects the performance of the board.
As far a the deck itself is concerned, it doesn't have a great deal of flex. This would probably suit the heavier rider (no chance of it bottoming out), but it does mean that it can be awkward trying to pop up into jumps - the kite has to do most of the work.
Overall impressions:
This is a relatively cheap board that is suitable for beginners or occasional kite boarders, but which has a few design flaws and isn't as nice to ride as many other boards. It seems to be a case of "you get what you pay for" here, and that is somewhat disappointing. However, I can't in all honesty say that I regret buying this board - I learnt to board with it, and have had a lot of use and enjoyment out of it. Perhaps if I could go back in time I would spend slightly more money and get something a bit better, but overall I would give this board 3/5.
Forum
