Naish Kiteboarding Mega 136 x 42cm 2015 Kitesurfing Review

Naish Kiteboarding Mega 136 x 42cm 2015

Reviews / Twin Tips

Naish Kiteboarding 98,602

At A Glance

Naish are another brand that has not only been around since the beginning of time, but have been at the forefront of kitesurfing’s development as a sport and with the technology of the gear. Founded by Robby Naish back in the early days, Naish originated as a windsurf brand, moving onto designing kites and now SUP’s. Naish have always been well known within the industry for cutting edge innovation and supreme build quality. They have a massive range of all kitesurfing kit, with kites, boards, harnesses, along with a range of accessories.

This issue we are going to take a look at the high end of Naish’s kiteboard range, with the Mega. Aimed at intermediate to advanced riders this insanely high performance freeride board is a lightweight and responsive board tailored for speed and upwind ability. The Mega is rammed with cutting edge technology to ensure it gives the rider every bit of satisfaction required. With Full spread Toray Tow carbon, Off axis carbon X, a supreme wood core, tapered rails, flex torsion control, 3D step rails and low flex F27, the Mega really is mega packed with tech. Built with a 3 stage rocker R8/4/10, full length double concave and quad razor channel tips, this board has had some serious thought.

Now, to most of us that will just fly straight over our heads, so to summarise; the Mega is designed to be ultra bombproof, create serious amounts of pop, grip like mad, land soft and blast upwind.

The Mega comes with the Apex Bindings and 3.8cm G10 fins.

On The Water

Getting out on the water with the Mega made it very apparent that Naish had succeeded with the design and idea of this board. Screaming upwind in all conditions, choppy, light wind, strong wind, and in flat water with waves. The board feels incredibly light underfoot and is very responsive. With the Apex binding you can feel every slight movement of the board in your feet. Perfect for all those freeride and freestyle moves.

The Mega’s shape makes it insanely grippy to ride meanwhile very flowing as you transfer into turns. This grip enabled us to pop like we have never popped before almost like being flung up by a trampoline. Then comes the landings, the double concave base of the Mega just soaks up chop and landings making it easier and far more enjoyable to push your limits.

“Carving…boosting…popping…the Mega nailed it!”

Overall

The Mega really is a do-it-all kiteboard, carving around in waves it performed brilliantly, boosting large jumps you were just flung into the sky, even popping into unhooked freestyle moves, the Mega nailed it!

For those intermediate to advanced freeriders who love heading out onto the water to style up your riding with some freeride/freestyle moves, or even if you’re still working towards these, the Mega is a cracking bit of equipment to make your sessions that much more enjoyable. The carbon laminate mixed with printed graphics of this board, the way it handles, the build quality and the comfort of the binding system all really are top notch.

It is worth noting that the Mega, although more than capable of handling some of the unhooked freestyle/wakestyle moves, that isn’t what it is tailored for. So those of you aiming to focus on wakestyle and boots might be better off looking at the Monarch or Antic boards in the Naish range, however those of you who can rock old school and want to dabble at some wakestyle, then this board is a blast.

Videos

This review was in Issue 51 of IKSURFMAG.

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By Robin and Sukie
With years of kite sport experience combined, you can be sure you’ll be receiving the highest quality of knowledge on the best equipment the industry has to offer.

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