Arrived in the mail today. Can't wait to ride this sucker. This board will be the best of both worlds, ride like a surf board with the durability and edging of a twintip. I'll post a review once i've clocked up a few hours of riding it.

mike

hang*

Bought it local..... if you consider within Aus local, it came from WA and i am in NSW. Contact Ian Young for info.

I also considered a Shinn Wave, skywalker d-wave and brunotti wave and the zone was priced the best.

mike

I would give my left t*sticle for one!

159 cm long, so that would make it 5ft 3 or their about?

Looks like a nice board, after riding a 5ft 3 directional "surfboard" other week it will be interesting to hear the feedback on how the board transfers the energy of the chop...rips and what not through the riders legs, the 5ft 3 I rode was crap for that although looks sweet too I came off it hobbling up the beach.

Doesn’t look thick as a surfboard, more twin tip stuff? Might have better flex?

The flex makes for a very smooth ride through the chop. I've done a 50km downwinder on it and it was much more comfortable than my old custom RF surfboard. It's real strength is maneuverability on the wave and holding an edge like a TT.

Graham replaced both his Delta surfboard and his TT with the Zone and is stoked - www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=31971

What sort of graphics do people like?
08 Spleene TT will have an orange GT stripe on plain silver www.spleene.com
08 Flyboards graphics are at http://www.flysurfer.com/Content/317/?mnid=698. The Zones are the same as Mikes until Jul/Aug.
Let us know what you like and we'll pass the feedback to Spleene & Flyboard.

Nice one Ian, I'd be interested in demoing one. Let me know if possible.

I lost my Spleene in 1991, can I have yours?

Hi Ian,

Are you going to kitestock, will there be one to demo there?

If not do you guys hire them out, say for a weekend?

Cheers

Yup I'll be at Kitestock I'll have a Zone as well as the latest kites from Flysurfer for people to try out ... if you forget your sleeping bag and ask nicely I might just let you borrow one overnight to keep you warm - they really are multi-purpose kites: water, snow, ice, land (see latest review on Speed2 by Luke Southern from Sydney www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=34942)

Also coming up to Kitestock is another German pro rider, Mathias www.mathiaswichmann.com to show people what can be done with Flysurfer kites and TT Flyboards by Spleene.

nice socks

I gave a pretty comprehensive report on the Spleene Zone a couple of months ago. The link is in Ian Young's post further up this thread.

Hey, Ian - congrats on winning the WAKSA Big Air Comp this year. Guess that answers the question about how much edge and pop you can get on the Zone.

Cheers
Graham

Hey Ian -

Is the Zone intended to completely replace surfboards for kiting in waves or are there still conditions where you'd want to use a surfboard?

Not sure about this spleene zone,? is it down the line like a surfboard, more wind is better? is it stable being waif thin, or are we pushing the mutant as a surfboard? i need answers, sick of breaking surfboards but they go well, the flex is better than epoxy, rail does skip out in the chop, and sometimes it is nice getting some air time above the waves, at maroochydore especially because waves are usually small, not great rideable waves. yes we all know they are not for airtime . Need some genuine feedback to make a choice. The germans did make good tanks!

par, to me a surfboard would only be used in preference to a Zone on a trip where I wanted to paddle into some waves when there's no wind, didn't have room for two boards AND was prepared to live with nothing if I broke my surfboard

I had the chance to ride the Zone today thanks to Ian Young - I tried to rub his name and number off but couldnt so I guess I will have to hand it back. Anyway I have been riding the toxic wave for the past 6 months and although today was not epic here is my comparison:

The Zone is a thing of beauty, you look at it and you just know it will perform, it feels great in the hand and even better under foot. The Toxic is more surfboard construction on a smaller scale with more volume and surf rails but no where near as pretty as the Zone.

The Zone as others have said eats chop and gets going very easily. It was 15-17kts today and I was flying my Vapor II 12m and at times running out of wind. There were small waves running across the reef and they were a lot of fun to ride.

The turning circle and slide factor of the Toxic is better than the Zone - but with fin adjustment and more riding of the Zone Im sure my feelings here will improve. The Zone is far more fun to jump and much better at it - popping backrolls with a bit of height was effortless - takes far more effort on the Toxic which you would expect from each construction method.

One thing the zone did really well and which took me by suprise was its ability to ride the wave when there was no power in the kite - Im not a little guy at 90+kgs and 6'2" and it had no problem climbing all over the faces and white water, with and without kite power. The Toxic struggles a little in this area.

The Zone is a directional and the footstrap setup meant you had to ride it toe side one way all the time. This had me a little daunted as I wasnt sure if I could keep upwind enough but I manage to sail as high if not higher than the other riders today both heel side and toe side. The only issue was after an hour my back leg was pretty tired - but a case of Harden up nipped it in the bud. Im sure the more you ride the better your endurance gets here.

The Toxic is a mutant twin tip and it gives you the ability to ride both ways and after I put bigger fins on it - it performed a treat and this is a plus over the zone. Also the footpads on the zone are a bit light on - the zone wants to jump and flex off any bump that comes its way - this is a good thing and once you dial in to this and ensure you are timing the landings down the back of a subsequent chop is was very comfortable. I think though if the Zone had thicker footpads it would be much more comfortable as you feel every bump - but would you loose feel when on a wave I dont know.

Try as I could I just couldnt get the Zone to release on a top turn - get it to slide around which the Toxic is very good at - I think this comes down to the hard rails of the Zone - they are the total opposite of the Toxic.

So at the end of the day the two boards were pretty even - the Toxic is easier for long sessions and for snappy or sliding turns where the Zone appreciates a bit more face and climbs foam in a more positive way.

Cant wait to ride the Zone some more to give it a real chance to see how it lines up to the Toxic which currently is my favourite board in the waves - but only just after today!