Rider: 85kg, Level: intermediate
Style: Freestyle
Weather: 12-20-knots
Build Quality: -/10
Satisfaction: 7/10
Disclosure: Buy my own gear (unfortunately). Had Naish gear for the last 2 years.

My Comments:
Had the chance to test a 139x42.5 Naish Arcade 2012. Big thanks to Jason at Briskites!! Due to the wind I only had a 1.5h session. Therefore this is more a quick summary of my findings and not a review. I normally ride a naish thorn, but have also ridden a few nobile and north boards.
The arcade is the new wakestyle board from Naish. Compared to the past few years most naish 2012 board have now channels. The channel shape is very unique. I would describe it as deep V with a deep square channel trough where the fins sit.

The straps:
Naish has new straps, which are very different from last years. They give much more hold to the side of the foot (this is something I'm missing on the 2011 straps). They look very nice and the “toe out” can be set similar to wakeboard bindings. The straps are a lot harder than the 2011 straps. Whilst I found the pads on the 2011 too soft I could imagine that people find the new ones a bit hard. Overall I think the straps are a big improvement and I liked them a lot.

The board:

What I liked:
Compared to the Nobile 50-fifty the arcade has a very nice “loose feel”. I found the 50-fifty sometimes nearly a bit to skatey. The Arcade maintains a looseness, without being too skatey (for my taste). The board felt very smooth in the choppy conditions and staying upwind and edging was very easy. The pop of the board is, as you would expect, good.
The board is very stiff in the tips but has a lot of flex trough the centre. I found this gives a lot of control but also makes the board feel a bit sluggish as it twists a fair bit. This is probably very nice to do “nose/tail press” on sliders.

What I did not like that much:
The board is built very robustly (especially the bottom – for the kickers and sliders). Due to this fact (which can be a plus) the board is also a bit heavy (also its 139x42.5).

Overall:
The wakestyle, kicker/slider guys should try this board! The board rides very comfortably and I got used to it very quickly –good pop and control. I was missing a little bit of “aggressiveness” and liveliness.
Please note I'm not a pure wakestyle rider and the conditions and my skills did probably not allow me to get the max. out of the board… Like all other kite gear: try it and you get used to what you ride.

where can i see some pics of the kit??????????

Check it out!






Marcel

what sizes does the arcade come in .I ride cable a bit mostly skate and i'm trying to minamise the number of boards i have as i rarely ride a twin tip one that i could ride cable and kite with would be great

any more updates/reviews on the arcade?

Only the kites and surfboards arrived last week, still waiting on twintips to hit Aus

Will anyone be able to hook me up with a 139 demo down in Melbourne???? Sounds as if i might struggle getting my hands on one...