"Axon!? I've never heard of them!"
Perhaps Axon isn't the biggest name in the industry nor is it the company with the biggest backing but when you do your research about the company and dig a little deeper you learn that Axon certainly know their stuff. With ex-Naish R&D rider Ben Meyer leading the Axon evolution it certainly shines through his designs from The Premier Collection that he knows what he's doing. Axon only produces boards currently so you can guarantee that whichever board you get from them, there has been a huge amount of research, effort and production put in to it.
Axon say...
Spring 2011 brings the Axon release of the A-Bomb. This performance freeride board blends a wide, easy to use outline with bottom channel features to make it user friendly, but totally bad-ass. With a quad-channel bottom, the A-Bomb provides comfortable finless riding for hitting on-the-water kickers and sliders with confidence. For those not ready to bolt the boots on and hit the water features, fins and straps suit the board just fine. The quad channel bottom of the board fades into a deep single concave in the center for smooth and speedy water transfer across the bottom.
The A-Bomb easily fits into the Axon board range as the largest of the Freeride range as an easy planing, user-friendly board. However, with increased rocker lines, channel bottom, and wide tip and tail, it is also the board of choice in the Axon line for progressive freestyle riders.
Stats
Axon
A-Bomb
2011
140 x 43.5
Freeride/Progressive Freestyle
G-10
Axon Website
First Impressions
The first thing you notice about the A-Bomb is its vibrant and eye-catching graphics. With its blocked style colours and its graffiti styled text it certainly attaches itself to the younger age bracket. It's not the lightest of boards in its category but it definitely gives a solid, hardcore feel to it. It has an R40 rocker which is slightly deeper than most other twin tips. The A-Bomb only comes in one size category which is 140 x 43.5, this is a fairly large board and it also feels big when it's underneath you. The board stays very wide throughout, helping with those heavier landings and making it easier to stay upwind in those tougher conditions, it has also got quite a stiff flex.
Set-up
There are so many different options to ride this board. You can ride it with or without fins, and with boots or straps. I chose to ride it with boots and fins. I was riding it in waves so this was why I decided to keep the fins on as I didn't want to end up too far down wind. However I felt that I could have done with the fins being a bit smaller, this would have helped when sliding to toeside and when releasing the edge for an unhooked trick.
On the water...
The days that I took the board out, the wind was really strong and really gusty. But what better conditions could you ask for when testing a board! I was riding the A-bomb along with my 7m Naish Torch. I hadn't ridden such a small kite for ages so I didn't feel hugely confident when I was rigging up as it was my first time riding in boots as well. You would have thought that small kite + 30kts - 45kts gusty winds + locked in to bindings for the first time = a pretty sketchy ride. However it was quite the opposite! Unlike riding other boards in these conditions I found that the A-Bomb would just lock me into the line I wanted to go and keep me on that track. Rather than getting bumped up and down, falling on and off your edge and having huge amounts of spray come up from the board into your eyes, I found that the A Bomb just rode nice and smooth. I found that the board felt a little bit sticky when going for a raley or something similar, this was probably because of the board weighing so much with boots on as well as having large fins. When massively over-powered and trying to hold a big edge I found that occasionally it felt like the tail end started to slip out a little bit. This rarely happened and this didn't decrease the satisfaction I got when riding the A-Bomb.
It's a really comfortable ride and it doesn't knacker your knees even in gusty winds and rough chop. The board is slightly slower than others because of its weight and size, however it makes up for this in its landings and comfort. The pop is impressive on it, slightly different to other boards again and more like a wakeboard where you have to hold your edge for longer but when you hit the sweet spot, you really do fly!
In Conclusion
The Axon A-Bomb is such a diverse board that you can tailor to suit to most styles of riding with its wide variety of choices for set up. I would say that the board should be aimed for the intermediate rider or at the rider who is confident at their level. The board is great for maintaing the standard that you are at and you are guaranteed to have an enjoyable session when you're riding it. Beginners may want to choose something that will get them up and riding a bit quicker however this would be a great second board for anyone!
Pros
- Top quality graphics
- Solid, hardcore feel to it
- Super easy landings
- Screaming up-wind ability
- Huge diversity
- Ability to maximise any conditions
- Smooth ride
- No spray in your eyes
- Easy on the knees
- Huge 'pop'
- So many different possibilities for set up
- A good, solid board for pretty much anyone!
Cons
- Takes a bit of getting used to, to be able to get the full potential out of the board.
- Only comes in one size
- For such an amazing board - I haven't seen enough of these out on the UK waters!!
A huge thank you to the guys at Surface to Air Sports (S2AS) for providing me with the Axon A Bomb to review, Ben Meyer at Axon Kiteboarding for helping me out with the tech specs for the review and Glenn at Surfed Out for giving me a place to stay during the summer while I was testing the board!
Review courtesy of Team Rider Will Bailey, check out his site here. Thanks Will!