Shinn Luigi's Brother

Is it aimed more as a freeride board, the tips are very round.

How much rocker does it have, mark seems to make boards very flat.

google'd Shinn and found a few reviews from the UK summer..........


Here is the Kiteworld test on the Luigi; taken from a number of test sessions though the first part of this year - the wind has been really bad in the UK... they struggled to get the testing done.. it took months to do properly. From what I know of the board, I'd agree with the test - it's very accurate..

The Hype;
Equally suited to first time buyers or high-performance freeriders the Luigi is a freeriding board that incorporates supreme comfort, increadible ease of use, effortless upwind and planing performance, all in a package that won't become obsolete in a few months. Whether your cruising, jumping or wave riding, every session is made possible, fun and easy to use thanks to the boards shape, flex and deck design. For riders looking for versatility and no limits riding, put your trust in Luigi and you won't be dissapointed.

Test Team Notes;
It could be the highly stripey graphics but the Luigi looks much flatter than it actually feels. We thought the Luigi must be Mark's all out freestyle machine when we unpacked it, but after consulting Shinn's dub-dub-dub site it appeared the Luigi was his freeride model. And actually once in the chop it's not very flat or technical to ride, or at least it becomes less flat once you are riding it and putting plenty of forces through it. More on that shortly. The pads and straps are good. No fuss, they aren't the softest we have ever seen, but provide very good grip and a nice mix of softness yet lots of support whist maintaining a comfortable abmount of foot movement without compltely locking your foot in one position.
On the water it has some very clever stiffness and flex which caused different responses from the team at different times. First session was windy at 7 meter weather and we found out that lightweights need not apply as they struggled to pour enough weight through the board as it needed to increase the rocker. Bully wasn't around for that test session but a coupleof days later we got him out on a 12 meter in 25 knots and his 86 kilos of pure man muscle had no issues with anything "It went really fast" he said "and it's really easy to control". Meanwhile those sub 75 kilo riders found it very twitchy and very tiring on the back foot trying to keep the nose out; characteristics of a board that is just way to stiff for those riders in theose specific conditions. Howeevr as the conditions dropped in the next few sessions the board really came to the lighter riders - strange you may think. It feels like it has a double concave and, like Shinns boards of the past, has a very smooth feel to it in smooth riding conditions; like you are hovering on a little air cushion and that is prommoting a very upright, over the board stance. We could liken it it to how a bridle makes a kite feel; when you have no bridle like on a C kite it's much more raw and full on in it's delivery. He Luigi has this floating riding sensation, as if there is something between you and the water. The overridng sensation is one of smoothness. It's moderate in speed; not the fastest superboard race weapon, but not slow at all. It's lively and reactive, giving impressive response when you pushed it to do something which is the opposite of how you think it would react when you are cruising. Having both caharacter traits is a great quality in a freeride board, allowing those who what to cruise to do so, while not holding back for the more adventurous.

This is the sports tourer of the kiteboarding world. It's got performance but it has that softness and comfort in the saddle for long journies in the saddle. The response and reaction is softer than a full on freestyle board but it is very progressive, giving time for riders who perhaps aren't as quick at generating pop to still be able to do so. It carves very capably and has built in levels of comfort, handling chop as efficiently as it does the flat stuff. It really changes character for different riders in different windstrengths; lighter riders will find it lots of fun and very esponsive in light and medium winds up to 20 knots before they need to change down a kite size, whereas heavier riders will will really be able to pile loads of pressure into it and get so much back from it as the wind picks up. So choose your sizes according to your usual wind strengths accordingly. 128's are back for lots of us, as are smaller kites!

KW Liked; The fact that a regular sized boards ade lightwind a lot of fun.

KW would change; Adding more freestyle performance would take away from it's freeride qualities, which is where it is aimed, so were a bit stuck here.

Sizes; 134x44, 132x42, 130x40, 128x39

credits; www.kiteworldmag.com/

www.thekiteboarder.com/2010/09/video-mark-shinn-on-the-2011-shinn-kiteboard-line/

www.shinnworld.com/site/boards/index/


The newer footstraps look good.......... heaps of adjustment.

Monk graphics look sick!

Luigi = ugly