How To Choose The Best Skimboard PERIOD.

what's up guys Austin keen here I'm at the exiled student boards the HQ in San Clemente I'm gonna tell you how to choose the right swimmer [Music] inside exile skateboards here we're gonna go mess with Frankie ask him where my new board is because I've been waiting on for way too long and we're gonna teach you guys that teacher just tell you about what's available and how to choose the right board for what you want Frankie hey Frankie welcome to the K youtube channel baby what's up man alright Frank we're gonna pull you away from your rhythm that you were doing to help us choose a right skimboard you know I just started skimboard and I'm from Tybee Island Georgia I've been skimboarding for about six months I just saw some Austin Keynes videos they're super cool and helpful really learn how to do the one step drop the monkey crawl yeah I mean my skimboarding has just exponentially grown since I've been watching those videos amazing amazing so buddy a little bit of help with these skin boards so basically we got a couple different styles a couple different models and whatnot typically guys on the East Coast a little bit smaller wave conditions a lot of boards that they ride are gonna be the hybrid shape the dude cruise shape a few other shapes I mean a lot of shapes will work but since they do have smaller waves we have certain boards for bigger waves that handle better in those conditions so for the smaller conditions you're gonna want something around a hybrid shape possibly a Hornet shape I do cruise even a Blair CUDA it could be okay for those as well I know personally you ride the hybrid shape which you've loved for years alright yeah and actually so I've been riding the hybrid shape for probably the entire time I've been riding an exiled skimboard hybrid shapes are working great for me the reason I like the hybrid shape I ride at five eights so it's not really about the thickness so much more as the surface area that I think really keeps you above water and keeps you skimming out far and fast but it's a the three-quarters kind of gives you that buoyancy so I feel like it is almost a little bit tighter on the turns but you like Anna maneuverability but you're gonna stay off more but to me it's more about surface area which the hybrid shape has and rather than thickness so that's what I've been using forever but what's cool about my new pro model this is something a totally new shape that just start riding this year and I've been freaking loving it I'm kind of a creature of habit dude this thing's sick yeah this thing is dope is this mine what did let me get this thing what for surfers is like we're gonna have to put your board order on hold because I just took your board what's cool about this year's a ke pro model is it's a hybrid shape but what I did is I basically went up a size on the belly of the skin board or like the 3/4 of the way up to the top or the quarter down of the tail is basically say this would be like a medium and this is like a medium large so I was riding a medium before and I wanted to go up a size to kind of kind of carry some more weight that I had and also to just kind of have like get that extra distance out but I didn't want to sacrifice my maneuverability on those tight turns and that snappy snappy turns and stuff so I kept the tail size the medium and it doesn't look like much but when you're on a skim board and you're trying to utilize all that momentum and surface area these little eighth of an inch differences matter a ton and Frank you can yeah I agree I think with the shape that you actually came out with I think it's been going pretty well as far as the nose of this board all the hybrids are gonna have a little bit wider of a nose which makes the board a little bit more forgiving so let's say you're a beginner I think this is probably the best board to go for it because you have a little bit more surface area to jump on the board you know you're not gonna get caught up when you're coming down the wave you're not gonna know his dive or anything so I do think that's great with the towel you're pretty much gonna be getting a lot more response with it and like Austin was saying that little bit of a difference really makes up for it I mean if you're more on the beginner side you might not ever notice a difference but if you're somebody like Austin Queen who's been doing this for a long time it really makes a big difference now the the one question I get asked in skimboarding a lot is what's the difference between the hybrid and the Hornet shape and the Hornet shape said a couple years old now it's one of our newer models and I'm gonna show you real quick what the difference between these two boards is and why they're both gray and what not so there's a Hornet right here now Austin will you grab your board right there now will you turn it over for me please okay so if you see the tail of Austin's board it's a little bit more drawn out a little bit wider now if you put the Hornet up next to it see how it's a little bit a lot more narrow just a little bit more caved in compared to the hybrid shape so I do think that the Hornet shape does give it a lot nice response on the tail of the board you'd be sacrificing some speed and momentum with that did you sacrifice a little bit of speed of momentum especially when going out to the wave but when you do get on the line and you are driving down the line since it is more to a point and it has that you know a little bit toned up shape to it I do think it does Drive you down a little bit quicker as well but both of these boards right here if you're on the fence of figuring out you want a hybrid or a Hornet you honestly can't go wrong with either one Austin's new shapes been pretty solid I know he's been riding a good couple people have been really liking it so these are probably some of the two most popular boards yeah Jake's Donets been riding it one of our top pros as well so these boards are essentially a great beginner board to start off with the dimensions are gonna be the same for the hybrid in the Hornet literally exactly the same except only the differences the pail is pulled in a little bit more on the Hornet shape so Frank we got basically you would say these are some of the best of the best board yeah this is what the pros are right this is what I'm writing this is what Jake's Donets writing we got a Blair CUDA right there it's the Blair Pro model that's what Blair's writing everyday on the daily what you're gonna get at the Exile shop off the shelf is exactly what you're gonna is what Blair would be writing or would I be writing correct yeah so these are exactly basically you're not getting any less quality if you just buy it off the shelf or if you get a custom-made this is what we write and there are other options if you want to save money but I'm going to tell you right now before we get into those options people ask me what's the starter board to get starting if you really want to pursue skimboarding get a carbon fiber skin board and the reason is because these boards are made very well and they're made very stiff and stiffness is gonna be a key factor to helping you hold your momentum and reduce drag while going out to the wave if you have a board that's flexing that's going to create drag in the water the ports gonna flex on one side or the other it's gonna create drag and ultimately you're not going to get out as far so get a carbon fiber skin board spend the extra 150 200 bucks on the carbon fiber skin board because it's gonna not only help you basically skim board better but it's also going to keep you from wondering if you're being held back by your skin board or feeling like you need to grow out of it and not only that it's gonna last longer all together it's a harder more durable stiffer just better board but with all that said and you still don't want to take my advice to getting your carbon fiber skin board and you still want to save one hundred fifty bucks or two hundred bucks or whatever the price difference is let's go to talk about real quick because we don't want to spend too much time on it let's talk about the best quality exile' skimboard lower in model yeah if your about an intermediate rider to somebody who wants to pursue skimboarding and get a lot better I'd say go with the carbon fiber board they're the lightest as strong as the stiffest boards that are on the market the rails are double wrapped with carbon fiber making it a lot more strong than these other models that I am going to show you with it being very stiff as well that's good you don't really want too much of a flex in your skin board you want it to be really dialed in and that nice stiff responsive turning on it so the carbons are great but if we want to go the next pretty much bored down that's going to be your ex2 model with the ex2 models we can make the shape and any shape that we offer only in the ex2 we can do this with the e x1 and the EXO no so this right here I believe is a Hornet shape what we are talking about earlier now these boards are a little bit flexi ER but they still are very nice and durable so basically the e x2 is a bumped up version of our ex1 model which would look something exactly like this right here now they both use an S Class material in it which is going to be a little bit flexi basically the reason why the price goes up on the x2 is because we use more materials of fiberglass in there essentially making it a beefed-up version and a lot stronger of a board but the board I do have in my hands right here this e^x one these are probably some of our top sellers now this board is gonna be for anybody who is a beginner pretty much it's moving from a little wood board or maybe another brand cheaper fiberglass board that they don't want to ride anymore this board has the same exact shape as a hybrid same one we were talking about earlier we do use a gloss finish on top of it it gives it that nice shiny finish now you don't have to wax the board down if you want to put traction pads on a tx1 we make these in a variety of colors we got orange grey blue green teal all that good stuff and I mean they essentially they look very nice and they hold up really well but compared to the carbon fiber boards that's when you really get the more durable stronger board that's gonna last you a lot longer in the end pretty good I mean if someone showed me this board and they were skimming on it and they were just kind of upping from a beginner standpoint I would say this is a great board to go go for if you want to like take your skin boarding the next level go to the advanced level and not be held back with like any sort of flex at all go to the carbon fiber but if you just want to kind of dip your toes in the water and see if like skimboarding on an advanced style is a good choice for you I would definitely say that these are great quality bores I mean they're really well made you can't get any better than this it's either one of these are still gonna be a 10,000 percent step up from anything you would get at like a souvenir shop like a wooden board or like a one of those just kind of pop out board so these are all hand shaped here right and Sankoh many good quality boards and like Frank said any color customization you got it so I mean is there anything else that somebody would want to know about choosing a board do you think yeah so basically a lot of people ask me questions as far as thicknesses go with skin boards there we offer a few different thicknesses but typically it's either a 5/8 thickness or which is gonna be the smaller thickness of the two and then there's a 3/4 taper to inch thickness yeah so I'll summarize the 5a so with the 5 days you are gonna lose a little bit of float since it is a little bit skinnier but your responsiveness and turning ability is gonna be sharp right on a dime so I do think the 5 ace is really good for a lot of West Coast riders who have waves that you don't really have to slide too far out to but don't be afraid if you go to get a 5 ace and you think you can't slide out far because you still can it really depends on how you throw the board down and how much speed that you have now a lot of guys on the west East Coast will do the 3/4 tapered option so the 3/4 taper is great because you do have that little bit of thickness in the middle which will give you that flow especially in a smaller condition type wave but being tapered on the nose and the tail that means you're still gonna get that little responsiveness with it it's not going to be nearly as responsive as a 5/8 but you're still gonna get a nice turnaround with that board and a 3/4 yeah definitely recommend that for maybe somebody who hasn't quite gotten that momentum floo they're dropping everything sliding out extra yeah I mean or even say you're an advanced rider and you just have weak waves on the East Coast you're in Florida or you're in frickin Georgia where I grew up and you just want like to be able to carry that momentum drew or stay on top of the water a little bit easier so say if you guys do get an exile skimboard and you do get a carbon fiber board we should address this because you get I know I get this all time the little black stuff on this side so what this is these are handmade in San Clemente we try to like minimize the amount of material that they have to use so that we keep the board's as durable as possible right and so basically what this is is just a finishing sand on the carbon fiber I mean a lot of people will put like a gloss coat with pigment and all the stuff that's adding weight you're gonna add like even just adding two ounces of weight is gonna be a huge difference on a spin board so exile has started as the most high-performance skim board manufacturer from day one and they've been keeping it that way and then that's all that this is it's just basically and yeah I get this a lot where people are like oh there's all this block on my board like that's not right like no so when you order a double carbon fiber board it's double wrap the rails with carbon fiber and if you get a textured finish which is a finish that we do on a lot of these boards all it really is is a layer of fiberglass with some resin put over it and after that's done you have to sand these boards regardless you have to stay on the top you have to stay on the bottom of the board it's very hard not to show carbon fiber coming through the board so if you do get a carbon fiber board and you see this don't be afraid this is nothing to worry about everything is still secured it's glassed over you really have nothing to worry about so that that was a good one awesome not a lot of people outside I guess we'll wrap it up if you guys have any more questions leave a comment I'll make sure Frank replies that every one of those and then Frank thanks for letting us interrupt your day dude yeah if you guys got any questions you guys can always give me a call over at exile it's me and my partner Hank that are here I mean running the show most of the time so you guys got questions give us a holler we're really cool here and we'll help you out with anything you need and we'll actually include the link to exile skin boards down in the description I'll include a link to East Coast skin boards comm that also has some great deals on boards all the time I also do a lot of like free freebies is like free board bags and stuff like that so it also include the yeah info to exile skin boards page so if you guys do have any questions you can reach out to Frank or just call them and see how his days going tell me love them alright alright guys well like I said leave a comment tell us if it helped you because we love making these videos and helping you guys out so much love stay smooth and staysail kee

Channel: Austin Keen

Views: 48,631

Rating: 4.9506173 out of 5

Keywords: skimboard, how to skimboard, skimboarding austin keen, the best skimboard, skimboarding, professional skimboarder, big waves, skimboarder, skimboarding fails, skimboarding tricks, pro skimboarding, surfing, shorebreak, professional skimboarding, laguna beach, skim, laguna beach skimboarding, austin keen, asmr, relaxing, austin keen skimboarding, pro skimboarder, skimboarding waves, blair conklin, world champion skimboarder, blair conklin skimboarding, austin keen skim, how to skim

Id: 1pjHRkD43Ok

Length: 15min 15sec (915 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 18 2019