The Hanglos Experience: Nobile Skimboard 2009
By Stefan van der Kamp



The trend this summer in kiteboarding seems to be going strapless. On a surfboard, wakeskate or skimboard!
During the Dutch most famous kitefestival Kiteboard Open in Noordwijk Mark Shinn and Jan Marcos Rivera showed the way by doing strapless air jibes and riding the waves.

When I went away from the Kiteboard Open Nobile Europe gave Hanglos a skimboard to test: The Nobile skimboard 2009

"What's different compared to last year?" I asked.
"Not much." the Nobile team said.

I could test it two day's with light winds (until 14 knots). This is my experience.



So as being new to strapless riding I was curious how easy it would be to ride the skimboard strapless. I was positively surprised in how easy it was to ride the board. You can start in two ways:

-Sit and go. This one is the easyest. Sit in the water and place your feets on the board. Steer in and of you go.

-Jump on. Place the board in shallow water. Stand next to your board and jump on while you steer in your kite.




You can ride the board both ways. Making a turn is easyer than it looks. Just start on a day with light wind is what Mark Shinn said. The others I gave the board to try were picking up the riding also really quick. One of them even rushed to a store to buy one. The board is a little bit broader then a normal twintip and doesn't fit in every boardbag.

You should not buy it when you are looking for a skimboard. The board is longer and heavyier than a normal skimboard. But because the Nobile skimboards get produced in the same fabrics as the twintips they are relatively cheap. The shop price is 349,- euro.



If you are looking for good lightwind fun and/or would like to get into strapless riding my advice that a Nobile skimboard is a good option.