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Designer’s Corner: Best Profanity
Product Name: Profanity
Product Category: Twin tip
Product Style: Wakestyle
Sizes Available: 134, 138, and 142 cm
Release Date: Available Now
New for 2011, Best is introducing the Profanity, a dedicated wakestyle twin tip board shaped by board designer Franz Schitzhofer. We spoke with Franz to find out more about the new addition to the Best board line up.
2011 Best Profanity
The Profanity is constructed using a Paulownia wood and foam core. What’s so special about Paulownia?
Each different type of wood has different properties, some have dense grain, some open, some have high strength and impact resistance, some low, and some have high rebound; the list goes on. We use Paulownia in our boards for a few reasons. It has great strength in compression, fast rebound, can be sourced from managed plantations, and is particularly light. It’s about half the density of Poplar which would be used in snowboards.
In the October Preview Guide, Best said it added deep section ABS rails that are deep enough for you to sand the shape of the tips if you prefer a rounded corner. Why would a rider want to do this?
The tip shape of your board has a direct effect on how the board turns and how it transitions from rail to rail as you carve. The standard tip shape on the Profanity is quite sharp giving you a definite corner point to your transition. If your riding style favors more powered flowing turns then you might want to round off the tips to accommodate this. It’s an option for riders who really know what they want from a board that can be as unique as their riding style.
How should flex in a wakestyle board differ from a freestyle board?
Tip-to-tip flex isn’t going to be hugely different — the Profanity sits between a wakeboard and a freestyle twintip in terms of stiffness, maybe a touch closer to the wakeboard. The actual flex pattern isn’t very different, it’s stiffer for a little more of the mid-section pushing the flex further into the tips where you need it for landing. The real difference is in the torsional stiffness. On a strapped board you are limited in how much you can twist the board, because you can only pull up into the straps, you can’t really push your toes down in the opposite way. With bindings you can really twist across the board as you have more leverage, so you can really torque the board under your feet and this has a huge effect on how hard you can drive the board. So the Profanity is designed with this in mind and it’s stiffer in torsion than any freestyle board that we have made.
The underside of the Profanity features a large single into double concave shape, flowing into a twin channel tip. How does this design element affect performance?
Adding rocker gives you control, more pop, and softer landings, but it needs more power to drive through the water. Adding a broad single concave makes the board faster and retains the benefits of the rocker. Flowing this into a double concave at the tips directs the water passing under the board through a narrow exit point and this generates lift at the tips, making the board plane earlier than it should with that amount of rocker. The channels in the tips increase your straight line grip and allow you to run smaller fins all the time, and retain some grip even when you remove your fins for sessioning a rail or kicker.
Best beveled the underside of the rail on the Profanity for hitting sliders. Why?
When you land on a rail you have to come in slightly biased towards your rear edge if you want to avoid catching your front edge and end up kissing the rail. The negative bevel raises the edge or your board (it’s only 1.5mm) but it allows you to come in about 8° too hot without tripping over your rail and wiping out. If you don’t ride rails then you’ll never notice it in the water, but if you do, then you’ll wish all your boards had it.
The product specs mentions a vertical sandwich core construction, what does this bring to the board?
The vertical sandwich core allowed the R&D team to blend the best characteristics of wood and foam core boards. We get the rebound rate and lively feel of wood with the added stiffness of foam. It also allows us much more control over the tip flex than using a single material as we can position each material for different results in different areas.
Photo Gavin Butler
If a rider focuses on wakestyle riding but also wants a board for freestyle and waves, would you still recommend the Profanity?
No twin tip is going to be your best friend in the waves, but if your bias is towards wakestyle then we think the Profanity will make a better crossover board to freestyle than a freestyle board would to serious wakestyle. Freestyle boards just aren’t built to take the abuse that we know Profanity riders will dish out to their gear.
How do you think this product stands out from what else is available in the market?
There are plenty of twin tips dressed up as wakeboards in the market. The Profanity was conceived from the ground up as a wakestyle board — our new team riders demanded a pure wakestyle board to compliment their riding styles. Their feedback and Shannon’s input have enabled us to make the mother of all wakestyle boards.