Tkb Review: 2019 CABRINHA Ace Wood

CABRINHA Ace Wood
Sizes Available: 133 x 38.5cm, 135 x 40cm, 138 x 41.5cm, 141 x 43cm
Sizes Tested: 135 x 40cm, 138 x 41.5cm

Cabrinha Says:

The Ace Wood is specifically designed for Freeride creatives looking to bend the rule of gravity with a forgiving, all conditions board.

The Ace Wood is a highly versatile performance freeride model. Its outline is a hybrid of freestyle and freeride which opens up a world of options when it comes to its range of use. This all-wood version is erasing the lines between riding genres to create an exciting new approach to kiteboarding. The wood construction will tame rough and choppy waters allowing you greater edge control. Greater edge control leads to greater pop, greater pop leads to big air. What you do when you are up there is all up to you.

Visit for more info: www.cabrinhakites.com/collections/twin-tips/products/ace-wood

Our Testers Say:

“Goes upwind without a struggle, not super light, but fairly easy to control. Great pads, super comfy.” // Kristin Vincenzo

“Held its edge well and worked good in light wind. Comfortable straps and pads, middle of the road weight with good load and pop, great carving and excellent locked in edge control for going upwind. Gets the job done.” // Kiter Mike

“Excellent edge grip with comfortable pads. It rides like a caddy ”” very comfortable, friendly and soft landings with excellent upwind edging that makes it an excellent board for all around cruising.” // Joe Chehock

Meet Our Testers

Tkb Says:

The Ace Wood is a freeride board that has a little bit more rocker that pushes it into the hybrid zone of a board that satisfies the rider looking for both freeride and a bit of freestyle performance. The wood construction gives the board a little extra weight and dampening which allows it to grind through the chop with confidence. You can feel the wood construction offer a little bit more of a stiffer flex pattern than the Spectrum and the Ace, with its rounded tail lends to fun carving and user-friendly handling in the chop. The Ace Wood feels a little more sturdy when it comes to load and pop, where more aggressive riders can rail into the flex pattern a little harder and it gives you back a little more pop for that deeper load. The Ace also feels as if it has a little more rocker than the Spectrum ”” its edging and tracking is a little bit looser. so you might spend a bit more energy on your back foot heel pressure to keep the rail and fins engaged, which makes the board feel marginally more loose and playful. Overall, the Ace is an excellent all around freeride board that can venture into more aggressive freestyle without sacrificing a ton of user-friendly and comfortable performance.

This year Cabrinha has done a complete redesign on the H20 pad and strap combo and the result is a major upgrade in terms of functional tuning and comfort. The new footbed features a really nice rubbery feel with a wide footprint that offers different textures for the heel and under the arch. Your toes rest on a nice rounded toe bump which combined with the pad gives you a solid lock on the board, yet not so grippy that you don’t feel like you can’t eject in a bad wipeout. The pads come with three different density inserts that allow you to choose plushness of the pad on install. We went with a softer plushness because we like that cushy feeling. The overall setup is fairly low profile and sits flush to the board, and the footbed does have some solid cupped contours that keep your foot centered in the right spot, although the center portion doesn’t feature a ton of arch built into this pad. The straps that go with this system feature a complete redesign for this year with a nice soft foam and terry cloth underside with a quad adjustment system that uses Velcro to dial in the exact fit. The H20 strap has a unique adjustment option that is not apparent from just looking at the strap, and this confused a few of our testers. There is a 360 compression strap adjustment that needs to be made upon install of the pad to the deck that gives the H20 an incredibly wide spectrum of adjustment, meeting the needs of every size foot ”” just beware that you need to set the compression strap (its a Velcro overlap under the pad) with the pads off the board. If the quad adjusters control the top of the pad, the compression strap controls the under surface of the strap, and when set properly this setup earned highest praise from the testers. Each quad adjuster has forward and aft attachment settings allowing complete adjustment of the straps position over the footbed. With this type of adjustment you can control the shape of these straps to get the fit you are looking for. Testers found the straps fairly wide and all-encompassing, spreading the load across the entire length of your foot. Easy to install and tweak, the new H20 design offers a ton of adjustment and unparalleled comfort ”” it’s safe to say that the H20 is one small step forward for Cabrinha and one giant leap for twin tip pad and strap design.