Tkb Review: 2022 DUOTONE Select

Sizes Available: 132×39, 135×40, 138×41, 141x42cm
Sizes Tested: 138x41cm

Duotone Says:

The Select is an incredible freeride board that offers a butter-smooth ride coupled with high-end performance that will excite you every session. The Carbon Beam and Biax Glass combine with the Torsion Flex Cap to give a medium to soft flex that creates an incredibly forgiving ride with an unbelievably smooth feeling through choppy conditions. The Space Flex tips flick the board off the water when you pop, and the Step Mono Concave base breaks the surface tension of the water for smooth landings. If you are looking for the ultimate freestyle machine then look no further, you have arrived in the right place.

Visit for more info: https://www.duotonesports.com/kiteboarding/boards/twintips/select/

TKB Says:

When you look at Duotone’s twintip lineup, the Select falls in the middle of the line with a slightly softer board feel that optimizes comfort and user-friendly edge control. As far as casual freeride goes, the Select is no slouch. We tested the Select in Duotone’s regular construction although you can also opt into the upgraded SLS construction.

Design and Features
When you take a look at the Select’s rail outline you will notice that the rails pull in slightly more to the tips to give a more rounded template and slightly narrower tips. The bottom shape is fairly simple with a subtle concave that transitions into a slight bottom channel into the tips. The rocker feels just a bit straighter and the flex characteristics land somewhere between soft and medium. The Select in the smaller sizes features Duotone’s 4.5 carbon 30 fins and the larger size boards come with 5.0 fins.

Impressions
At first glance the weight on the Select feels good in hand, not quite as finger-tip light as what you will feel with the SLS construction, yet it still feels very comfortable to carrying to the beach and sporty on your feet in the water. On our first tack upwind we noted that for a general progression freeride board the Select offers a little more grip than other casual freeride boards on the market. Perhaps slightly less grip than the performance freeride-oriented Jaime, the Select still feels fairly locked in at all times. The simple bottom shape feels really efficient and easy to plane which helps you skate through lulls and continue riding when your kite isn’t completely powered up. The rounder template cuts through chop like a champ with zero tip spray and the grip you get from the fins and tail make it intuitive to maintain your edge, yet it doesn’t feel so locked in that you are fighting it or having to be more aggressive with your inputs to break the fins free.

The softer flex of the Select lands between light and medium on the flex spectrum which makes the ride feel more dampened through chop and the board’s ride feel more casual and easier on your body during general riding. The moderate flex works well for your average jumps as long as you stay away from more aggressive landings that are too hard for the softer flex. With the Space Flex Tip design that is unique to the Select, you can feel extra flex in the tips for easier carving which helps you initiate progression-oriented jumps without having to be aggressive with your weight and kite power. When it comes to going bigger on jumps, you will feel that the board’s core doesn’t store as much power as the Jaime, and the narrower tips don’t give you as much vertical amplitude when you load and pop, yet the Select feels a little more forgiving in its basics transitions for those who are trying to dial in basic jumping and carving skills.

When it comes to carving, the Select has a really smooth turn initiation that makes rail to rail carving feel easy, yet the medium level of grip allows you to lean into the turn without fearing that you will blow out the tail right away. The Select is happy to abide carves that are both casual and aggressive in nature and it felt extremely playful while dicing up waves and carving through chop. When you take a step back, the Select offers you a great blend of user-friendly and comfortable freeride qualities while having enough sporty performance that will satisfy all kinds of creative riding for kiters all the way up to the doorstep of the most aggressive freeriding.

Pads and Straps
We rode the Select with the Entity Ergo footpad system which notably comes in four sizes (S, M, L and XL). While that’s a lot of options, Duotone provides instructions on their website for exactly how to measure your foot and choose the perfect footbed to fit your size foot. From there, you get to play with the placement of the footpad on the Select’s track system for getting not only the precise stance width but also the distance from the heelside rail as well as lots of duck options.

The Entity strap can be adjusted to how it sits over the pad in two dimensions; you can choose the width of the strap and the forward and aft placement of the strap over your foot’s arch. The snap button enclosure is one of those unique designs that takes a bit to get used to, but once you get it set, the snap buttons give you a visual reference for what setting works best for you and make it easy to get a symmetrical setting across both feet. Testers often struggle with the snap enclosure because it requires more dexterity than a Velcro strap, but the adjustments are not hard, however, they do require two hands and should be adjusted on the beach, not on the water. The straps are all-encompassing with a soft and comfy terry cloth feel over the arch of your foot and the pad has tons of cupping around both the heel and the arch to give your foot lots of support and a locked-in feel. When you install the binding onto the board there are multiple EVA inserts with varying densities under your heel, so you can adjust exactly how plush or direct the feedback you get from the board is. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, the Entity pad system is probably one of the most well thought-out and feature-rich pad/strap systems on the market, and once you dial in your settings, you will be hard-pressed to find better comfort or a more solid connection to your twintip board.