Cabrinha Ace 2017

This is the third year for the Ace and it’s become a core board in the Cabrinha twin tip line up. This is helped in no small way by the fact that it is the board that Nick Jacobsen rides and – although his riding is obviously in a different stratosphere to most of us – he does do the kind of tricks that a lot of us can aspire to.

The Ace has Cabrinha’s basalt laminate for vibration resistance and durability and is built around an A-grade Paulownia core which Cabrinha inform us has ‘a higher number of continuous vertical strips for a smooth flex pattern’. The shape of the 2017 Ace has also been tweaked with slightly fatter tips, and there is also a new 3D set up on the base with new channels and a reworked concave.

On the water the Ace has a nice soft feel and soaks up all the chop incredibly well. It’s a great board for riding around in ‘real world’ conditions. Then when you get the Ace up to speed and start to edge and release you realize that it also has plenty of pop and performance – it does like to be ridden fast, and to maximize the pop you need to really hold that edge a touch longer but you will be rewarded… Then with the channels your landing is super soft (so the addition of the obligatory freestyle knee brace is not required). Upwind the outline and rocker are well thought out and the board flies with the 40mm hex flow fins driving well and not losing any ground when powered up. For us this fin size is spot on. Overall, the Ace is a superb freestyle all-rounder. It has plenty of performance, is at home in all types of conditions, and can cope perfectly well on those days when your knees would be cursing your dedicated wakestyle board…

In a sentence: It is great to see that a board which has topped the podium at the King of the Air and also has plenty of air miles under its belt is also the kind of board that any competent rider can head out on and have a blast…