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Never ones to stick to the usual mold when it comes to board design (with twintips like the Mako and Duke at the heart of the collection), this philosophy has been carried over into Ocean Rodeo’s directional line up. Kind of. The Jester actually represents a board philosophy that has now been carried over into many brand’s board line ups where it recognizes that kite surf boards are very different from regular surfboards and is designed accordingly… The plan shape is generally fuller to ensure early planing in all conditions and the ability to maintain speed when riding through flat sections or when landing from strapless freestyle moves. Volume, however, is kept low as we have kite, not ‘arm’ power! So the 5’1 comes in at a very slimline 17.6 liters.
Construction wise and Ocean Rodeo have succeeded in shaving 25% from the weight which is impressive… There is an EPS core and a bamboo layer to soften the flex and the landings, and the Jester has five fin boxes and ships with fine fins (very generous OR!) so you can choose between quad or thruster set ups.
On the water and the Jester is very quick to plane and maintains speed steadily, the concave gives it a lovely locked in feel and really drives upwind. We enjoyed it most as a quad and found that this gave heaps of grip so you could really load up the edge and get some impressive almost twintip style pop. This has been the board of choice for the OR wave team and they have been doing pretty well on it (with Carla Herrera world champ last time round). In the waves and the Jester is no slouch, particularly in onshore conditions where you can drive it into a crumble wave and come back off it with plenty of speed – and don’t be deceived by the shape, in bigger waves or when generating more speed it does turn surprisingly snappily off the tail. For general ‘real world’ conditions the Jester is definitely a ‘keeper’ and will have you racing around with plenty of speed while the guys with pointier boards are working their kites and struggling to maintain any momentum…
