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This year sees some changes in the RRD range, including to the most popular board in their lineup: The Poison. If ‘going big’ is your bag, then the Poison LTD is aimed firmly at you…
The new shape sees it through a complete redesign of the board’s outline, base and top shaping. The outline is now relatively wide, with a slight taper inwards towards the tip, the thinking here being that more rail results in more speed and drive which results in – you’ve guessed it – more hangtime. For this purpose, it works very well. For reaching WOO challenging heights with a good vertical takeoff, the strong yet slim tapered rail cuts well into the water allowing you to really push against the kite. Then the staged rocker provides excellent upwind performance as well as enabling you to really push your kite to the edge of the window on takeoff, resulting in a vertical pop. You need to really send the kite hard to capitalize on this but if you want to get some Big Air then you know that’s the plan. For freestylers who want unhooked performance and more of a focus on ‘pop’ you can head for the Juice.
The base of the Poison LTD now has a triple stepped channel through the central section of the board on each rail. This runs into a flat section through the rest of the board and the triple channels combined with the flat midsection of the board create a very locked-in feel and, when touching down, it bites into the water straight away which is pretty reassuring although you need to have your landings on point to capitalize on this. Once you are tuned in to the Poison LTD it is a very rewarding board to ride and for us we would say that performance has definitely increased, but this is now very much a Big Air focused board, so its range of uses is more limited, and if you’re looking for more comfort and a more all-round freeride vibe then the Bliss may be for you.
In a sentence: The Poison LTD is quite simply a boosting machine – it holds an edge for as long as you want it to and you can load and load and load and then send your kite for a truly orbital experience.
