2010 Xenon La Luz (135x42) Review
First Impressions
The first thing you notice about the La Luz is the weight - its an extremely light board which speaks volumes for its construction of wood core with carbon/kevlar stringers. It has a single concave, medium rocker and a pretty rectangular outline. The board is pretty thick at the centre with square rails and tapers down along the length to some highly flexible tips. It comes with 5cm fins and some very light and comfy looking straps.
The graphics look minimalist from a distance, but on closer inspection there are small details such as the matte/gloss stripes on the top surface and a tasteful silver badge.
On The Water
The wind was really marginal when I first took the La Luz out, yet it performed surprisingly well - the large surface area and wide tips got it up on the plane early and kept it going through the lulls. Its upwind performance is also excellent, allowing me to keep upwind when people on larger kites were struggling.
The Xenon is great in a straight line, doesn't feel skittish at all, and accelerates effortlessly up to a good top speed, even in onshore mushy conditions. It takes a little effort to slide the board around from heelside edge to toe, but once you expect this its truely no issue at all.
The ride is very comfortable, the flexible tips and comfy pads combine to give a good ride even when the conditions are poor. I was expecting the square tips to be difficult to carve but I was again impressed how little hinderance they gave when I ran a few carves down the line. Whilst the straps are very comfortable, it would be nice to have a bit more shape to them to really lock your feet in tight.
In addition to the very impressive freeride performance, the La Luz is primarily a freestyle machine, so was eager to hit a few moves. Firstly the pop is very impressive - you can feel the flexible tips giving you that extra spring both in unhooked pop against the kite and also sent jumps, making everything just that bit higher! Landings are also a piece of cake - it has so much stability when landing from a height or stomping those tricky powered blind landings.
The La Luz has the makings of being a great competition board - performance in a wide range of conditions, great pop, and phenomenal stabilty to make every landing count - it will be a sad day when I send the demo board back :)
In Summary
The La Luz is a board which does so many things exceptionally well and a deserving winner of the IKSurfmag readers choice award. When you first look at it seems overly flexible and a very simple design which makes you question why everyone raves about it, but your preconceptions are soon put to rest when you take it out on the water. The La Luz is a great board for any competent freerider all the way through to competition riders; Its forgiving characteristics in a wide range of conditions make it hard to fault, with freestyle performance which will put a smile on anybody's face. Before you head for a typical stiff freestyle board, be sure to give this one a go!
For more info Check out Xenon's site, view on S2AS kitesurfing shop, or compare on Wisekite.
The first thing you notice about the La Luz is the weight - its an extremely light board which speaks volumes for its construction of wood core with carbon/kevlar stringers. It has a single concave, medium rocker and a pretty rectangular outline. The board is pretty thick at the centre with square rails and tapers down along the length to some highly flexible tips. It comes with 5cm fins and some very light and comfy looking straps.
The graphics look minimalist from a distance, but on closer inspection there are small details such as the matte/gloss stripes on the top surface and a tasteful silver badge.
On The Water
The wind was really marginal when I first took the La Luz out, yet it performed surprisingly well - the large surface area and wide tips got it up on the plane early and kept it going through the lulls. Its upwind performance is also excellent, allowing me to keep upwind when people on larger kites were struggling.
The Xenon is great in a straight line, doesn't feel skittish at all, and accelerates effortlessly up to a good top speed, even in onshore mushy conditions. It takes a little effort to slide the board around from heelside edge to toe, but once you expect this its truely no issue at all.
The ride is very comfortable, the flexible tips and comfy pads combine to give a good ride even when the conditions are poor. I was expecting the square tips to be difficult to carve but I was again impressed how little hinderance they gave when I ran a few carves down the line. Whilst the straps are very comfortable, it would be nice to have a bit more shape to them to really lock your feet in tight.
In addition to the very impressive freeride performance, the La Luz is primarily a freestyle machine, so was eager to hit a few moves. Firstly the pop is very impressive - you can feel the flexible tips giving you that extra spring both in unhooked pop against the kite and also sent jumps, making everything just that bit higher! Landings are also a piece of cake - it has so much stability when landing from a height or stomping those tricky powered blind landings.
The La Luz has the makings of being a great competition board - performance in a wide range of conditions, great pop, and phenomenal stabilty to make every landing count - it will be a sad day when I send the demo board back :)
In Summary
The La Luz is a board which does so many things exceptionally well and a deserving winner of the IKSurfmag readers choice award. When you first look at it seems overly flexible and a very simple design which makes you question why everyone raves about it, but your preconceptions are soon put to rest when you take it out on the water. The La Luz is a great board for any competent freerider all the way through to competition riders; Its forgiving characteristics in a wide range of conditions make it hard to fault, with freestyle performance which will put a smile on anybody's face. Before you head for a typical stiff freestyle board, be sure to give this one a go!
For more info Check out Xenon's site, view on S2AS kitesurfing shop, or compare on Wisekite.
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Dimensions
Weight Rocker Centre Width Tip Width Rail Depth (centre) Rail Depth (tips) Concave Depth Tip Flex Overall Flex Fin Size Stance Upwind Pop Bottom End Top Speed Manoeuvrability Landings Directionality |
135 x 42cm
Very Light Medium (37.5mm) 41.8cm 35.0cm 10mm 3mm 5mm High Medium-High 50mm 55cm and 61cm Very Good Excellent Excellent Very Good Very Good Excellent Quite Directional |
