FEEDBACK : MINT 4'10 !!!

We have developed the Mint in order to offer an accessible shape for the practice of waveriding or freestyle. As long as you don’t skip the steps, it allows you to quickly get started in these disciplines on a very efficient board. Story from Frédéric, one of our ambassadors, on his first sessions with the Mint.

“I am 80kg. I have 6/8 months of wing experience. I went through the Zuma 6’6 120L then the HIPE 5’3 110L, then the Lemon 5’2 120L to this Mint 4’10 95L. I mainly sail on the sea in Marseille, mostly very choppy conditions. Why so many boards? To progress quickly step by step. I didn’t want to skip the steps. In addition, these boards are very easy to resell as there are few opportunities available.

When stationary it’s not much less stable than my old Lemon 5’2 or HIPE 5’3. However, there is a gap with the Zuma 6’6. We get on it rather easily on our knees. The knees wedged in the straps we grab the wing to stabilize and we stand up quite easily. The pads are very comfortable as on all of the boards mentioned above.

“Little if any inertia, it’s very lively”

Standing, it does not sink with my weight of 80kg. It’s clear that it glides less than a Zuma, but the take off is still quite easy. The take off is in my opinion rather dependent on the foils under the feet. 4’10 is short but the width is comfortable, it’s very light (~ 5kg). So in the air, it’s great! Little if any inertia is easy on the eye. She’s more forgiving on touchdowns (when there are any, even with a 1m mast) than my Lemon or my HIPE … probably due to the double concave on the front? Concretely, I think that whatever the make / model, the shorter it is, the better it is when you can fly. However, you have to think about the low range of use, that is to say: before the take off, at a standstill in the event of a windless galley… this Mint 4’10 95L may remain my smallest board for a while. Not sure I have the level, nor the desire to practice on a board with much less volume.

The maneuvers, jumps, downwinds, surfs to date are clearly more enjoyable than with the HIPE or the Zuma but it remains quite close to the performance of my oversized Lemon 5’2 for my size. As announced, in surfing, downwinds and jumping it works perfectly.

With the mast setting perfectly in the middle, I am super balanced when navigating between the front and rear foot, much better than on the Lemon where it was further back.

In navigation, as on the Lemon, the straps seem mandatory to me at the risk of losing ease of use for: take off, maneuvers, surfs, downwinds, and of course jumps. In classic navigation or to ascend without forcing at the peak, front foot still in the strap, rear foot just in front of the rear strap, as soon as it becomes more engaged I put the rear foot in its strap.

It’s a really good job GONG and thank you !!! ”