I bought this board having only used a twin tip up to now. I wanted to a board that would be a lot better in the waves, but I didn’t want to loose the ease of use of a twin tip, particularly in bigger waves. The toxic wave solves the problem of having to gybe, or of having a large board bouncing around when it’s choppy.
The first thing you find with this board is how well it carves! No tripping over the toeside edge as you carve from heel to toeside, no matter how hard you lean. It really was a revelation and made cruising around in the waves a total joy.
The toxic wave rides backwards (ie tail first) pretty well. The rocker in the tail means it climbs over any whitewater very well. It does feel a little odd at first riding this way as the rails are quite rounded and soft. This means it doesn’t bite like a regular snowboard construction twin tip. It’s not worse, just different.
The idea with this board is that if you are riding tail first and want to ride a wave, you switch the tail with the nose and ride toeside. I always use to struggle with this on my twin tip, but with the toxic wave it is very easy, and very smooth to switch, even at speed.
RRD market this board as a small wave board. For most UK conditions I would disagree with this though, as small waves normally mean light winds. This board really excels in big waves and high winds.
The compromise with all this control and ease of use is that board is relatively small compared to a surfboard. Do not get this board and expect it go up wind like a surfboard, or cruise along a wave with absolutely no power from the kite, it’s just not big enough. Likewise if you are a big bloke you might find it needs a lot of power. I am 12st and would say it needs just slightly less power than my 133×40 twin tip. I’ve used this board with all three of my kites (12m, 9m and 6m) and generally speaking the smaller the kite the better, as the board carves very tight turns so a larger kite is slower to catch up (this maybe as much my poor kite flying skills though.)
Lastly there’s the looks. As it seems with all stuff the italians really do know best when it comes to style. This board is about 100x better looking in the flesh than any picture. I was getting changed the other day before going out and somoeone actually came up and said \”nice looking little surfboard\”. These looks have to be looked after though as the construction is much more like a surfboard, so if you bash on rocks it will ding. The footpads are super comfy, but be careful when screwing them in as the inserts can cross thread quite easily.

Overall I love this board and can not wait for some more big wind and waves.