2010 Slingshot Recoil: My review and my concerns

Hey y'all, yesterday I demoed a 2010 Slingshot Recoil. It had been sitting around at my local board shop forever and I had been eyeing it for months. Since I'm in the market for a cable-friendly flex board, I figured I should finally take it for a shred!

Because this was a demo, I was only allowed to ride it behind the boat. "You slide it, you buy it!" I assumed that it wouldn't be as good off the wake as my trusty, super stiff 2011 Harley or the hybrid flex 2012 O'brien Paradigm because it was a full flex board. It was so soft that it actually seemed to bend in the wind when it was up on the rack.

Damn, was I wrong! The pop from this board was like nothing I've ever experienced! I was soon taking about 5-10 feet less cut than I was used to on my tricks and still making 'em with time to spare. I actually had to slow down my crow because I kept overrotating. I was used to having a lot less hang time to bring it around, but now I could see everything happening in slow motion. It made me wanna try a crow mobe!

I still haven't quite figured out the balance of the ollie pop, but even so, it ollies HIGH. It's super easy and fun to press. You can lock it in on the tail and just ride around like that forever. I'm sure it would be awesome fun at the cable park.

I think the most surprising thing was how good it felt slayshing and buttering the wake. It's one of my favorite things to do, and other boards I tried with featureless bottoms like this one always felt a little dead and unresponsive. But the Slingshot rips! I was throwing up walls of water in no time.

As for the landings, there was another surprise in that department. I expected that the flex would absorb a lot of the impact, but to be honest, landing in the flats on the Slingy didn't really feel any better than it felt on my Harley. My knee was sore from landing back foot on a big method 180.

Besides that, my only complaint was that it felt a little slow cutting out into the flats. It's 3-stage, so maybe the hybrid-rocker Reflex or the continuous Response would have been faster. However, I was still able to generate plenty of heat into the wake, so I think it's a small price to pay for all that snappy pop.

Off the water, this board is just plain cool. The graphics are extremely badass (http://tinyurl.com/6gjdxne) and you can see the construction of the board because some spots are left blank. I think it's the best looking board I've ever seen. The tips are super thin, and it's awesome fun to balance, press, and hop around on the board on the floor. You can bonk it up onto its tail like a snowboard and find a sweet balance point. It's also super light!

Long story short, I'm sold on this "Future Response Technology." If you've never tried a Slingshot, try one! I can only imagine that the 2011 and 2012 Slingies are even better than this 2-year-old board. I'm no expert, especially when it comes to flex boards, so feel free to question my opinions and take them with a grain of salt. I hope this review is helpful or at least interesting. If it makes you want a 2010 Recoil, now's a great time to snap one up because they're cheap as hell!

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Now, I wanna buy this board, but I have some concerns. I get a one-year warranty from date of purchase even though it's an old board, which is awesome. However, I've heard that the warranty is void if I don't use Slingshot's 4-bolt boots. My shop doesn't have any in my size right now and I've heard plenty of bad reviews on the RAD boots.

I like my 2-bolt Harley boots and I want to use them on the Slingshot, but I'm worried that they might rip out of the mountings and ruin the board. Bonking the board puts a crazy load on the mounting holes, and I imagine catching a hard toeside edge would as well.

Has anyone had any experience with this? How likely is it that the board will break? Is it true that Slingshot won't help me if I break it using 2-bolts? Should I pony up for some RADs just in case? Will my warranty be void if/when I hit sliders with this thing at the cable park?

Thanks!

TL;DR

I love my '11 Response.

I was like you when I first tried out slingshot. I wasn't sold on flex having more pop.

I rode the recoil for a season, and it definitely had more pop but it felt super slow to me.

I switched over to a response, and it is hands down the best board I have ever ridden. The continuous rocker makes it super fast and it still has all the pop the recoil did, so I would check it out.

I have been on the same response since 09, riding it with two hole liquid force boots. I just broke it this week, and it was because I cracked the tail, the mounting holes were fine. I used to go through 2 boards per season, and this lasted about 3 years, so it is plenty durable.

Good to hear! I would think about a response but there isn't one available in my shop.

Hebrewhammer, awesome review. I have never ridden a flex board, but I think I am going to try one out now. How much stiffer really are the ballistic boards than the basic boards? are they still just as fun to play around on with less flex?

Originally Posted by Wakeska89

Hebrewhammer, awesome review. I have never ridden a flex board, but I think I am going to try one out now. How much stiffer really are the ballistic boards than the basic boards? are they still just as fun to play around on with less flex?

I dunno. I've never tried any of those. Can someone else chip in?

I think the RAD boots are ...well... rad! but with that said i originally wished they were a bit more flexy, but i got used to it. heard some thoughts about the liners not being the most durable. no problems here, but i guess i only have been wakeboarding 20 or so times with them. Already i have heard 2012 RADS will have improved and more durable liners. also there are many other boots to choose from for 2012. they will have three different velcro-strap (replaceable straps!) boots next year.

never tried any of the newer boards. totally different construction. but they seem just about as flexy from the one (newton) i held and played with in a store.

“Men are born soft and supple; dead they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail.”
― Lao Tzu

Originally Posted by wakerider111

“Men are born soft and supple; dead they are stiff and hard. Plants are born tender and pliant; dead, they are brittle and dry. Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible is a disciple of death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life. The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail.”
― Lao Tzu

Haha, I LOVE this quote! I think I'm gonna write it on a sticker and slap it on my board!

Another great Lao Tzu quote. “Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it”

you would Love my slingshot custom board i designed and won a while back. it has about 25 quotes and references to the word "flex" on it.
... im such a flex-nut

UPDATE:

I've heard great stuff about Slingshot customer service, and now it's time for me to put them to the test. On just my third day of cable shredding with the 2010 Recoil, I butt-checked a rail hit on a wooden rooftop rail and scraped the sidewall and a bit of the topsheet.

The topsheet half-way delaminated. It's all rough and nasty. I cut my finger on it. It doesn't seem to be taking on water yet, but it seems only a matter of time before it floods and the internal structure is compromised.

I know that sliders are rough on boards, but it was the first time I even touched the sidewall on anything solid, and I was going extremely slow. The rail was nice and wet. It wasn't much of an impact and it shouldn't have caused borderline-catastrophic damage, especially on a board built to hold up to park riding. This is totally unacceptable in my humble opinion. My buddy's Watson Hybrid takes hits like this all the time and barely even scratches.

Looking at the way the board is laminated, which I didn't do when I bought it, I can see why it's so fragile. The layup doesn't seem to be overlapped from the top to the bottom or vice versa. It looks like it's essentially three or more totally separate layers pressed together with no overlap. I guess this is the price to be paid for lightness and thinness. Correct me if I'm wrong. I don't know much about board construction.

Needless to say, I'm very disappointed, but I'm not ready to give up on Slingshot just yet. I'm not sure what they'll be willing to do for me, as the warranty is voided by sliders. I know I don't want another one of these Recoils. It's a super fun board and I love riding it, but I'm sure this kind of thing would keep happening, or even worse. The hit the board took is really nothing unusual. Maybe they'll be willing to hook me up with a newer model, and maybe the newer models are tough enough to stand up to this kind of relatively mild abuse.

My local shop is contacting the rep on my behalf to plead my case. I should find out my fate on Monday. Until then, I'm gonna keep riding the board. It held up just fine behind the boat today. Wish me luck!

TL;DR Partially delaminated my Recoil on a rail hit. Waiting to hear from Slingshot reps.

I can not compare the SS flex boards to their not so flex boards. But I have been rocking the Kine for about 2 weeks and it has slightly more flex than my Humanoid and Sine. Good speed and predictable pop.