Review by The Kiteboarder: Sense
"The Sense brings a clean paired down approach to foilboards that offers durability and a simple lightweight design that works great for beginners and riders of all levels that prize minimalism."
The Kiteboarder says;
The North Sense foil platform strips back all the complexity from foilboards and offers a light and durable deck that offers a pure and simple foilboarding experience. The Sense comes with low volume composite construction that has a rounded outline with a stubby flat nose and a flat rocker in the back with substantial nose rocker up front. The Sense comes with four threaded mounting points for the mast base and the deck comes with five insert placement options for forward/aft positioning of the front and back footstraps. Because the Sense foregoes the usual adjustable track for mounting the foil and saves some weight, it gives you extra strap placement options to get your feet where you want them. Completing the package, the Sense has a ¾ length deck pad with lines and a solid kick bump in the back.
When you get the Sense in the water the first thing that is apparent is how little float this board has — it sinks quite easily which makes waterstarts easy for strapped riders as the rail sinks easily and with footstrap control, should be quite easy to rollup onto the board and displace your way into foil-up speed. The board’s generous outline that has its wide point a bit more forward in the template gives the rider extra surface area which seems to compensate for the lower volume on waterstarts and helps you get moving and up onto foil. For strapless waterstarts the thin wood deck doesn’t push back on your foot inputs as much as higher volume boards, like the North Scoop, and that might prove a bit more challenging at first for those just getting started with strapless, but for experienced strapless foilers, waterstarting the Sense is no problem. When riding, the Sense provides a balanced feel; the deck has a very small amount of flex built into it that you don’t get with thicker foam core boards. This flex adds a little bit of a dampening to the ride (yes, foils are already pretty smooth) but doesn’t interfere with the directness of your inputs into the foil. We like the feel of wafer-thin boards because they seem to amplify the effect of floating over the water and with the weight saved from the simple mounting system, the Sense feels direct and maneuverable. We also like it when we don’t have to think about where the mast was positioned in the track last time – just bolt it on and go. Footstrap placement will be key (isn’t it always), or for strapless riders, you adjust your feet on the fly as you please. The front rocker scoop and wider nose help you recover from accidental touchdowns and while the flat bottom doesn’t offer rails with chine, the narrowing of the board towards the back seems to help make accidental rail touchdowns less grippy. On the whole, the Sense brings a clean paired down approach to foilboards that offers durability and a simple lightweight design that works great for beginners and riders of all levels that prize minimalism.
Check out the full review here.
Learn more about the Sonar Foil Range here.
