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After wasting £80 on a shoddy Exit board (wish I did more research first!), I decided that now I'm officially into mountain boarding (not necessarily with kites) I should upgrade and get a better board. At first I tried out a friend's Scrub Regolith and decided it simply wasn't suitable for someone of my size - far too much flex and I was grounding out on the hills. It seems all of the Scrubs were fairly similar. Then I tried another friends' short Trampa deck on Scrub channel trucks. Much better but too short for 'the hills'. Then on eBay, I managed to secure an almost mint MBS Core 16 for £120. It's the perfect length to combine downhill stability with manouvability. It's features: - fairly light stiff deck, not ideal for freestyle but perfect for my needs - cool graphics (wolf/moon) - F2 bindings, which are my favourite. F3 bindings don't cope well with my flat feet! - matrix channel trucks, with yellow shocks - rockstar hubs with lightweight T1 tread tyres So all in all a pretty damn good package for what I paid! Took it to the top of Waseley Hills near Brum for it's maiden use. Padded up and gave it the straight downhill test. Almost no wobble whatsoever (estimated speed 25mph?) - very stable so gave me the confidence to try out a few more technical routes. Once I got used to the fact the trucks were stiffer than what I was used to (a few understeered turns and a lot of bramble cuts later) I was carving the hill with ease. My personal opinion is that MBS Core series boards lead their price range field. Just want a Comp Pro now! By : davekermito

Herein lies a tale of woe and light hearted despair, but I'll get to that later. I have flown kites since I was old enough to stand on the beach and hold a string and have spent my early years flying the little diamond shaped stunt kites with the cute tails. Early highlights included hitting a dog on the head, hitting my dad on the head and a little kid grabbing the "cute tail" and pulling it off. So as you would imagine for as long as I can remember I've been hooked on kites and doing outdoorsy things, and in time honored fashion I progressed to the more challenging art of flying delta wings. When I was 16 I saw a friends dad flying a 6ft Flexifoil Stacker and that changed everything. Now my goal was not flying side by side with some chums, it was to get dragged as far down the beach as possible. I wanted to fly the most ridiculous and overpowered stack of wings that I could. I'm now 23 and have had my fill of 2 line kites, recently I was left hanging to the handles of a big Blade (2) for dear life while it basically did whatever it wanted to. I also sat in a buggy and got dragged down the beach (the second half no longer in the buggy) by a rampant CQuad, so the logical progression for me in this sport seems to be 4 line kites and kite boarding. We've all been there, wanting to go flying but with the tree tops as active as my dad on a Sunday afternoon so I wanted a board that would let me use kites when it was windy, but one that would also let me do some downhill stuff when it wasn't. Enter MBS - MBS have recently released a new range of boards for 2003, principally the Core 16, Com16 Pro and the Comp 26 X. I was attracted to the MBS range by the apparent build quality (like a Flexi kite) and the depth of improvements that had been made in seemingly every aspect of the boards design and construction. Being a beginner to the sport I obviously picked the Core 16 and despite some impressively naff graphics it had everything that I wanted. Most importantly the bindings are not too restrictive, making it easier to bale out in a beginner-on-the-fly emergency (or so I thought!). Then there was the overall weight of the that board which at under 7kg should allow me to progress to some aerial tricks. Finally the channel trucks made several spring settings available to the user allowing the board more to be tunable to the riders skill level. (As you will see this was all fine in theory !!) Once I had the board home (Power Kite Shop gave much quality service and advice from what could well be the best hidden shop in the country!) it was easy to build with all the pre- drilled holes marrying well with the trucks and bindings. I put the board together with uncompressed springs on the inside position using the yellow eggshocks - essentially providing the least amount of damping. Out on the field with a bullet 3.5 I immediately found the board to be too twitchy and unstable for my apparent lack of skill, so out came the tools. (MBS provide tools with the board but the springs and bolts are easy to lose when in the field so be careful). With the springs set to the outside position on the trucks (these adjustable trucks alone make this board a good option for beginners in my opinion) I tried again with the Bullet and found that I could hold what seemed like a reasonable amount of power and speed going downwind. Its amazing how much smaller a space is when you have wheels on your feet and I soon decided to try my hand at the other half of the equation, downhill boarding... This proved to be both mine and the boards first mistake. Having no previous experience on anything remotely similar (snow/skateboard etc.) I started on a suitably gentle slope and was immediately impressed by the board. With my weight centered instead of leaning to one side it was both stable and predictable (those adjustable trucks again) with the deck having enough flex to soak up any bumps. (Word to the wise here, I started with 20 psi in the tires which had me going nice and fast but did mean that I was largely reliant on the deck for cushioning over bumps and stuff.) After falling off a few times, trying a few bunny hops, falling off some more and generally carving down the slope I upped the ante on a long smoothish 1 in 3 slope and had a lot of fun, no falls. Impressed by the predictability of the deck I went tried again that evening, and so begins my tale of woe and light hearted despair... Beginners do not ride switch. End of story. Please if you are a beginner, learn from me and spend longer than 2 hours riding regular before going to switch. I overbalanced on a little slope, fell backwards, feet stuck in the bindings and I dislocated and fractured my shoulder. Bigtime. So in conclusion if you want a board that you can use for both kite and downhill activities I wholeheartedly recommend the Core 16 for the reasons listed above. Yes these sports are dangerous but if you are smart and not like me then common sense should steer you clear of most accidents. By : Peter Watkinson

This board looks nice enough and is reasonably light weight. There are still plenty of options for upgrading and you can even add brakes if you want (perhaps for downhill riding). I haven't been to a suitable hill near where I live, so I am unable to comment on the downhill abilitites of this board, but I do snowboard and the MBS Core 16 offers a familiar stance for me. Quite how well it would ride is another question as I'm sure that snow gives a lot more then any grass surface. On the beach I have found the board to be just fine - if anything I am the problem. Sometimes I have got into soft sand and then powered up my kite only to find the board stubbornly refusing to move. When that happens I have been able to get out of the bindings with no fuss. I look forward to getting to grips with this board and hope that it proves sufficiently durable. AfterI have been riding on the beach only a couple of times I have noticed that there is already signs of wear on the surface where my shoes have worn away the finish. By : NutSoft