We recently got our hands on a brand new board from NMD (Thanks Napco for the board) and thought it’d be cool to review it since we havent reviewed any boards for a while now. So here you go for a NMD WINCHESTER 41 PE 2012 board test!
NMD boards are made by Mez in indo, in the same factory that produces VS, HB, SCIENCE, SNIPER, TOYS, MOREY, BZ, and more brands… They’re all really good boards with a solid construction (Buzz Tech Laminators), CNC Machine precision for the cut of the core blanks, and hand shaped finitions for all boards (rails, nose and tail bumpers, nose bulbs & lamination process).
This year’s NMD PE boards have 2 stringers (they used to only have one). The PE seems to be flexier and softer this year so this might explain why the boards are now re-inforced with 2 stringers. The boards are heavier and flexier than before. This made the board we tested a good board for heavier conditions and colder waters.
The Winny Pro Model is a fairly easy board to surf, with a very straight template that loves speed walls and fast lines and makes it easy to gain speed and hit the lip with precision. It’s one of the straightest templates in the NMD range.
We’ve been riding a 2011 PE Winny model before and havent noticed a big difference between the 2 templates, the board stayed the same and kept the same curves and dimensions.
Compared to a Player Model we’d say that the Winny board Model is straighter and more suited for speed lines and hitting the lip rather than big carves or turns. The Player seems to be easier to turn because its template might be less straight and a littl bit more curvy. The difference is quite slim though between the two models.
Because the PE is softer and flexier this year we would recommend using a PE board only in cold waters and using a 3D board in cool / warmer waters, maybe a PP board in tropical waters.
We rode the board both prone and dropknee and although Winny weems to be killing it in DK with his board we reckon we’ve used a smaller board-to-weight and board-to-size ratio than Winny himself which made it a little hard for us (well, me the test-rider) to DK on that Winny PE 41 which lacked buoyancy and length to really enjoy riding it in dropknee. We usually ride DK on 42 boards at least and so it was hard for us to perform on a 41 inch board. We did get some fun ones frontside but you can’t really go big and throw some tails on such a small board. The Winny 42 is probably a better choice to DK. The very straight template of the board isn’t helping for DK though so think you can mix it up all the time and DK half your waves on it because it’s definitely more of a prone shape then a dk shape and it’s not a polyvalent template either. It’s a prone shape that tolerates DK (frontside more than backside) and is ok for DK if you’re choosing a size that hopefully allows you to mix it up a bit. For us the 41 was good for prone but too small for DK and the 42 was ok for DK but too big for prone.
Overall, the Winny is a great prone board, with a super good and fast template, it’s quite easy to ride and you can’t go wrong with it. If the water you ride isn’t cold we’d say you can buy a 3D board, not a PE board.
