G'day all,
my son has got a bee in his bonnet about wake boots so wanted to know if the current North wake boots (NKB Banana Boot) will fit an older North Sky 138cm 2009 board?
I know the boots will fit the track system on the North boards but not sure if they will fit onto the old fixed holes style boards?
Anyone have any idea?
cheers,
Robbie 
Select to expand quoteNickT said..
I'd say no, you'll need a 150 spacing for the boots
... ahh cool as, I thought as much. Any one with boots can you confirim the spacing measurement, is it actually 150mm?
cheers,
Robbie
I'd say no, I tried to stick some wake style bindings on a few older kite boards and they used to use a strange mounting distance.
Some of the new boards now use the wake binding mounting distance.
Good luck.
... yeah thanks dude I figured as much, I mucked around last year with an old pair of ancient boots being thrown out and I had to drill holes in base to fit them. They broke so gave up and didn't muck around anymore. Thanks!
Better go tell my son he's got a whole lota shifts at Hungry Jacks to get a new board too!!!!!
cheers,
Robbie
If you have the Yellow boots they are actually Ronix and not North. The green and black are "North" boots but they are made by Ronix also.
What you need to do is measure the insert spacing. If you have a space of 6 inches, you will be able to fit these boots on. If you have a space of 7 or 6.5 there is actually a metal adapter piece you can get to fit the boots on. You will have to ring up Ronix distributer about that, or look on Ebay or something as they may be hard to find as they only came with Ronix boots on the 2009 line.
Almost all boards produced now use 6-inch spacing. Older boards often used 6.5 or another obscure number.
Select to expand quotesir ROWDY said..
If you have the Yellow boots they are actually Ronix and not North. The green and black are "North" boots but they are made by Ronix also.
What you need to do is measure the insert spacing. If you have a space of 6 inches, you will be able to fit these boots on. If you have a space of 7 or 6.5 there is actually a metal adapter piece you can get to fit the boots on. You will have to ring up Ronix distributer about that, or look on Ebay or something as they may be hard to find as they only came with Ronix boots on the 2009 line.
Almost all boards produced now use 6-inch spacing. Older boards often used 6.5 or another obscure number.
... thanks Sir, good info.
I don't have the boots yet, just my son bugging me every waking moment on how good boots are so hence my homework. He borrowed some recently on holidays and reckons he could land all his tricks so wants them to progress.
Hungry Jacks pays peanuts so he better ask for extra shifts, unfortunatly they always give him shifts when the winds usually on in arvo's so desicion time boy,,,,,, wind or work,,,, boots or no boots,,,,, what to do ey?????
cheers,
Robbie
ps btw, I'm not trying to be a mean dad by making him buy them, just trying to teach him the way of the world!
Select to expand quotePuetz said..
ps btw, I'm not trying to be a mean dad by making him buy them, just trying to teach him the way of the world!
Hey Karl,
Time to move on, go and see mum she might be an easier touch for new boots.
Select to expand quotehigh as a kite said..Puetz said..
ps btw, I'm not trying to be a mean dad by making him buy them, just trying to teach him the way of the world!
Hey Karl,
Time to move on, go and see mum she might be an easier touch for new boots.
... tee hee, the little (if you could call him little) sh!t knows how to wait til mum has had a couple of beers, smooch up to her and she's an easy target for sure,,,,, I might warn her he's coming with a plan in mind,,,, I told her don't believe the hype!!!!!!!
Although I understand your stance in regards to good parenting Puetz I would personally say this isn't a time for that sh!t man!!! Kid needs his boots, that's what his dad is there for! If he wanted some stupid remote control car, or Xbox or something silly like that I would say fair call, bit this is a serious issue...
p.s.
I'm so thankful my parents could get me equipment when I needed it, they never bought me any other useless crap however and I'm pretty glad now they they didn't.
Come on Robbie, stop been a tight wad.
It might mean the difference between him standing on the 1st or 2nd position on the podium. You would never forgive yourself
... in truth, I always intended to get them for him but I actually wanted him to think he was earning them!
Rowdy, your right, both the missus and I are glad he wants to hang at the beach to go kiting and not shopping centres learning to smoke with his mates causing trouble. In fact, I don't even get too upset when he smashes gear riding hard because I told him he can be as aggressive as he likes out on the water, its a healthy way to get rid of all the naughty teenage thoughts. I grew up sailing the Australian coast doing correspondence schooling and living the yachtie life in my teenage years and now its his turn,,, well,,, sort of,,, beach life is cool and I'm so glad I can share it with my kids thats for sure!
Ian, Karl hasn't emailed you has he????
cheers,
Robbie 
Select to expand quotePuetz said..
Ian, Karl hasn't emailed you has he???? cheers, Robbie
Nah.
... problem now is, when I buy the boots, he needs a board to go with them seeing as they don't fit the old boards ,,, not just a simple matter of getting boots,,,, gunna end up being a $1500 exercise,,,, tight wad indeed 
I bought boots recently (North/Ronix) and I can confirm they are the nuts to ride in, especially new school riding. I came from a wake/snowboard background so I didn't have the hangup about being locked into the board. I just wish I had got them earlier.
I ended up buying a new board last season then bought the boots, turns out they fit, newer boards have the correct hole pattern.
There are a couple of things to note:
Some people will tell you, you need a board specific for mounting boots - personally the jury is out on that one for me, a binding is a binding. But the argument is that it will have a stiffer section between the mount points and better reinforced to handle the "extra" load of having the boot.
If I had done it again I would have probably bought a board specifically for boots, but I didn't and I like the flexibility of being able to wack my pads on if there's little wind.
Also you'll want to go slightly bigger in the board you choose, when I stuck boots on the difference is most felt in trying to get back upwind, I find I have to be powered big time.
Maybe a trip to your local wake shop to see if the holes line up, that's what I did. You can find the Ronix line of boots online for a good price, I went for the Ronix/North as the marketing BS said they were better reinforced for use in the salt water, which kills boots.
See if you can get a demo of some boards, otherwise go second hand for the board...
In terms of finance - if you want to teach your son how the world works why don't you loan him the money for the board and boots under the condition that if he doesn't make the payment the gear will get repossessed until it does... if you really want to be a hard ar$e then charge him interest by the way of doing the dishes each night.
(I feel sorry for my son already and he's only 1.7m)
Rob
Select to expand quotedigitalkiwi said..
I bought boots recently (North/Ronix) and I can confirm they are the nuts to ride in, especially new school riding. I came from a wake/snowboard background so I didn't have the hangup about being locked into the board. I just wish I had got them earlier.
I ended up buying a new board last season then bought the boots, turns out they fit, newer boards have the correct hole pattern.
There are a couple of things to note:
Some people will tell you, you need a board specific for mounting boots - personally the jury is out on that one for me, a binding is a binding. But the argument is that it will have a stiffer section between the mount points and better reinforced to handle the "extra" load of having the boot.
If I had done it again I would have probably bought a board specifically for boots, but I didn't and I like the flexibility of being able to wack my pads on if there's little wind.
Also you'll want to go slightly bigger in the board you choose, when I stuck boots on the difference is most felt in trying to get back upwind, I find I have to be powered big time.
Maybe a trip to your local wake shop to see if the holes line up, that's what I did. You can find the Ronix line of boots online for a good price, I went for the Ronix/North as the marketing BS said they were better reinforced for use in the salt water, which kills boots.
See if you can get a demo of some boards, otherwise go second hand for the board...
In terms of finance - if you want to teach your son how the world works why don't you loan him the money for the board and boots under the condition that if he doesn't make the payment the gear will get repossessed until it does... if you really want to be a hard ar$e then charge him interest by the way of doing the dishes each night.
(I feel sorry for my son already and he's only 1.7m)Rob
... thats great advise, thanks Rob!
Loan with interest with threat of repo,,, what a good idea 
.
Only I threaten him all the time,,,
if he doesn't do his homework,,, he will loose kitng
if he's mean to his sisters,,, he looses kiting
if he's caught mucking around in shopping centre,,, he looses kiting
everything he does wrong ,,, involves loosing kiting ,,,, hmmmm might have to put his computer up for threats too.
Actually he's a good egg,,,, hardly ever whines when he's got to pack up my gear at the end of the day while I drink beer, I even lend him out to others to pack up thier gear too,,, its like he's a permanent apprentice even though he's payed his dues!!! Yeah, I'll get him the boots for sure and might even look for a second hand board too.
cheers again,
Robbie
The reason people argue for specific boards are due to a number of factors:
1. Rocker (the curve of the board) - for wake style boards, there is more curve (bigger rocker)
2. The width of the board (too narrow won't work for boots)
3. Reinforcement for bindings
4. Longer
Generally you want all 4 of these. Just getting a longer board designed for bindings won't necessarily work. Go in and look at some specialised wakestyle boards like Liquid Force, Cabrinha Custom, Flexifoil Hadlow, etc and you'll see how different they are.
If you want a cheap short term alternative, you could find a second hand wakeboard and bindings. Plenty of people used the old slingshot wakeboards behind kites and he should be able to pick up a second hand pair with bindings as a starting point. It'll be really sluggish and require being more powered, but he should get a good feel for it at a low cost.
... more good ideas, thanks dude!
He tried the Cabrinha Custom with boots and loved it so that's a good starting point I suppose!
cheers,
Robbie
Mate how big is your kid? I might be able to find something for him, or if not maybe one of the shops has a secondhand board for him, or even someone else on here. People always have old gear laying around I'm sure we can get him set-up with something for pretty cheap!
If you are looking for a board to put boots on i can highly recommend a liquid force lfx, its a really light board and designed for boots it would be good for smaller/lighter riders where the custom is quite heavy. I notice there is a couple in the for sale section too.
... thanks again guys!
My son is a big kid and just turned 16 at 179cm, really shot up in the last year too, grew a whole 1 foot in no time, poor bugger might end up like his dad (6'4") one day!
He's got a 132 x 39 and uses my 138 x 42 most of the time but ground down the rail riding in shallow water over reefs and beach so is now in dire repair.
Darwin doesn't always get wind and is not too powerful either so we ride bigger kites and bigger boards too, so I figure he needs at least a 140 to 145-ish x 42 - 43cm-ish as his bread and butter board, and can always go smaller when the wind does come up.
cheers,
Robbie
Select to expand quotePuetz said..
... thanks again guys!
My son is a big kid and just turned 16 at 179cm, really shot up in the last year too, grew a whole 1 foot in no time, poor bugger might end up like his dad (6'4") one day!
He's got a 132 x 39 and uses my 138 x 42 most of the time but ground down the rail riding in shallow water over reefs and beach so is now in dire repair.
Darwin doesn't always get wind and is not too powerful either so we ride bigger kites and bigger boards too, so I figure he needs at least a 140 to 145-ish x 42 - 43cm-ish as his bread and butter board, and can always go smaller when the wind does come up.
cheers,
Robbie
Oddly enough, when you put bindings on a board, it feels a lot smaller. I had a 139 LF Concept Grind and when I chucked bindings on it, it felt tiny.
