Rider: Weight currently 110-115kg ,Level advanced kook
Style: Freeriding
Weather: 15-28ish knots
Build Quality: 9/10
Satisfaction: 11/10
Disclosure: Paid full fair for the board. I use gear that ticks my boxes and not someone else's.
My Comments:
My previous board was a 2008 135 North Xride (last year of foam cores)
The Select is a carbon fibre wood cored single concave board. As far as where it sits in the North board range it's their high end freeride board, the template is based on the Jamie just a little narrower and looks a touch more pinched in at the ends. I have the one with the blue bottom theme, I think it looks the best
I'll start of with the bits and pieces:
The handle is a nice low profile and easy to use, what you need a handle to be.
The fins are the standard S-Bend milled G10 fins that come on most of the NKB twin tips.
The foot pads ohh the foot pads. The nicest foot pads for me personally before I tried these was the Slingshot ones from last year, North is still using their tried and true velcro system I'd love to see a lace system as there easier to set up and change around for different riders but once you have the velcro set up with a bit of trial and error there fine the foot beds them self can be tailored with different hardnesses I'm running the mediums there nice and soft but not too soft, and they feel great under foot, good arch support, ridge for the toes and a nice tread pattern that really locks your feet in.
The ride:
I was over in New Caledonia for the first couple of rides in flat to mid shin wind chop with a bum knee.
In a word - smooth it's like going from a rigid bike to a full suspension bike the difference is just unreal. Even the biggest of wind chop didn't bother this board where as my old board that I rode back to back with this one was almost jarring in comparison.
Upwind ability: good, this is more a personal ability thing that anything else with the level of board tech from all companies these days.
Early planing: this board was great I used my 10m every day I was out. Didn't even unpack the 14m which for me is a rarity and I was even the first one on the water a couple times (there was a couple - wow he's a big guy for a 10m comments that the missus picked up on the beach). For light wind planning it's better than all of the lightwind boards I've used in the same size class.
Popping/jumping - was nice and rewarding. Good edge grip going in, nice release and in keeping with the rest of the ride was gobbled up all the landings.
Construction:
Standard north with cap rails, built in Austria (I'm assuming there using a snowboard style press manufacturing system) you can't really fault the build it's as good as anything going.
Couple things that we'll see over time:
What being for UV protection as there's clear carbon top and bottom. UV rays can break down Carbon over time, I'm sure they've used something but I keep mine in a bag when not in used or at least put it in the shade. It also gets pretty dam warm if you leave it in the sun.
Bottom protection is pretty light, nothing like the base on my old Xride. I thinking this is in part to show off the carbon. It's more like a decal than a thin p-tex base. I highly doubt the bottom of this board will stand up to harsh abuse from being run up on beaches, rocks or coral. It is after all a lightweight carbon board so this shouldn't be that much of a surprise.
Pros:
Light weight, great feel under foot, and a dam pleasure to ride.
Cons:
My only real worry about the board is the bottom protection - we'll see how it holds up over time, but as I said I'll try to treat her right.
Price, in a word - ouch, but so so worth it.
Wrap:
All and all the North Select is a great board it's great to ride, super responsive, gobbles up bumps, fun to jump with, soft on the knees (I was riding coming off bruises on the bones in the knee from a sports injury) the north web site lists "magic feel" in the facts section of this board - there's no better way to describe it. As for the carbon if you treat the board right it should last a long time like anything else.
I love it I'd recommend trying one to anyone looking for a great freeride to cruise around on.
I'm hoping to get out at dolls this week so I'll let every one know how it goes in some larger wind chop/swell/current but I highly doubt it's going to trouble this board.
yes i reckon thats about it in a nut shell had last years select and it has held up on the bottom .have this years select in the 135 and those foot pads are so nice .and everyone that has demoed it would love to have one .but like you say ouch "how much".but allready have a taker on it,for when i get next years select 
LOVE MY BOARD
Nice reveive have a 135 select and a jamie pro, selects defenitly better in chop found its got great load and pop too
Have fun
George
Took it out at dolls in the chop which was about waist high in spots after the tide turned - board ate it up and spat it out like it was nothing
G'Day Crazy Canuck,
When they first released the Select in 2010 and I read the blurb in the book and it's main selling feature was "magic Feel" I cracked up. How do you tell a customer who wants to know what a board feels like that "trust me, it has a magic feel"?
Curiosity got the better of me and I bought one in to put into demo. It was an amazing board and actually did have a "magic feel". We sold a few from that demo board which was impressive because they aren't cheap.
This years boards look even nicer and the thing you really didn't mention was the type of carbon layup called "Textreme" It uses about 4 x less weave in and out and saves on the amount of carbon with no loss in strength, just a loss of weight. Same stuff they use in Aerospace and Formula 1.
They are a nice board and this year we don't have a demo although we have sold several this year to the guys who owned them last year and to people who have ridden the 2010. I am told the 2011 is better than the 2010, but I can't pick it myself, but then again I don't use one as my daily ride so I'm no expert on Selects.
I can tell you they are damn pretty and am a little surprised at your 9/10 rating for the build quality. It's all good though, nice board, glad you're stoked with yours.
Cheers,
DM
I didn't bring up the Textreme part because well it's carbon, I find companies all to often bang on about how great whatever xyz carbon they used is. Just saying Textreme means nothing to the general populace other than a fancy name especially seeing as 50% of the sales people out there can't describe what it actually means.
For those insterested the info can be found here:oxeon.se/?page=textreme
I would have given it 10/10 on the build quality but for me personally (who's hard on gear) I thought they could have gone a little more durable on the bottom as I've already scratched a bit of the decal up when I nicked a bit of rock. It's a personal thing like I said the base isn't the same as on my old x-ride and probably won't take the same amount of abuse which I gave my old board plenty of.
