Affordable 2013 Ronix Parks Carbon Thrusters $400

[IDBoating]

Doesn't seem like they're going for the $300 thing. I haven't even been able to get through by phone but i've been emailing with someone from there. They claim they never sold any Carbon Thrusters for $300. They say it was the illuminated one.

Yes, I bought my Illumination Thruster for $300 at their retail store but that's a completely separate topic from the question of whether they will sell the Carbon Thruster online for $300.

[IDBoating]

Mine isn't illuminated and you can see my invoice screen shot.

The Carbon Thruster and Illumination Thruster are two different boards. The former does not have LED's and the latter does.

[Coop]

Got the board. Looks great. Can't wait to try it tomorrow.

I'm having an issue with the screws for the fins. A few of them have already stripped. I made sure to put the key in as far as it would go and don't think I tightened too much. A couple of them stripped before the screw was flush with the board. It seems like the key is just a little too small for the screws.

Anyone else having this issue?

What's the best way to remove the stripped screws?

[IDBoating]

The set screws on my two boards don't always go flush with the board. I tighten them until they "feel" snug and the fins are solid. If they stick out a bit after that, it's OK with me. I'm not good enough to feel the effect of a few set screws sticking out of the board a tenth of an inch or so.

I've always worried about stripping the board's "threads". They're not really threaded; there's no threaded insert or anything. I bet they just "cut" the threads with a screw and then put the set screws in. If you strip it, I think your only option is to go up a size on the set screw for that hole.

As for your problem (which sounds like the hex stripped out of the set screw), I'm surprised you could do that before the board's "threads" gave out. But in any case, try a set of metric hex wrenches... they are just a bit offsize relative to American sizes so you might be able to get a metric into a "stripped" one.

[IDBoating]

First comments on the 5-1 Ronix Thruster Illumination board. We took it out this afternoon for a while. Two experienced and two beginning surfers gave it a shot.

First observation: The screwdown compartments for the electronics and batteries for the LED's are NOT watertight. The caps have no o-rings nor gaskets of any kind. It's just plastic on plastic, which does NOT give a watertight seal. Both of the compartments filled with water, and water got into the board somewhere such that it just keeps leaking back out. I didn't care at all for the LED nonsense anyway, so my plan is to leave the electronics and batteries out permanently, apply some thread sealant to the caps, thread them back in, and never take them out again. Hopefully an overnight draining session will remove all of the water.

12YO experienced surfer observations: "Compared to the 4-7 Carbon Thruster, it feels like a tank." But this is because he weighs just ~100 pounds and the 5-1 board is simply too large for him to throw around. Removing the center fin, and leaving the two outer fins, made it very sensitive to rail engagement. Unsurprisingly, the one advantage of this board for him was that he could recover from WAAAAAY back, like 25 feet back in the foam. But he didn't consider that a good tradeoff for the playfulness of the 4-7 CT.

Adult experienced surfer observations: Two fins didn't feel like quite enough for my ~175 pounds. Several times I made an aggressive turn and instead of the tail locking in, it just slid out and I found myself riding 90 degrees from straight. Every time I was able to recover, but still -that wasn't the move I was trying for. It was fun, for sure, but I want to try it with three fins to see if I can get better tracking and lock-in. Otherwise, the board works great. It's insanely fast, and if that third fin works it will be a strong contender for my favorite board. I was able to crawl all over the wave, top, bottom, back, forward, just anywhere and always felt in control. By comparison, the 4-7 CT with two fins feels like a refined sports car but there's a lot of potential in this board. I bet a heavier person, with three fins, could have an absolute blast on this thing.

[TeamAllen]

With this many people buying the board, we definitely need feedback on different fin combos people like.

@ TeamAllen, The board should come with
5 longer fins and 5 shorter fins. The interesting thing is that the 5 longer fins are shorter than the fins on most surf style boards.

All 10 fins are there. Thanks! I will take it with us to Lake Powell and see how it works. The only other board we have is an Inland surfer Blue Lake, so like WA said, this should be like a sports car in comparison.

[MooseX]

just got a call from JEN. She botched my credit card #..so no Ronix for me till next week...sigh

[retox1]

Got an email from them this morning that they would honor the $300 price! So I just ordered mine. It came to just under $400 Canadian with the shipping so pretty decent.

[Stingreye]

Got an email from them this morning that they would honor the $300 price! So I just ordered mine. It came to just under $400 Canadian with the shipping so pretty decent.

Sweet! Killer price! Glad this thread turned out so well for everyone

[MooseX]

Cool so alot of us are getting the infamous WA signature boards...more excellent FEEDBACK coming soon.

Parks should be sending us some free schwag and stuff....

Can't believe she took 3 days to figure out she wrote down my credit card wrong! I just got an email too..just shipped by UPS

[Stingreye]

Cool so alot of us are getting the infamous WA signature boards...more excellent FEEDBACK coming soon.

Parks should be sending us some free schwag and stuff....

Can't believe she took 3 days to figure out she wrote down my credit card wrong! I just got an email too..just shipped by UPS

Anyone confirmed if WA signed his name or Park's name?

[MooseX]

no it's WA signed...just in case he becomes famous some day. Then we'll all have the original$

[c_hotshot]

Jen was awesome! I gave her my name and said that I had been following the thread on the Tige forum and asked if she would still honor $300. She said yes so I placed my order! $300 + $25 shipping! Bam! Can't beat that! Can't wait to try this one out!

[MooseX]

wow. nice job c_hot'

Something tells me they finally figured out clearing out their inventory would be good for future e biz'

[IDBoating]

Anyone confirmed if WA signed his name or Park's name?

Just to be clear, that was a joke. Obviously I'm not going to mark up boards I don't own. Besides, with MY signature they'd go down in value. Hey, now there's an idea... sign 'em and then we all get a better price!