Glad you asked!
I have the NMD Evo
So, unlike my previous post, this last Christmas I wanted to get myself a proper bodyboard. I was beginning my full Pokémon evolution into a bodyboarder first and a standup surfer second. It's a controversial move, but it's been coming for a while. I've spent most of the last 5 years riding my Kiri bellyboard and alt surfcraft. I don’t know if it's age or the age of my kids. But I wasn’t getting as much out of stand-up surfing as I did from surfing on my tum tum. The other thing that I don’t like to admit is that I have a historical Achilles injury that has made it harder and harder to pop up.
So back to the board! Why did I choose this one above others? I had a good look at the Sniper boards, and, having already had a Science Pipe in the family, I was leaning very much in that direction. I then saw a bargain on the boardshop website. I knew NMD was a popular, well-liked brand, so I thought I would give it a try.
The first thing I liked about it was how rigid it was, a little flex, but a nice hard plank of a board. Coming from recently riding wooden boards, this was a similarity that I wanted: the speed generation on a solid board is what I was looking for. It felt a bit more robust and had a better finish than the science pipe.
The dual stringer setup, the channels along the base to funnel water through your turns, giving it more hold, and more drive. The double rails keep you locked in on steeper faces, and the crescent tail releases when you want it. The feather rail nose grips also gave it that higher-spec feel. Reinforced nose and tail bumpers, a hard-wearing HDPE slick base. Under the deck, it's built around a 2.4lb PCF PE core. Which, in plain English, means a board with responsive flex translating into speed and control through turns.
The Traxion Deck Contours are worth a mention. Dedicated flex zones that let the board respond torsionally and nose-to-tail rather than just flexing in one direction.
It's missing the Surlyn slick of the top-end NMD builds; that's where the price difference lives. But as someone of a medium-to-heavy build, this board has been awesome.
More board than the price suggests. Built to last, built to perform.
I got mine at Board Shop.