Review: Lib Tech Air’N 4’8″

Summary: The Lib Tech Air’N was designed for wake surfing. While it can be used for river surfing, it fails to impress. Continue reading for the detailed review…

The Air’N is shaped like a traditional wake surf board. Most of the width is closer to the tail than the nose of the board. This combined with the super wide tail causes the board to surf differently than a more traditional ocean surf shape.

The wide tail makes the board want to surf down the wave to the lowest point. It’s harder to keep the board up on the face of the wave where you can generate speed and turn. You can get the board back up on the face of the wave, but it requires carving rather than just stomping on the tail of the board.

Once up on the face of the wave, I noticed that the rail to rail transitions are more difficult with the wider tail. You can still turn the board, but it doesn’t feel like it gets up on the rail as much.

On most boards, the rail acts as another fin. When you have the rail in the water, it helps keep the board going straight. The Air’N doesn’t act this way. The board always feels super loose, and requires bigger fins.

The one upside to the board feeling loose was the ability to spin the Air’N. The short length combined with the loose feel made the board want to spin almost on its own.

At just 4’8″ long, the Air’N can be tricky to popup on. It’s doable, but it’s definitely more difficult than boards in the 5-6′ range. I think the Air’N is best suited for waves that don’t require a popup.

The Air’N comes with a full deck pad, which is great for the river. Unfortunately the Air’N does not have a leash plug. I was able to add a “leash plug” to the board using adhesive backed GoPro camera tethers. The Air’N comes with a quad fin setup, which is ok but thruster setups tend to work better for the river.

As with all Lib Tech boards, the construction is top notch. It definitely has the durability to handle the rigors of the river environment.

I took the Air’N to almost every wave I surfed last season. I surfed it on adjustable waves in Denver and Boise, I even surfed it at big waves in Montana and Wyoming. Unfortunately at every wave, I preferred surfing a different board over the Air’N. As such, I can’t really recommend this board. It might be worth considering if you both river and wake surf, but if you only river surf I’d pass on this board.