Review: Lib Tech Air’N Skim 4’4″

Summary: The Lib Tech Air’N Skim is a high performance skim shape that only excels on very specific shortboard waves.

The Air’N Skim 4’4″ is not only short, it’s only 3/4″ thick and comes in at a whopping 9.8 liters of volume! With 20.5″ of width, it offers a decent amount of surface area and will “float” me no problem – as long as the wave is steep and fast. The minimal volume, combined with a nice pulled in tail and decent rocker throughout makes the board turn from rail to rail very nicely and spin on a dime.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Air’N Skim is best suited for shortboard river waves that don’t require paddling to catch or a popup. An acid drop or skate on entry like you find at Scout wave, RRP, Citywave, etc is where this board works best.

However the Air’N Skim isn’t great on all shortboard waves. Because of the amount of rocker, the Air’N Skim is slower than a lot of other skim and wakesurf shapes I’ve tried. I found the Air’N Skim too slow for Pueblo’s new Spillway wave and Scout when it was flatter in early 2024. The Air’N Skim needs a steep wave otherwise I found myself constantly pumping.

The Air’N Skim doesn’t work great on tall river waves either. Because the board is thin and the fact that the rails are sharp all the way around, it’s unable to stick to the face of a steep and tall wave. If you try pumping across a wave like Scout when it’s shoulder high, the Air’N Skim will just skid out from under you.

So, the Air’N Skim needs a very specific river wave that has a shortboard entry and is steep but not too tall. The one wave that I’ve found that suits the Air’N Skim over other boards is wave Sixx at RRP in Denver. This wave at ideal levels is perfect for the Air’N Skim. Everywhere else, I found I preferred other boards in my quiver over the Air’N Skim.

Like all Lib Tech boards, the Air’N Skim comes in the super durable construction that provides a little peace of mind if you’re worried about dings. A nice feature of this board (which is sometimes lacking on wake surf and skim shapes from Lib Tech) is a leash plug. I found having a leash extra important for this board because at times, due to its extreme low volume, the board would not surface when swimming downstream of the wave. On one occasion the board was somehow pinned to the bottom and required pulling the leash to get it to surface.

This board is best suited for intermediate or better river surfers. Beginners will probably find it too squirrely. If you’re looking for a shorter board for a beginner, I’d recommend the Catch Surf 54 Special.

If you’re considering the Air’N Skim, I’d recommend looking at the Lib Tech Hydro Snapper. The Hydro Snapper has less rocker and little more surface area making it able to surf much slower and flatter waves. The Air’N Skim does turn and spin a bit better then the Hydro Snapper thanks to the pulled in tail and rocker, but I think the versatility of the Hydro Snapper makes it the superior board. Neither of these boards can surf big/tall shortboard waves. If you’re looking for something that can handle something like high water Scout, I’d recommend looking at the Badfish Wave Farmer, Peterson Tomahawk and the Corridor Craw.

If you mostly surf RRP, it’s worth considering this board. If you surf anywhere else, I would probably pass on it.