2020 Shinn collection is out - All you need to know
Founded in 2005, Shinn is the creation of multiple time World Kiteboarding Champion Mark Shinn. A product of the first Generation of kiteboarding Mark was at the front of multiple style and riding discipline changes with the constant shifts building and enhancing his feel and expectations of what his equipment should be capable of.
Born upon his retirement from competitive riding, Shinn represents a passion for the creation of extremely high quality, innovative kiteboards and more recently Hydrofoils.
For 2020, Shinn is coming with a lot of updates & fresh upgrades:
- massive upgrade of legendery Monk and monkette
- A total new mold of ADHD
- A new "splitboard" board and concept
- Carbon mast are finally out !
- smaller foil boards
Mark pride himself with an almost obsessive attention to detail with a never ending goal of improving performance and usability at the same time.
In this blog article, we will review all these major update & upgrades and start with a short interview of Mark made few years ago. This interview was made by Jerome Billykite 5 years ago. The complete interview can be found here in english and there in french.
Short interview about Mark Shinn
Morning Mark, for the one who still doesn’t know you, can you present you briefly?
Good morning, well, my name is Mark Shinn and I’m the designer and main tester of Shinn kiteboards. I’m British by nationality but have been basing myself in Tenerife, Canary Islands for the last 18 years or so. After a brief and not very successful career in windsurfing I switched my attention to Kiteboarding when the sport was first becoming popular (around 1999) and was fortunate enough to win 2 world freestyle championships and some other notable events including the Mondial du Vent in France and the Red Bull King of the Air in Maui.
After being a team rider for Naish Kiteboarding I retired from competition in 2005 and was Brand Manager of Nobile Kiteboarding until 2010 when I decided to focus all my attention on the Shinn brand.
When & Why did you start designing twintips ?
During my early kiting days I was working with D’light, a custom board company here in Tenerife and though I wasn’t shaping I enjoyed all aspects of the creation of boards. During my time with Naish I worked closely with the R and D team testing and designing boards came as a natural progression when I moved on from there. At that time the “snowboard” technology twin tip had just started to be developed and the possibilities looked very good indeed. Twin tips in this technology aren’t really shaped but are designed in CAD programs but the fundamentals of all board design is the same.
For Shinn our focus is clear, we want to make the best performing yet easiest and most fun to ride boards on the market. High performance is useless if you board is constantly spraying you in the eyes with water and shakes you around until your teeth come loose, on the other hand no one wants a board that is comfy to ride yet doesn’t go upwind and is travelling at half the speed of their friends rides! It’s all about compromise and where you make the choices defines the type of rider and riding style that the board is aimed at. In all my designs I aim for the 20 second test…. Meaning that when someone
When we look to your boards, they are incredibly thin and super resistant!
It’s a common misconception that boards need to have thickness to be strong, in fact thickness in a TT causes it’s own problems including excess weight and difficulties in controlling the flex accurately. In fact in most cases the thickness of the board is controlled by the inserts in the deck used to attach the footstraps but this is the only area which needs so much thickness and careful design can eliminate a lot of material without effecting the strength at all. Thinner boards edge better and are lighter – what’s not to like about that?
Of course the over all strength are not the only factors that go into board design, boards are an expensive part of your kiteboarding equipment and it’s the Shinn philosophy that they should not only last but also last looking as good as the first day you rode them and we put a lot of focus into our materials and construction techniques in an attempt to make this happen.
About 2020 SHINN Collection
It's now time to come back to the real deal of this article, the 2020 Shinn collection line. A lot of nice surprise in the twintips and foiling section !
Let's have a closer look to all these improvements
Monk Glitch & Monkette Double Trouble
This is the first major update to the MONK and not just an incremental annual change. This upgrade continue the features the Monk has been so popular for (comfort, chop handling and massive FUN factor) but utilise some new concepts and technology to improve on other areas.
It’s hard to see in the pictures but the multi channelled base through the centre really improves grip and smoothness through chop but leaves the tips free to flex to retain the comfy and fun rider that Monk riders love. If we were not 100% convinced it was better we would not have made such a big change. All the Monk lovers out there will definitely need to give it a try.
SLICER & ADHD Distortion
All new for 2020 Shinn and a different concept of Splitboards, the Slicer has been a long time in development. Developing a completely separate connector (rather than trying to make the connector as part of the board itself) has allowed us to make the boards more accurately and, equally as important allows us to do it repeatedly. More info are coming out very soon. With a completely new concept and mould the ADHD is no longer the bigger relative of Ronson. Not just a technology change but also the philosophy has been modified as we look to bring its performance into big air too (KOTA style). Many riders are scared of wakestyle boards but this model now has market relevance for a far wider audienceSuperKing 146 & Sneaker HMT
Back by popular demand this Superking 146 is in fact the incredibly popular King Gee 146 from 2 years ago. A great size for Lightwinds for smaller riders and women or heavier riders in all round conditions Comfort, Control and Protection - it is more than 18 months of R&D and 20 years of riding. The new Sneaker HMT (Hold Me Tight) breaks new grounds in adjustability, security and performance. We’ve combined all our lessons from more than 20 years of kiteboarding keeping the features we love and innovating solutions for areas we felt needed improving. Designed to fit every foot and riding stance to perfection, the Sneaker HMT is probably be the best rider/deck connection system yet.FOIL FOIL FOIL
Finally they are out there, the awaited long carbon masts ! As well a smaller size for the Jackson which will be available in size 112cm and with a flat footpads. About the awaited carbon masts. Despite a lot of work and try, it will not be compatible with the fuselage from the Aluminium masts as there were simply too many compromises to performance and strength. With this in mind SHINN will offer an “upgrade package” which includes carbon mast, mast covers and new fuselage. This package will be available at very attracting price to encourage riders to upgrade their existing foils. Available as K2 or MEGA K carbon wings and mast. The very popular K2 started to develop an almost cult and in order to make it affordable for most of riders RRP has dropped to €1099 ! The Mega K has been upgraded with a new carbon stabiliser without an increase in price. This stabiliser follows what we learnt from the K2 and makes the foil very very pitch stable indeed and allows higher speeds without an increase in control issues. It also makes the foil probably the best turning foil on the market right now. If you have riders where carving, transitions, waves or strapless ring are critical this is our most advised foil.People often ask me if it makes sense to have a carbon foil mast and my answer is… unless you want to spend the money don’t test one – once you try one you will never go back!if you enjoyed this nice 2020 Shinn Summary. Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram and join our Newsletter in order to stay updated about our latest reviews, news and best offers.
More info See all 2020 SHINN available collection on BILLYKITE.BE shinnworld.com https://vimeo.com/shinnworld