What To Expect When you are expecting... A Slyde Handboard

The Unboxing:

What's up, guys? Dalton Smith from NPI Productions, and today we're going to be doing an unboxing with two Slyde Handboard models, the Wedge and the Bula. We're going to show you what it looks like when you get it out of the box, and basically just how to get started and get ready to get in the water.

We're going to be doing a lot of videos this year with Slyde Handboards doing in-depth breakdowns on trick trips, how to use the board's different breaks, comparisons between the two boards. But, we wanted to get started with something simple that just shows you what your boards are going look like when you get them, and just basic set-ups so you can get started as quickly as possible.

What's in the Box:

When you receive your Slyde Handboards you're going to have boxes just like these. They're well packaged to make sure that nothing happens to the board while it's in the shipping route. When you open up, you've got some covering paper, and then you're going to find your Slyde Handboard. So, you get two things inside.

One is basically just a thank you card from Slyde Handboards welcoming you into the family, and shows you how you can go check out YouTube videos like this, their Instagram page, and all that other cool stuff. You also have a business card from Angela, so if you ever have any trouble, she's going to help you out. Give her a shout.

The Bula Handboard Unboxing:

The first one we're going to be unboxing is the Bula design by Slyde Handboards. This is a new design and vastly different from the Wedge, which we'll jump into. And basically, you're going to see a huge difference in the size, but there's also a nice concave on the bottom that allows you to drive on the face of the wave. To make it short and sweet, this is a really good board for big beach breaks, and just thick steep barrels. What we're going to do is just open up the top.

Here we have the Bula design. I'm going to show you right there that curvature that we were talking about, that is going to be game-changing when it comes to big barrels. To get started, let's talk about what hand are we putting it on. I am right-handed, but I put it on my left hand and the reason for that is I feel more comfortable paddling with my right hand. That's my strong arm. It allows me to catch the wave better. But, I honestly switch it back and forth sometimes.

If I'm going on bunch of rides, sometimes it's more natural to have your right hand while you're going right and then you're left hand while you're going left. So, there's no real proper way. And again, you do not need two. Get yourself one Slyde Handboard. Test your different hands and see what feels better, and you're good to go.

The Handstrap:

Next we're going to talk about the hand strap. It's really important that you don't over-tighten it and it's important that you don't under-tighten it as well. You have two straps. I'm going to pull the first back, pull the second back, and that's just going to give us free movement. Drop your hand in there, and take the first one and get it pretty snug. You want it to stay in there, but you don't want to cut your circulation off. Come with the second one, and that's just going to be your secure strap to make sure nothing moves, and you're good to go.

The Mounts:

So, a couple other things you going to notice on the board is a mount on the nose, and a mount on the tail. So, the top mount is going to be to put a GoPro on your board. The bottom mount is to put a leash on your board. The only other thing you're going to need is a pair of fins.

If you visit the Slyde Handboards website, you'll see that they have some fins on there that they carry. To mount your GoPro on the board, you only really have one option for the Bula because it has that curvature. There is adhesive mounts but they don't work on this board. So, what you need to do is go get yourself the surfboard mount kit by GoPro.

When you open this up you going to have a bunch of different mounts and I'm going to show you what is what. The first one is your standard surfboard mount. And again, we can use this, but we can only use it on the Wedge because the Bula has that curve. So, I'll put that to the side. Both of these are leash anchors, and you tie a string to this so if it does break off for whatever reason on here, you've got a backup. Next, we've got the leashes. These are going to be what connects your GoPro to the anchor.

GoPro Plug Mount:

This is the magical piece that you need. This is a GoPro FCS thin plug mount. So, on the nose the board, this is where we're talking about mounting the GoPro. You're going to see a small screw in here. You're going to need a FCS thin key or an Allen key. I don't have a thin key today, so I'm going to get my Allen key, unscrew this a little bit, and you just want to watch down in here until you get some clearing.

So, once your screw is out enough to where it's still in but it's clear of the opening, we're going to take our FCS thin plug mount. I prefer to put the bolt on the left side so I can put the screw in on the right side. We're going to take it, drop it down in there. These things are a bit snug, but you need to make sure that it's all the way down and flush on all sides. This is going to make sure that it's not going anywhere. So, now that it's flushed, we're going to take the Allen key and crank this thing all the way down, basically until it stops spinning. So now that we've got it all the way in there, this thing is iron. It's not going anywhere.

Now that we've got the mount and the board, we need to get the GoPro on the mount. Basically we're going to take our GoPro, slide it down in there, get our screw, come from the right side. And I've got these high torque screws that have little lever on it almost, and allows you to really get in there and crank it down. So, now that we've got it on their, tilt it back a little bit, and that's going to give you a killer shot looking back at you as the barrel's going over your head. It's going to get everything. What you can also do is take this out and turn around and get shots looking out of the barrel, which are really cool as well.

That's basically all there is for the Bula, so let's go ahead and jump into the Wedge now.

The Wedge Unboxing:

So, the same thing for the Wedge. We're going to have a little bit bigger box this time and it's going to be covered with a tissue, and then we've got our box. So, this is the Wedge. It's a little bit bigger board, as I mentioned. And I would say that this is the all-around board.

The first thing you going to notice is probably the size difference. It is a lot bigger than the Bula. Here they are side by side. And the next thing you're going to notice is that lack of curvature like we have on the Bula. This is a basically flat bottom. We don't have any concave, but we do have this nice wedgie fish design. And what it's going to do is, it's going to give us more uplift and more and more drive, so we're going to be able to ride this thing for hundreds of yards. If you've got a point break or just a nice day that's not heaving barrels, this is going to allow you to just continue to use the wave for as long as you could possibly ride it.

We have the same setup on this board as far as your leash. You're going to pull your first one back, pull your second strap back. That's going to loosen you up and allow you to make adjustments as you need to. Tighten it down, pull your extra strap over. It's not going anywhere. But the difference here is we have flat surfaces. So, that's going to allow us to do some really cool stuff with the GoPro mount.

What I'm going to do is take this surfboard mount and place it on the back of the board, which is going to make this really cool angle that looks over my hand and out the barrel. So, after I cleaned off the surface, I took the adhesive mount and put it to the right side of the logo. You don't want it in the center because that's where your arm is going to be. So, when you stick it to the board, make sure that you have these two rails and the centerpiece pointed straight toward the nose. You don't want to have a cockeyed either direction, so take your time and make sure it's nice and straight. We're going to take this GoPro slide mount and come from the front, and click it down and make sure it's all the way in.

Once it's all the way clicked in, you're going to see that you can basically squeeze and push to get this back out. Next, we're going to get our GoPro. Drop it in, pointed towards the nose. Get our screw and tighten this thing down. So, what this is going to do is give us a really unique angle. I've done a lot of stuff with the GoPros the Slyde Handboards, but I've found that this was one of my favorites. It's going to allow you to look over the hand, over the nose of the board, and show you driving through the barrel which I think is such a cool shot.

So, that's basically all we need to know about mounting the GoPro to the boards. Again, we have two options which is going to be the FCS Fin Plug in the front, and then we can put the surf adhesive mount on the rear of the wedge only due to the shape of the Bula.

The Leash:

So, once you've got your hand strap adjusted, you're GoPro mounted, all we need to do is put the leash on the tail onto the board. We're going to take these two strings, make them the same length, and we're going to come into this slot right here and go under the bar and out the other side. We're going to take both strings, come around the bottom, around the top, and then feed it through. Next, make sure everything is flush and tightened down. What you want to do is grab this knot and pull down against the knot. Make sure you've got a one to two inch tail right here, but you don't want anything longer than that, because if it's longer, it's going to be coming over here, getting in front of your GoPro, and slapping it in the arm, and it's not going to help your cause.

Now we've got it tied down to the board, and we need to put it on my arm. If I'm using my left hand for the board, I'm going to put the leash on my left arm. You don't need this thing coming across your chest, and again it's going to come across the front of the GoPro, so if you put it on your left hand, left arm, right hand, right arm. Go ahead and loosen it up. I like to put the blue tab on the outside. Bring it up just above your bicep in that pocket, tighten it down, bring it all the way around the back and now you're secure. To take the leash off, we're just going to grab the blue tab, loosen it up, it comes right off.

The Board Bag:

The last thing we're going to talk about today is this carrying case that Slyde makes for your boards. I really recommend buying one. They are sold separately, but what this is going to do is allow you to carry it over your shoulder, or even in your hand down to the beach. And most importantly, it's going to protected it. We're going to go ahead and open this thing up. It's got a nice zipper. You've got a pocket on the inside where you can put wax, or thin keys, or GoPro mounts. Whenever you need, you can store in there.

So, to get board in the bag, we're going to let the leash hang out the back. Take the nose, jam it down inside. Make sure that the handle's clear. Get your leash, tuck it off to the side. Bring the top back over, and zip it up.

So, that's it guys we got our board wrapped up. It's safe, we can carry it easier. We showed you how to put the GoPro mounts on, how to adjust your hand strap, and basically get your board out of the box and get in the water as soon as possible. I really hope you guys enjoyed this video and found it informative.

We're going to keep these going with trick tips, tutorials and everything you need to get the most out of your Slyde Handboard.

Watch the video tutorial below: