TKB SAYS:
The Refraction is Slingshot’s performance park board which has a significantly different design goal then your typical user-friendly or performance freeride style board that predominated the test. The Refraction features three stance width options that are placed down the center of the board and a fair amount of duck stance options in the binding. The Refraction has a significant progressive wakestyle rocker through the tips and a fairly wide template that helps with the board’s light wind range. The first impression when riding this board is how skatey it is, which is to say that it requires experience and skill to put it on edge, but for those testers that had that dialed, they were impressed with both how well it went upwind and how well it cut through the chop. The Refraction features a fairly stiff flex pattern compared to many of the boards we tested so for those more aggressive riders in the test the board came alive for heavy load and pop and got excellent reviews on its smooth landings in which the rocker seems to break the surface tension. This board can also be fun to carve, but with small fins it takes a bit of skill to keep it under control, but the rocker can make dicing up waves super fun. While this board has the construction and design for park/wakestyle riding, there is certainly a niche within the average freeride population that might find this board’s skatey load and pop extremely fun with just enough user-friendly upwind ability and chop handling to make this board a must have. The Refraction came with Slingshot’s 2018 Duallys which offer a great combo of comfort and control with a ton of adjustability. Testers praised the rubbery but plush feel of the footbeds which seemed denser under the heel and softer under the toe. The footbed features subtle heel cupping and relatively little contour under the arch with a solid toe bump to keep your feet seated at all times. The quad adjustment strap is all encompassing and allows a ton of adjustability to get the perfect fit and was easy to adjust on the water. 175