A board Stab digs: Chilli’s Step Down 2

Most sequels suck. Jurassic Park 2? Totally without the charm of the original. But every now and then, a follow-up just… delivers. Bad Boys 2 is a good example. And so is The Stepdown 2. Now, the original Stepdown was a big hitter and worthy of all the love it’s received, and will continue to receive. But Chilli doesn’t have a rear view mirror, so they decided to build on the Stepdown 1 by dropping the nose entry under the front foot. Not only will this help you out-paddle Laird, but it’ll also give you quicker off-the-mark acceleration than a Daft Punk’s Lotus F1. But that ain’t all… There’s also a break in the outline with a small hip near the tail, much like a nice Italian gal, that comes to a rounded square. This means two things: a) you’ll be turning off a tight radius, and b) there’ll still be enough foam up front to keep that F1 acceleration. The knee-high slop that seems to plague most WQS events was the perfect training platform for Mitch Coleborn to test (and perfect) this little treat in the business end of 2012. It’s now a bonafide must-have in your quiver. Just drop two or three inches off your normal length, hold out your hand, and let the honey drip. If you like the looks of this, get at it over here.