KT Drifter 4 – 56 liter review

The new KT Drifter 4 board, has been the board that I am very curious, but also a bit nervous about. Why? I really liked the KT Wing Drifter 56 liters. I have been riding this as my favorite board for almost 2 years! And when something new comes out, you never know for sure if it will be better.
Why it was my favorite board? It was a bit longer then most board out there, which made it much easier to start. All about that in my review of the wing Drifter board.
Now I’ve been out enough on the new Drifter 4, it’s time to review this new board and compare it to the previous model.

Look, feel and weight of the Drifter 4
I really liked the looks of the old board. Carbon with a soft white brush over it making it almost impossible to spot scratches on it. The new board doesn’t have a carbon look on the top, so it probably isn’t carbon. On the site they mentions S-glass. The bottom of the board, although brushed with yellow paint does have the carbon look. Suggesting this might be carbon.
The pads where really nice and offer a lot of grip. The new pads look better, cleaner and still offer excellent grip.
To me, the shape of new Drifter 4 looks better with a more pointy nose. Also it looks a bit simpler without the many cutouts in the tail section. If they had an actual function will talk about further on. Instead of a bevel on the bottom, it actually now has one on the top making the straight surface on the bottom longer.
The volume distribution used to be more balanced, making it quite a straight board. The new Drifter now has more volume towards the front.
In 56L. the Drifter 4 weight about the same, 4,9kg.Though in larger sizes the Drifter 4 seems to be lighter than the old model.

General changes
The footstrap positions have changed. The front strap is now is a V-strap. This is for all boards in the lineup, up to 72 liters. Larger boards have 3 single straps. The rear strap has now has a center position where this was an offset position on the smaller sizes. On the water I did not notice a big difference except its easier going in both directions.
The V-strap straps are comfortable and I think they will fit any foot size as it can be adjusted easily over a long range.

The tracks have been renewed, they are now longer and also the position works better for modern foils that need to be mounted further forward. For example, on an Axis Foils setup with an Advance+ fuselage I ran out of masttrack on the Wing Drifter. Now I have about 5 cm more track left towards the front. I could also still use the normal fuselage, for which the mast would need to move 6cm towards the rear.

There is no bottom handle. I got used to this and grap the board at the straps and my arm fits around the board, or I hold the mast when needed. The Wing Drifter, 72L and up did have a handle. Not sure (yet) how it is with the Drifter 4.

On the old Wing Drifter, there where huge differences in shapes throughout the different sizes. This 56 liter board is 5”4, but the next size with 62 liters would be a 4”10. I found that the length of the board made the board much easier to get going with. Now on the Drifter 4, the whole range seems to be much more in balance. Just the number of different volumes is enormous starting at 14 liter going up all the way to 170 liters, a total of 17 different sizes.
The new 56 liters has the same width, 22 inch but it lost 2 inches in the length, making it a 5”2.

First feeling on the water
It feels very familiar to the old board, from the moment I got on foil. It has the same feel to it, and I did not have to make any adjustments. Which is almost odd, as I’m not standing off-center any longer. And the board does look really different.

Earlier take-off, but also a needs a bit more balance
Let’s break the takeoff of getting on to the foil down in 3 different parts:
1. The initial start of getting on to the board, until you grap both handles of the board.
2. Getting in a upright position.
3. Making speed and get on the foil.

1. I found I really needed to move more forward on this board to keep it balanced. Also it feels a little bit less stable. Might just be the 2 inch that it shorter. But I felt off more easily.
2. Getting in a upright position once in balance would not be a problem. It might even be easier as the board already starts making some speed.
3. Once up and standing I found the board much easier to get on foil with. It makes speed much easier!

I also tried the board with an Foil Drive. Though it does not get up as quick as a dedicated narrower Foil Drive board, I think it was still very good. Also there is no gap between the foil Drive and the board.

Waveriding, touchdowns and jumping
Not standing offset I thought this might have quite an impact. But so far I’ve not experienced issues with my waveriding.

The re-entry of the board. Touchdowns during flight is something the new board, like the old one also handles excellent. This was something I worried about, as it has much less cutouts. But it seems they didn’t do that much. Except maybe when being all the way down on a wave the tail would catch a bit less. Although this happens to me sometimes, it did not trouble me on the new shape.

Also re-entry after a jump is being handled with ease. Actually even better! The nose of the board has  more volume, and it keeps the nose up out of the water. And when it’s up, it is easy to get going again.

What I don’t like about the board
The new tracks are great with their length and new position. However, where the old tracks used 25mm bolts that fitted most foils, now I had to use 30mm. Which is fine, but the way they are designed, the t-nuts can move up and down a lot. So when tightening the foil, I noticed (too late) the top of the T-nut already got stuck on one side. Tightening it further, messes up the track a bit. So you really need to be very careful and make sure the T-nuts go straight up in the track while tightening them.

Conclusion
I can say they have made my favorite board a little bit better once more. And especially for those who didn’t want to go as small as a 56l board, the larger sizes now look much more appealing.
What I also really like, is that KT doesn’t launch new boards every year just because it is a new year. They come out with new designs when it’s needed. So now I have new favorite board!