Naish Alaia

I recently bought a Naish Alaia.
Not so ago I didnt have a clue what these boards were up to. Saw them for the first time on one video promoting one strutless kitesurf in Hawaii and they looked cool. After reading some reviews (are hard to find) I took one chance to buy one as I was looking for some fun in light wind days (In the place where I live now is quite often). For those winds I already have a door and a fish surf board, so I wanted to try something different.
The cool thing about the alaia is to manufacture it yourself, but didnt know where to buy the paulownia plank, didnt have the time, neither the skills. So instead of waisting my time & money and hating this concept of board, I went straight to the shop.

What are these type of boards about?
The key features would be: strapless, finless, rockerless. All made by a plack of Paulownia tree.

There are some videos on the web that can give you an idea of what could be done with this type of board: video1 video2

See a couple of pictures here:

The top of the board is a bit dirty due the wax

Here you can see that this board is completely flat

The board has a noticeable concave in the bottom

Here you can see how beautifull the wood colour is 

Review:
the board goes upwind like nothing else I have, it starts running by barely moving the kite and it´s really playful. Despite not having rocker, you don´t dive the nose under water. I red somewhere that the wood deforms under load creating a natural rocker.

I can say that this board excels at:

• Long distances. it goes with really low wind and you can also edge hard in case there are strong gusts, your stance on the board is super comfy as you dont have straps so your position can vary all the time. So you can end up doing endless distances. As as comment, I did go to places that with other boards I wouldnt have the guts (wind varying so much).
• Low wind: as said before, it excels at this and you can do some stupid stuff as ride it seated. 
• Freestyle: whatever you can see on the videos, practice practice practice. (I´m on it).    

Sumarizing: I´m really happy with it, and I think it´s the best bang for the buck for low wind out there.

Buenos vientos