I have the Absolute 14.

and hows the absolute 14 for you nick worth me upgrading?

and hows the absolute 14 for you nick worth me upgrading?

Only used it once due to being iced up (we are frozen again up here!), but it is a joy. The sections are very strong – much more so than my previous Preston Pole (GXR), yet it is lighter and stiffer. It is comparable to ‘the one’ in terms of stiffness without the weight.
I bought it because I had loads of top kits and I didn’t want an out and out carp bullier.
When I did a side by side comparison, I found only the Elite 88 to be stiffer but it was much heavier and more expensive.
As with all poles, time will tell but things are looking good so far.

ive been to my local tackle shop today to have a “waggle” with a new airity which iam thinking of replacing my spectron with must say i wasnt blown away+apart from the finish it didnt feel much different to what i already use however whilst in the shop he had an absolute 14 demo pole in + i put it up alongside the airity + at 14.5 + 16m it blew the airity away + felt so much better/lighter/balanced at the longer lengths ok theres no wind in a shop but it felt very very good pity about the weak spares package

im ummin’ and arrrr’in about an upgrade to a flagship and im stuck between two choices being a previous preston genis owner i would like to stay the with the same brand, as i will have plenty of topkits then! and ted carter and doing the best deal ive seen! (ted carter special deal with pulla kits) and the other one is the tourney x! and being down south i have no local tackle shops with space for pole alleys etc so im hoping to get a waggle of the preston tomorow on the bank! thanks for opinions. and sorry tikkanen for hijacking your post

shep,,
im really glad someone has said that mate,,, daiwa poles do have a cult following and for that reason most people byepass other poles without giving them a look!
i cant speek for the gis14 cos i aint had hold of one, but when i was in the shops waggling poles about, i picked up the tourny pro 1st due to it being raved about by so many people!!
then just out of interest, i picked up the gis12 and i was absolutely blown away,,, it was miles better than the pro at all lengths in my opinion, lighter, stiffer, less bounce, and the finish was alot better through the hands!
the only thing the top end daiwa poles have over other top end poles is there re-sale ability,, !

Ahh a good old pole debate, we haven’t had a good one for a while now.
I have never owned a top end daiwa pole, but i have used a speccy and an original tpro so my opinion doesn’t really mean a great deal. But what you have got to remember is that daiwa deliberately build in a certain amount of playing action into the design of their poles. The tpro alone is probably responsible for landing the most amount of coarse fish on our commercials and probably a good few natural venues as well. And probably more than a good few other flagship poles put together!!
There my be other brands that are marginally lighter, stiffer better balanced etc, but the one thing you can guarantee with a daiwa pole is confidence!!! and that’s because they are proven, time and time again. Its not like the top end daiwas are unmanageable is it??
So yes go and buy your flagship competition pole but don’t be surprised when it shatters into hundreds of pieces when your trying to bang out 200lb. Ha Ha!!

Also whilst on my soapbox, the tpro is now what?…8 years old.
How can other manufacturers (cough,Reglass,cough) be proven when they update the models so often, with the same old cliches, better balanced, stronger, stiffer)
Ha Ha.
They all say the same thing every year, so by my calculations this years models should be renamed PERFECTION!! ha ha.

tikkanen how big are the ide in sweden fella~think

@baitchef wrote:

Ahh a good old pole debate, we haven’t had a good one for a while now.
I have never owned a top end daiwa pole, but i have used a speccy and an original tpro so my opinion doesn’t really mean a great deal. But what you have got to remember is that daiwa deliberately build in a certain amount of playing action into the design of their poles. The tpro alone is probably responsible for landing the most amount of coarse fish on our commercials and probably a good few natural venues as well. And probably more than a good few other flagship poles put together!!
There my be other brands that are marginally lighter, stiffer better balanced etc, but the one thing you can guarantee with a daiwa pole is confidence!!! and that’s because they are proven, time and time again. Its not like the top end daiwas are unmanageable is it??
So yes go and buy your flagship competition pole but don’t be surprised when it shatters into hundreds of pieces when your trying to bang out 200lb. Ha Ha!!

Bang on the money Baitchef~clap ~clap

All the top end poles are good but slightly different, you have to choose which one will do the job you want it to.
Once you are in that price bracket its no good believing that your flagship pole makes you a better angler than someone using another flagship pole because theres hardly owt in them, its more to to with angling ability, experience e.t.c.

Lets be honest the best pole is probably the one you currently own or the one you currently want to own!!

I have given up now on comparing until my current pole (sssshh a TPro) gives up the ghost and then I will enter the whats next mine field.

When I had
Shimano: – they were the best, mega strong, slim and light. When I wore the diaflash out, (literally could see bubbles through the weave when putting top three on in the wet)I went to….
Tricast: – they were the best in terms of strength and didn’t need power tops for decent elastic, the match tops were fine. When the kids killed the Tricast wedged in a door no less! I moved to….
Garbolino G995 – brilliant fished long compared to Shimano and Tricast, good spares and plenty of them (do you really need Tricast / Shimano strength and weight after all), eventually sold it for £1k after getting a bargain….
Daiwa: – TPro with 20 tops (result) used by thousands, not the lightest, not the stiffest, not the longest but suits my needs, throw the No1’s away and laccy upto black hyrdo and 16 latex with confidence. Spares aplenty (in fact sold some of the 20 kits I had) and UK made.

God knows whats next Browning, Sensas, Maver, new Tricast etc…..I’ll wait to be smitten but PI will be on the list to look at!!!

Ian

dont get me wrong im daiwa mad like a lot of others lads on here+even though i PERSONALLY thought the pi was better than the airity id still more than likely buy daiwa if+when i change the spectron for some of the reasons already mentioned reliability/spares ect i went into the shop with daiwa blinkers on as per~shh thinking like a lot of other lads on here that theres nothing better out there ~naughty

wow tikkanen thats a proper ide sadly ours are a tad smaller than that~sick

@shep2 wrote:

ive been to my local tackle shop today to have a “waggle” with a new airity which iam thinking of replacing my spectron with must say i wasnt blown away+apart from the finish it didnt feel much different to what i already use however whilst in the shop he had an absolute 14 demo pole in + i put it up alongside the airity + at 14.5 + 16m it blew the airity away + felt so much better/lighter/balanced at the longer lengths ok theres no wind in a shop but it felt very very good pity about the weak spares package

The new Airity is in essence still a 9 year old piece of technology with a few enhancements .

2002 – Daiwa tournament Pro announced
2003- Daiwa Tournament goes on sale ( I bought one )
2004- Daiwa Spectron Power goes on sale ( might have been 2005 ) same mandrill and pole as the TP with a spares package geared towards heavier fishing.
2007-Daiwa Airity goes on sale , same mandrill as the T/p with a slightly better grade carbon and better spares package, At this point I was due a new pole and compared the T/P Airity and G10 alongside each other , I thought the price of the Airity was taking the piss and felt about the same as the TP although I know understand the 5th or 6 th sections were stronger , at this pint I bought the G10
2010-Daiwa Tournament Pro -x goes on sale , just a Torny Pro with a satin finish .
2011-Daiwa Airity Pro x – Unless you love a satin finish you would be off your trolley to buy this pole , satin finish on some sections but a worse spares package than the outgoing Airity ? Also still the same mandrill as the exiting 2003 T/P pole and not that much better in all honesty.

Whilst I applaud Daiwa for making a pole that has stood the test of time better than any pole ever sold I do feel they have been kidding the angler now as no real advancements have been made since that first T/P , the only ones suffering for that are us , come on Daiwa please bring out something as groundbreaking as you did with the the 710. , Speccy competition and the T/p.