I just watched some videos of the brodex ‘raptor’ poles on YouTube.
I’ve never actually looked at them, but they look terrible.
I had a facelift Phoenix when I first started, but other than that, there has never been a need to move away from gardiner. Just a shame Alex doesn’t bother with sales. Then again, why would he, he’s selling so much he’s got no need!
Ive never felt the need to move away from Gardiners also, their clx and slx poles are simply brilliant, particularly the 18ft clx, an entry point pole which i use 6 days a week, a real work horse of a pole, and the last one gave me 3 years service, superb value for money. Unfortunately for me, im at that point where age is catching up on me, im slower than i used to be and the aches and pains are only going to get worse, hence feel its time to move up to the light weight poles which is where im afraid i think Gardiners are no longer streets ahead of its competition. The Gardiners xtreme and xlines nano poles are extremely similar in spec. There are numerous reviews about the xtreme on here and most are positive but nearly all come with a caveat about its fragility. Gardiners are very honest about it and speciffy it needs tlc etc but at £485 + vat= £582 im very loathe to splash out nearly 5x the price of a clx for something i know wont last anything like as long. The nano has less reviews but all are positive, they look very similar. Xline s price however during this black fridays weekend is £335,75 + vat = £402.90, thats a significant saving of £179
. Its still a lot more than im used to splashing out but worth taking the plunge at that sort of saving.. Nearly £600 for a fragile pole is way too big a jump up in my opinion.