Your probably right, it is just that coming of about 4ft drop-offs causes the front fork to bottom out entirely. He has tried bigger with it and has paid the consequences. Your right about him being inexperienced but I'd say he is going for it!!! He likes the softness of the current fork over woodland trails but it just can't cope with the jumps he is trying to do. It might also be worth saying that the only way we came across this forum was from searching the web for an answer to a new fork, nothing to do with hearing about $200 forks.