Snowboard Review

REVIEW

Discuss it here

This board was NOT primarily designed to be ridden on-piste, yet it delivers the goods when you need to make that transition on the hard-pack in between powder stashes. Given the size of the board, you will not be making tight carving turns, and you will need to put some hummmpf into it to initiate turns unless you can pick-up some speed. Front-side turns will give you no problems. When riding the board agressively I have lost an edge when doing back-side turns on a few occasions. This problem should be improved with an adjustment of my stance, which I will play around with this coming winter.

Off-piste behaviour :
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This is what this board is all about ! It needs to be fed powder in order to perform, be it the long backcountry trip of the poached runs next to the groomers. With its big nose and well defined waist this board floats like an absolute dream. As a matter of fact, this is the best board I have ever used in off-piste conditions so far. The board is really easy to control and manœuvre, be it for low speed pleasure swooshies or agressive high-speed straight-liners. One of this board’s characteritics is that you be leaving a hughe rooster tail behind you when riding some nice soft powder ! I am wondering whether I will be able to find a better powder board any time soon. This beast will stay in my quiver for a while.

Rating: 8/10

This board is very specialized and you will need to do a little bit of homework to find a distributor near you. It can also accomodate fairly wide feet (in am japanese size 30), just check the board’s waist versus your shoe size. When hiking in the BC, given the length of the board you will need it to carry it fairly high on your back-pack in order to avoid hiting your heels on the way up. If you are not tall, then this board may not be for you. Overall this board met my ecpectations except for the on-piste behaviour, but it is a powder board after all !!!