HelperElfMissy 42 Posted March 3, 2012 Share Posted March 3, 2012 Thanks Mick, Yeah..great day. Started out sunshiny, but the snow was falling and it was quite bleak by about lunchtime. The board handled well and with the flat light through the chopped up lumpy stuff I didnt feel thrown around or needing to slow down too much, the Roxy carved through well... bouncy, but not as bad as it could have been. I have been discussing this with PB tonight. What to do, which board to choose? Which board is likely to best handle the boilerplate groomer conditions at Thredbo? The Roxy. Which board is likely to be better suited to Europe, the steeper and icier runs? The Roxy. If you had to pick ONE board to take to Japan what would it be? The Roxy. BUT..the Stepchild Jibrocker was superfun! It was a playful little board that got me safely down icier groomers but came into its own when bouncing through open glades and amongst trees, especially through soft snow on a slight pitch that might find another board stationary. It effortlessly launched off the smallest of kickers, whereas I felt I needed to really work the Eminence to fly at all. If I were doing a season I would have to have a Jibrocker for play days! Now I just need to order one. Link to post Share on other sites
Mick Rich 78 Posted March 3, 2012 Share Posted March 3, 2012 Well the end-of-season sales have already started so there should be some deals about! Bindings too???? Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted March 3, 2012 Share Posted March 3, 2012 Meh... I love my current World Wide Snowboarding Fastecs. They are perfectly fine after 2 years...unlike the deceased Troop. I think I shall stick with them. If I did buy new ones I would get the Burton Stilletos. The lower highback is much much better, a lot more playful. I also found the huge backs, that were quite loose on the hire bindings, would flip up all the time...that is a BAD thing on low Japanese lifts. Noobs could very easily get caught out with them, they should be tightened at the very least. Link to post Share on other sites
Mick Rich 78 Posted March 28, 2012 Share Posted March 28, 2012 I'm resurrecting this post to keep all the Ride stuff together! i actually rewrote and tidied it up in the blog. I wrote it especially so youd read it and think "dammit! i should have bought it!" Right Ippy, I've just spent an hour or so checking out boards online (you're a bad influence) and stumbled on these vids, which you might be interested in, particularly as neither of us have yet to buy the afore-mentioned 'zerker:- Now I don't know about you, but the new tech features in that Highlife sound right up my street! & I'm now wondering if that demo place at Kagura has got one in because I want to ride that baby!!!! & then maybe buy an ex-demo one from that place in Happo-One as a Christmas present to myself in December!! Ride is turning out some sweet stuff these days!!!! Link to post Share on other sites
Mick Rich 78 Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 & now I've just found this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR4e4l2v6S8 So both the new Highlife and Machete GT look the mutt's nuts!! And since next year's 'zerker remains the same, tech-wise, maybe I was right to hold off from buying one! Come on Ippy, stop playing in those Kiotoshi trees at Ryuoo and drop some tech-talk on me!!!! Link to post Share on other sites
ippy 66 Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 Ill tell you what, im of exactly the same mind. I reckon im picking up the highlife for next year. The zerker is a freaking awesome surfy ride, its also pretty buttery (in the sense that a burton custom might be buttery). But that highlife sounds stacks of fun. Also bear in mind that the dude doing the comparison has a lot of days on both of these so will really know the differences by heart (or by feet). He was also capable of explaining the difference between last years highlife and last years zerker when they were pretty close. I like his comment that what theyve basically done is taken the response you get on the zerker made the nose more powder friendly, and basically kept it nice and playful as well. Sounds like a great deck for kagura i reckon. My only concern is that i have the slasher already so im overlapping a little. Maybe ill get one but keep it relatively short so theres a nice bit of air between them. That all being said, spent the past three days on the indoor and had a blast, so the urgency to replace the riot is kinda gone. Link to post Share on other sites
ippy 66 Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 ah wait! thats not the vid... 2 secs... Link to post Share on other sites
Mick Rich 78 Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 Ah, the eagle has landed!! How was Ryuoo? Ill tell you what, im of exactly the same mind. I reckon im picking up the highlife for next year. How many boards do you need? Is ippy an acronym for Increasing Purchases Per Year? Link to post Share on other sites
ippy 66 Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 in truth im kinda good for this year, the indoor has performed admirably. And were it not for the fact that the zerker felt like the perfect board for me, i would be more than happy just riding out next season on the indoor again. Ive got that board completely under control to the point that the ice at ryuoo wasnt that tough to handle. Because i rode it at the start of my third season (and was at the same time starting to head off the piste) it took some adjustment. Now that whole 90/10 thing is really working for me to the point that i reckon i could have a decent chance of only going over the handlebars a mere thirty or forty times on the horrorscope if i took it to the same spots i was riding the indoor the past three days. But you know me. I like to have that ripping deck in my quiver as well for when i just want to absolutely bomb stuff. The indoor is great, but it still gets bounced around and could do with a spot of dampening on it if it wants to be my real go to board. Its a fun kill it all deck, but its still lacking just that little bit of oomph. So i need a highlife UL or another berzerker. It pretty much comes down to the summer sales. If theres a cheap berzerker in kanda, ill pick it up. The dude im riding with is on about day 14 lifetime, i had him up in those trees at ryuoo and actually feeling confident by himself (as in he wasnt just following my lines into terrain he wasnt necessarily happy with), and part of that im attributing to that zerker. It gives a feeling you can trust it on anything to just let it do its thing (the other part is obviously that hes amazingly pig headed and brave like only a templar might have been, seriously, day about 11 lifetime he was riding between those ridge lines in nozawa and killing it . Ive also of course been coaching him a little (where the hell was my coach!), so he can now really slash his heel turn (he actually rides just like me now which is awesome and freaky at the same time), and hes getting used to moving his body to bank those carves from his heel to toe edge. His carving on steeps needs a little work still, but my god, the improvement in his confidence and ability just from 4 days on that board is amazing. So yeah, thats kinda why i want it. I felt the same at kagura. It just gave me way more confidence in sketchy terrain and improved my tree riding and natural terrain riding a lot. As i say though, the highlife runs the risk of being too much like a scope/slasher hybrid, and i worry it moght not feel like a totally different ride like the berzerker does. So ill buy the zerker if i can, and you have to buy the higlife so we can spend the whole season swapping boards Link to post Share on other sites
Jynxx 4 Posted March 31, 2012 Share Posted March 31, 2012 I got the official approval from my Mrs. that I can buy a new board... How did I do that!? Well, my Mrs. loves my super fast board and has been ridind on it for over a year. She wanted to swap boards for a day and finds out that she has a better board. ` Hey , you need to buy a better board ! ´ cool huh. BTW. definition of a better board for us. Super Fast base. ( most boards advertised as such is BS) Narrow width. Longer sidecut radius. anything else is just a gimmik Link to post Share on other sites
Mick Rich 78 Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Nice work Jynxx! So ill buy the zerker if i can, and you have to buy the higlife so we can spend the whole season swapping boards I don't do sloppy seconds!! Link to post Share on other sites
Jynxx 4 Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Cheers Mick ! If you guys were snowboarding where I do, you would probably agree with me on the really fast base boards. There are some really nice steeps but with a very long flat run out. I could crank it down and pass my wife on the steeps, but she will pass me on the flats and get out while I get stuck ... Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted April 22, 2012 Share Posted April 22, 2012 I am verging on the edge of purchase! My boardless status, the looming down under season and PB having board number 4 currently under construction is eating at me. I have pretty much rules out buying from the US despite being about half the price, because not only is there the wait time to recieve the order, I would have to go via parcel forwarding as they are unable to sell those brands to Aus... which could also be a problem at customs time. I think it is easier for me to just pay the inflated Aussie shop prices and be done with it. Problem: I want the 155 Roxy Eminence C2 BTX. So far, I have only found it in the shorter lengths... obviously there is much less of a need to have a longer board here in Aus where icy pistes lend themselves to a shorter board most of the time. Being a hybrid buyers can normally go a tad shorter, so to need a 155 in Aus you would be a fairly tall woman. I think I am going to have to make sure I order it in advance... which means I should probably go back to the company I hired through in Japan (thier Aussie store) and negotiate something with them - they did say they would do me a deal if I bought when back in Aus given they didnt have the stock in Japan. BUT.... I am also tempted to get a Stepchild Jibstick while I am at it!!! I had a lot of fun on that thing!! I am sure it would be a a nightmare on the bulletproof stuff mid season, but I can imagine it would be super playful in the spring slushies. Do I want to cart two boards? Do I want two sets of bindings (or am I going to be swapping bindings all the time???Cant be good for the screws/threads)... At least Qantas have changed thier baggage allowances to make it cheaper/easier to buy an extra bag/weight! What say you? One board or two? Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted April 22, 2012 Share Posted April 22, 2012 Three! Link to post Share on other sites
surfarthur 22 Posted April 22, 2012 Share Posted April 22, 2012 Muika's right, you definitely need three Link to post Share on other sites
@tokyo 14 Posted April 22, 2012 Share Posted April 22, 2012 Where's that "this is why terrorists hate us?" image....... Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted April 22, 2012 Share Posted April 22, 2012 yeah...yeah...First World problems... But seriously, it is a problem. I currently have NO board. I aint carrying three, and a snow property/ski change is a way off yet. Link to post Share on other sites
surfarthur 22 Posted April 22, 2012 Share Posted April 22, 2012 Get both Mamabear, one set of bindings shouldn't be an issue. Link to post Share on other sites
Jynxx 4 Posted April 22, 2012 Share Posted April 22, 2012 Stck with one board. Get the Roxy what if ... you couldn´t be bothered going out on spring slush / jib in the future ... OR...... I´d look for a used Twin, 151 or shorter for those days. Maybe Ippy could flog one Link to post Share on other sites
ippy 66 Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Id also say stick with one. I think quivers are honestly more trouble than theyre worth. Unless you live RIGHT NEXT to the resort, you can never know for sure what board you want to be on until you start riding about a bit. If you have a quiver youre always thinking to yourself "damn! i wish i had my [n] with me today instead of this one... i mean this ones alright, but i know itd be way better on [n]." No quiver and you just think "woohoo! im not sat in my house playing computer games!!!" (the actual veracity of this statement may be slightly more contingent based upon the individual involved). Would love to flog you one, but all i gots in my quiver these days is a bataleon riot 155 (which i will be selling i think), my 156 sierrascope (which has been actually rather fantastic and eye opening late season), my 164 slasher, and a 147(?) space metal fantasy thats actually going to a mate once she actually decides to come riding. Next season im only picking up a set of switchbacks just so i can see what this whole no-back thing is all about (and whether it really does make pow riding pure surfy joygasm or just kinda nice but kinda lame when you have to cut back onto the piste). Ill pick up a zerker or highlife if i can find one nice and cheap though mind you. Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 I bought 2 boards this year......very unusual. I originally bought a Bataleon Omni 163 but haven't been that impressed with it TBH. The TBT, initially was great, but I was having a few problems with a squirrelly rear when going flat. Pow riding wasn't as good as I hoped it was gonna, it was just "OK". So I splashed out again on a Salomon Powder Snake.......damn I love this board!! Floated great in late season pow, stomped all thru crud and chopped up piste and was still loads of fun on warm spring sugary cement. Its real soft, which I was a bit scared about when hitting crud days, but it was no problems. Hitting some mellow kickers (I'm scared of the big ones!!) was great fun, nice soft and steady landing, easy to butter and tail pressing is a cinch. It performed ace in the powder........it will more than likely be my "only" board for the foreseeable future and I MAY try and offload the Bataleon Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 You are more of a gear whore than me Ip! I can totally understand that philosophy of 'grass is greener' when you have a quiver. I have never had a quiver...at one point I had two boards, but they were both standard camber, one shorter than the other ... it was merely my old (a bit too short so it was easier to learn on) board, and my new board. And I was always super happy to get out amongst it - ice, snot, corn, or pow ...it didn't phase me. I think you are right! But geez I am glad I had that week of hiring, swapping and trialling different boards - it was COOL. And the Roxy ticked all of the boxes for me, so that said I need to make a few phone calls this week and find myself one in the big 155 Link to post Share on other sites
Mick Rich 78 Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Yeah, I'm another in the have-one-board-that-does-it-all camp!! I guess having a quiver would be nice if you had the money (to buy) and time (to keep chopping and changing), but the reality for most riders is that you don't, plus the pace of board design in the last few years is such that you now have a really good selection of genuine "quiver-killers" to choose from. Good luck with the purchase MB - look forward to seeing the pix of you posing with the Roxy!! Link to post Share on other sites
SantaCruz 0 Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 I'll say that having a quiver is nice in terms of flexability but I can see it being a hassle sometimes. I've got 4 boards, one of them (my very first board) I'm planning on selling on craigslist. That will leave me with my main board, a powder board and what I'll call my beater board. I really like have the beater during early and alte season conditions. You don't have to be as uptight about wrecking your nice board on rocks, tress, etc that are poking through. Link to post Share on other sites
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