Snowboard Review - Rossignol Twilight

Ok so I’m a season behind with the Rossignol Twilight, you’re right it was a late release in the 2008/09 season, but there are still a couple of boards floating around on the World Wide Web which can be picked up for peanuts. I bought my Twilight for a ridiculous £100 (about $160) on the internet in October as a bit of a punt. With a tight sidecut ~7m, fish shape (packing a 20mm taper) and an elliptical nose for added float I knew the Twilight would be a powder performer. Some might consider lugging a powder board around a bit of a luxury, I was interested to see if packing a powder specific board is worth the pain, effort and stress of cramming an additional board into your luggage allowance.

You’re probably thinking a powder snowboard created with the design input of Mr Jeremy Jones for under $200, where’s the catch? Well, Rossi lavishly built the Twilight with an untreated bamboo topsheet, not renowned for its water tight properties. The result? A snowboard with a topsheet that looks like a neglected garden fence after a few weeks thrashing. Undeterred by the consequences and keen for a bargain I made the purchase regardless; rubbed down the topsheet with fine grade sandpaper making sure any loose splinters were removed and then after cleaning the board up with a tack cloth applied three layers of Marine Varnish with Tung Oil. Does it look good? Hell yeah! It looks amazing, and if I had a creative bone in my body, I could have custom stained it.. I might just buy another Twilight and give it a crack. And the finish has really held up. I’ve ridden it for about a week in total and apart from the odd attack from viscous queue jumping Austrian and German skiers; it’s looking sharp, even the area under the bindings has retained its waterproof finish.

So I’ve established it’s a handsome ride and despite the obvious issues with the untreated topsheet, a bit of effort and you can get round that problem, and even customise the design. When you’re riding 2ft of fresh no-one cares what it looks like, it’s all about the ride! It wouldn’t be fair to test a powder board without bucket loads of fresh, fortunately Austria delivered once again and we were blessed with around 40cm of beautiful pow pow on the Kitzsteinhorn Glacier, a perfect mountain and conditions to put any powder weapon through it’s paces.

Initially I was surprised how easy it was to change from my usual twin ride to the Twilight’s directional powder focused shape, I didn’t even need to change my stance or binding angles. The board danced from edge-to-edge much faster than pretty much any other board I have ever ridden, and the average longitudinal and torsional flex paired with the relatively tight sidecut meant I could open and close carves in a unbelievably short radius, so even at 164cm this board canes tight tree lined lines. I opened up the throttle on some open faces, needless to say, no matter how deep the snow gets, you just don’t have to lean back, there’s also bucket loads of stability and the easiest hand dragging carves you could wish for on tap. Keeping the nose long and wide and the tail short and narrow keeps the Twilight stable at high speed but also ridiculously agile and slashy. Tight windlip thrashing and surf-style threading the needle is just unbelievable fun and after big slashes the Twilight dives into snappy turns, the long elliptical nose keeping you from going over the handlebars and the plentiful camber providing a snappy recoil power that makes riding the Twilight addictive. These qualities also saved me from a few occasions when after dropping some solid 20ft drops my nose would usually have submarined, no worries on the Twilight, the large nose volume keeps you stomping deep landings, even if your weight is a little too over the nose. Yep, I can safely say the Twilight absolutely slays powder and afternoon chop is much easier than on a standard all mountain board even with tired post powder morning legs. And you don’t have to be a pro to ride this board, if you’ve got a couple of weeks powder riding under your belt the Twilight will certainly help you to progress.

My one criticism of the twilight is more a criticism of the general Fish shape’s behaviour. On hard pack snow during hard carves I found the short narrow tail skipped out a number of times, I think this is because a lot of my weight was loaded through the wider nose, however, on good piste conditions there wasn’t a problem and to be honest you’ve got to expect a few compromises on such a condition specific quiver board. Oh yeah the other compromise is riding switch, which is quite frankly weird, possible, but weird… but you knew that already.

To answer my question: The Twilight is a fantastic package at the rrp let alone for the money you can pick one up for this season… it’s a certified bargain, and if you’re looking for a powder specific snowboard for fresh days, you’d be a fool to not get on the internet and snap up a bargain. Riding the Twilight absolutely made my time riding on the Kitzsteinhorn and really boosted my confidence and the fun level. I wasn’t even bothered about missing out on some afternoon powder kicker riding, staying base on snow was reward enough. I’ll be carrying the Twilight in my board bag even if it means I have leave my trousers at home to keep within my baggage allowance. And don’t worry about the bamboo topsheet, you can customise it and get a quality finish even if you don’t have a Scooby about DIY.

Posted by Rich Ewbank in Features.

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