Snowboard Review Features

The Snowboard Review test team is back from the 2010 snowboard test, a week of putting the 2011 season’s snowboards through their paces. What with Icelandic volcanoes spewing out clouds of ash and paralysing the UK’s airport industry and a week of the most appalling May weather I’ve ever seen, I was blown away by the fact that the Snowboard-Review team were able to test almost 100 snowboards!

Continue reading The 2010 Snowboard Test

The 2009/10 season was a sensational year for the boys at YES. Dropped from the Burton International Team in 2008; with hard work, a great brand and backing from Europe’s most technologically advanced factory Nidecker; JP Solberg, Romain De Marchi and DCP have had quite a reversal of fortunes. 2011 sees YES expand their range from one board to five. Snowboard-Review managed a sneaky peek at their growing range at ISPO, Europe’s premier winter sports tradeshow.

Continue reading ISPO Preview - 2011 YES. Nowboards

Some might be thinking that with the wealth of specialist snowboards filling the shelves of stores world wide, All-Mountain snowboards might be dying a death. Of course, you’d be wrong, All-Mountain boards still make up the majority of sales and still account for most of the boards you’ll see on the hill. Snowboard Review picked out some rides worth keeping an eye out for next season.

Last year’s surprise hit, the Angus sees another year in Rossignol’s snowboard line-up. Largely unchanged from last year’s Angus, the 2010/11 model will feature all-mountain Amptek (camber between the bindings and rocker after) and an even more gruesome graphic (see for your self below). The big news at Rossi is that next year’s all mountain line up sees Amptek technology used on the entire range. Rossi’s all mountain jack of all trades, the One gets another slick graphic and all-mountain Amptek matched up with Magnetraction edges… they’re calling it Magtek, if the retains it’s sub $400 price point it’s going to clear up the market. The JDub, Rossi’s beefed up big kicker charger also gets Magtek and a ton of linear carbon reinforcement, I’m told the result is a hard charging deck without the brutal stiffness the JDub is famed for.

Continue reading ISPO Preview - 2011 All-Mountain Snowboards

Technically Snowboard Review is a site for Snowboards and Snowboards only, but you need bindings to go riding so on this occasion I believe I’m justified in posting preview pictures of next years bindings. So what’s hot and what’s not? Well strap bindings are still fashionable and Switch Step-Ins won’t be making reappearance, amen. Over the years we’ve seen all sorts of reinventions of the traditional strap binding, from Flow’s original slip in binding and Apo’s rather slicker looking Expresso binding which essentially does the same job, to Beyond Snow’s fairly over engineered strap binding designed to cut down the time required to tighten your bindings from 10 seconds to 5 and only at the cost of an extra kilo…hmm.

Continue reading ISPO Preview - 2011 Bindings

Volkl is one of those brands that we’d always heard good things about and although they’re a highly regarded and popular ski brand their snowboard division has never really benefited from the same exposure and popularity. Nevertheless they’ve always supported a very core squad of European and Canadian riders and by all reports have made some quality decks over the years. Anyway, with this in mind, SB-R thought it about time our readers found-out whether the hype was justified and contacted snowboarding legend and Swiss distributor of Volkl Harry Gunz in the hope he’d send Tom a few boards…needless to say Tom wasn’t disappointed!

Continue reading Brand Test - Volkl Squad, Coal & Cashew Snowboards Reviewed

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.

Continue reading Snowboard Review - Rossignol Twilight

So 2011’s freeride boards are looking fantastic, but I know what you guys are waiting for! It’s all about the freestyle park boards. So what’s new for 2011 and what trends are going to be big. I strolled around ISPO picking out boards that bound to sell like hot cakes next season.

Firstly, I don’t know what Forum are doing these days, but it seems to be working! This year’s Scallywag with the Chilly Dog rocker was a monster success thanks to the immediately recognisable SCALLYWAG base graphic. This year’s Scallywag is looking gggrreeaaaattt (said in a pirate accent) and the Pirate’s plank graphic is a nice touch. Another Forum board to look out for is the Forum Holy Molly, no doubt you’ll be seeing the flouro topsheet in lift lines worldwide by December, but I was particularly intrigued by the toe and heel riser at the bindings, I can only assume the ramps are for improved edge hold and response… on a Forum? Surely all they have to do is reach the street furniture you’re sliding?

Stepchild haven’t grown out of their teenage angst stage yet, so their graphics are political, poking fun at the USA’s puppet presidents and out-right controversial with the Whale Dick… yep a cartoon of a whale with an enormous Johnson. It’s not just Stepchild upsetting grandparents worldwide, the Capita Horrorscope returns next season with a mad collage of alien shaped colour, and there’s a new release in the line-up, the Extreme Party Goer… naked Panda’s with boobs adorn the topsheet.. I’m just glad I’m not growing up with these visions in my head!

Demir at Imperivm has been busy readying his legion for another seasonal campaign. Hot graphics throughout the line, the introduction of some rocker boards and the fastest bases in the world (10,000 grade sintered base on the DJVI!!!), I don’t know why we don’t see more of Imperivm, definitely one of my tips for 2011. It’s not just Imperivm who are giving riders what they want, at long last Amplid have released a jib deck, it’s what the kids have been screaming out for and now it’s here. Loaded with Amplid’s new Jib rocker profile (maximises board rail contact between and under the bindings, with a buttery rocker tip and tail), some dope (excuse the pun) graphics, Amplid’s new environmentally friendly recycled Polywood core and the usual high end materials and construction you’d expect from Amplid, the Dopamine is on my test list for May, big time!

I bumped into Max Jenke from Endeavor who was busy readying his merchandise and chatting to the various journalists meandering around Endeavor’s 2011 line. Max has got an eye for graphics; every board he put’s his brand’s name to just look incredible. Whether the Russian cosmonauts on the Hi5 series is my favourite graphic of 2011 remains to be seen, but for now, I’m definitely digging it. On the other hand, a look I’m not feeling is the K2 WWW, obviously conventional topsheet finishes aren’t doing it for K2 so they’re using Ptex for 2011 the first thoughts that spring to mind is excess weight. I’m sure K2 is banking on the all new Fastplant to bring home the bacon. With it’s ridiculously soft flex and mind blowing durability, the Fastplant is set to bring home the Bacon in 2011. On the subject of graphics, Hampus Mosseson’s ride on Omatic, The Sweet get’s a new lick of paint, yep, it is in the form of a neon green Key-tar, damn that guy is too trendy for his own good.

1)Forum Holy Moly. 2) Forum Holy Moly. 3) Stepchild Corporate. 4) Forum Scallywag. 5) Capita Horrorscope. 6) Capita Extreme Partygoer. 7) Imperium First Legion. 8) Amplid Dopamine. 9) Forum The Honeypot. 10) Endeavor Hi 5. 11) Endeavor Colour. 12) Omatic Sweet. 13) K2 World Wide Weapon.

Continue reading ISPO Preview - 2011 Freestyle / Park Snowboards

The big release of the year Jones Snowboards, Volkl’s all new powder inspired Soul Surfer, a very limited edition 2m Rad-Air Tanker complete with retro 20 year anniversary graphics and a cool leash detail. 2011’s freeride snowboards have got it going on, Snowboard Review checked out ISPO to hunt out the hottest powder rides for next season.

The first stop on my Whirlwind tour was a quick catch up with Arno from Rossignol to find out what’s going on with the Experience since Jeremy Jones’ departure. Essentially the Experience will remain largely unchanged from this year. With a little input from Xavier De Le Rue they’ve made a few tweaks to the design, like extending the nose and tail for improved stability on bumpy terrain. They’re also exaggerated the lift of the rocker from the bindings to the tip and tail to provide extra float and increased manoeuvrability. To be honest, why would the guys at Rossi want to change something so spot on just for the sake of changing it?

1) Jeremy Jones and the Jones Flagship. 2) Harry Gunz and the Rad-Air 20Yr Anniversary Tanker. 3) Lib Tech Banana Hammock. 4) Rad Air Tanker surf leash detail. 5) Rad Air Tanker graphic. 6) Endeavor Next. 7) Rome Notch.

Continue reading ISPO Preview - 2011 Freeride Snowboards

With their recent alliances with the YES. crew and Mr Jeremy Jones, Nidecker Snowboards have exploded back into the public conciousness. Snowboard Review’s head of testing Tom Ewbank took out three of Nideckers big releases for 2010, to see if they live up to the hype surrounding Switzerland’s favourite snowboard factory.

You may have noticed on the website that not many Nidecker boards have been tested, and with so many new brands developing boards at the Nidecker factory SB-R wanted to see what all the hype was about. Being the inquisitive people we are we loaded the car with a small crew of riders and SB-R’s resident photographer Jimbo, and headed to the Nidecker board test at Le Crosets in the Portes De Soliel. An afternoon spent sessioning the park and making the most of the previous days deposit of fresh powder made for perfect test conditions; even though the light was a bit flat at times. Six hours, three boards and five Snickers bars later the test was over, below are our findings:

Continue reading Brand Test - Nidecker Legacy, Advanced and NDK Random Snowboards Reviewed

There are plenty of old favourites and new editions alike in the 2011 Burton Snowboards line-up. From the flying-V version of the ever faithful Custom to the ‘so now’ release of the reggae styled limited edition Damien Marley Whammy Bar and the all new retro shaped soul surfing powder shredder the Steller.

There nothing like the Burton stand at Ispo. For one, it’s enormous, dwarfing the next biggest including the likes of the Ride and K2 setups. Secondly it’s right at the centre of the snowboarding hall and the main focal point of the show. And thirdly, it doesn’t half make the boards look good. Enough about the stand, I’m sure you just want to know about next years boards.. well Burton are notoriously good at keeping their boards under wraps until the start of the season. As a result, I can only talk you through the range from a broad perspective; what decks are looking tight, which 2010 boards are missing from the 2011 range and then leave you to browse through some pics of the highlights.

Continue reading ISPO Preview - Burton Snowboards 2011