2012 All-Mountain Snowboard Preview

All-mountain snowboards are dying a bit of a death of recent. If you ride mostly in the park it’s now standard procedure to own a super short, blunted tipped, rocker profiled jib noodle. If you get your kicks from laying down epic rooster tails in chest deep powder and carving trenches in pristine corduroy then it’s a stiff tapered powder gun or an uber rockered floating banana that sits in your garage until the good stuff falls from the heavens. If you enjoy both, the likelihood is you have quiver of boards to fulfil your snowboarding needs.  What has happened to riding everything on one snowboard? Tobi and I spent a day at ISPO in Munich hunting down the best All-Mountain boards of the upcoming 2011/2012 winter season.

2012 All-mountain snowboard preview video

Actually after all that rhetoric it turns out the All mountain snowboard market has and always will be in pretty good health. Not everybody has the money to fill a rack with boards for everyday of the week. And in the case of snowboarders who have to travel long distances by train, plane and automobile to get their fix of the white stuff the prospect of carrying two boards and the inherent Ryan Air excess baggage charges are enough incentive to choose one board to ride it all. Over the last couple of seasons the introduction of reverse camber and a number of hybrid alternatives has improved snowboard versatility no end. A 158 all mountain snowboard with a hybrid profile can feel nimble and playful for afternoons in the park and still float like a much longer freeride board on 2ft+ days, and there’s no need for heavily directional shapes or set-back stances so riding switch competently is no confined to true twin shapes.

The big news at Amplid is that the legendary Burton Custom beating Paradigma is swapping camber for Amplid’s Flatliner profile, essentially zero camber. Peter Bauer Amplid co-owner and European pioneer was keen to let us know that the change wasn’t because there was a problem with the camber, in fact Peter was singing camber’s praises from the rooftops during our meeting. The reason for the Paradigma’s new profile is to make the board more accessible to intermediate riders, the flex is softer, the board is more forgiving in the park and it floats easier in deep snow, it’s more all-mountain than ever. It also provides some product separation between the Paradigma and its gnarly twin the UNW8 which retains its camber, ultra-lightweight construction and snappy carbon reinforcement.

Regis Roland is a sharp cat and last season had the sense to sign UK ripper and fellow French speaker Tyler Chorlton. For 2012 Tyler will be riding his own pro model the APO TC 159 which pretty much resembles last year’s BC 159 with the powder rocker profile (camber between the feet and rocker at the nose and tail). Other news at APO is that the BC will now longer come with the powder rocker option which is a bit of shame as it was one of my top picks from last year’s range. The BC is now available with zero camber exclusively; however, the good news is that BC now has honeycomb inserts to shave a couple of lbs.

Not much change at Atomic with their all mountain offering or Rossignol for that matter. Last year’s eco sensation the Alibi Renu remains unchanged apart from the neat day and night graphic. For those of you that like an all-mountain board that will power through any snow conditions the Alibi is a hot ticket. At Rossignol all of the range takes on a form of Amptek even the low end boards like the Circuit and District.

The big news at the Big B is squeezebox technology. Walter our guide through our Burton odyssey explained it like this. Up ‘til now core profiles for hybrid camber/rocker profiles had been adapted from designs made for cambered boards. For Burton these consist of their Negative core profile which gets thicker at the bindings and tapers into a thinner profile between the feet and at the nose and tail and the Positive profile which tapers thinner at the nose and tail but remains thick between the bindings for improved grip and power. The problem is hybrid boards with camber at the tips and rocker between the bindings don’t flex like cambered snowboards. Squeezebox is the exact opposite of the Negative core profile; remain thick between and after the bindings and thinner underfoot. Walter insisted the new profile improves all aspects of the Flying V profile from grip to pop. The Custom Flying V gets the Squeezebox core for next year; we’re extremely excited about getting our hands on it! We were extremely relived to see familiar names like the Custom X and Vapor in next year’s line but there was no sign of the T7, with Terje gallivanting around Japan riding ridiculous powder prototypes perhaps the Cat’s board will resurface a few years down the line with a completely different agenda.

The Riders Lounge were being a little frosty with the media in attendance and we had our wrists slapped for taking pictures of this coming seasons Union bindings and Capita boards. We didn’t dare try our luck with a catalogue request. Once again Capita graphics are heavily influence by neon smoke, beast headed totty and laser beam vision. Even without a catalogue we couldn’t help but notice the strange new sidecut on the Black Snowboard of Death. We’ve seen all sorts of different takes on sidecut geometry but the BSD’s new lump is certainly the strangest… will it work? Only testing will tell.

The headline stealing news at Mervin is that the Altered Genetics which has for as long as I can remember stood as GNU’s flagship snowboard is now no longer the most expensive and technologically advanced board in the range. The Impossible Series is Mike Olson’s latest vision of all mountain snowboarding, it combines a Banana reverse camber profile with Magnetraction edges and newly developed Magnesium Fibre composite laminates for a lively and unique feel. The good news for the Altered Genetics is that it picks up Vectran reinforcement a trickle down technology from the Lib Tech Cygnus X, it’s the material NASA uses to protect its satellites and the International Space Station from space shrapnel traveling tens of thousands of miles an hour. Travis Rice’s board range continues to grow no doubt to coincide with the release of Redbull’s blockbuster movie release “The Art of Flight” next season. If you haven’t seen the trailer already, immediately stop what you are doing and Google it! Travis’s range now includes the standard T.Rice C2BTX available with blunted and pointy tips, the Horsepower version which uses damper and more powerful Basalt fibres instead of glass, the powder specific Banana Hammock and the T.Rice Split which for 2012 comes with mounting holes drilled and with option of the Karakoram Split 30 binding system, the Karakoram binding kit is pretty expensive but offers incredibly swift changes from touring to split mode and back again and exceptional split cohesion when you are in ride mode (Karakoram website - link here ).

Nitro has teamed up with Fiat’s Italian tuning house Abarth to produce a limited series of Team Series boards. Nitro is huge in Italy and no doubt these boards will be gracing the Champagne bars of the Italian Dolomites and Milan’s ski/fashion retailers.  Does anybody remember Burton’s collaboration with Ducati? Guaranteed to be stolen from outside a mountain restaurant faster than a Fiat 500 Abarth with the keys in the ignition.

Snowboarding hero Jake Blauvelt finally gets his own signature on Ride which is pretty significant indeed as the last time I remember a snowboarder having their own pro model at Ride was Mikey LeBlanc and that was at least 10 years ago. Ride is also introducing the Buck Wild to their board range next year. Unfortunately we know absolutely nothing about the Buck Wild of Blauvelt boards because the reps at Ride were far too busy drinking Munich’s finest Helles beer and entertaining the scantily clad entertainment (yep the Ride stand had table dancers and a peep show).To be fair it’s a legitimate excuse.

Last but by no means least is the Salomon Man’s Board. We are itching to get our hands on this board; it really has the potential to be one of the most exciting releases of next season. Under the ‘Beers of the world’ inspired topsheet the Man’s Board has a Bamboo core with cork rails and the Popster profile, the traditional glass laminates are reinforced with powerful and damp Basalt X & Y stringers and slightly early rise tips get thrown into the spec for a bit of float in the deep stuff. We see it as a very worth replacement for the Answer which disappears next season.

Posted by Rich Ewbank in Features.