Brand Test - 2011 Atomic Snowboards

A week in the simply awesome Ski Amade ski-region Austria with a selection of Atomic’s 2011 range to test including the Banger, Alibi, Axum and Pivot, could it be the best weeks holiday ever?

Going to Flachau in Austria without visiting the Atomic Snowboards factory is like visiting Rome and not visiting the Coliseum… okay it’s not quite that essential but for a snowboarding geek like me it’s a nice little bonus. I was in Flachau for a week of shredding; although Flachau itself isn’t the most inspiring of resorts, it’s a great place to base yourself for making daytrips to the ‘goods’ hidden around the Ski Amade. With killer Parks like the Absolute Park and Burton Stash in Flachauwinkel and the perfectly sculpted Betterpark in Alpendorf it’s not surprising that Atomic have a reputation building some seriously capable park sticks. Head to Zauchensee and discover some of the best tree and pillow riding I have ever seen (as good as Argentiere Chamonix) and you’ll see why Atomic aren’t half bad at designing and building freeride boards either.

I dropped in to the Atomic factory which was 5 minutes from my accommodation for the week, to see head of Atomic’s snowboard R&D program, local lad Manuel; and see if I could borrow a couple of 2011 boards to put through their paces over the week. Four boards heavier with an enormous smile on my face I was ready to roll, stoked that’d I’d be pimping next years Atomic boards in the homeland of one of Austria’s most famous Snowboard brands.

Banger 158 –

I thought I was taking a bit of a gamble taking the Banger out for a spin. For one, 158cm is my normal all-mountain snowboard size, when it comes to freeriding I go for snowboards around the 165cm. Secondly, although it had snowed I wasn’t really sure if there was enough powder to warrant a tapered fish shaped snowboard. Two runs on the Banger and I was blown away the board’s versatility.. but where to start?

Sure the Banger has all of the qualities of a tapered board, edge to edge the Banger is fast, when the snow gets deeper, the nose rides up and any worry of back leg burn is out of the window. There are a couple of neat features on the Banger that set it aside from standard 20mm Fish boards:

Powder Pop Rocker is a fantastic addition to the nose of the Banger. Applying weight through the camber causes transition point from camber to nose kick to move a further 10 cm closer to the front binding. Sure this helps with float, but 20mm of taper and a setback stance is enough to give you float in all but the stickiest of spring snow; where the Pop Rocker works is the incredible ease in which sharp almost instant short radius carves can be initiated. Now where it gets super techy is that the engineers at Atomic have used a really thin board profile with quadaxial glass and carbon fibre stringers, so the longitudinal flex is about a 6 out of 10 but there is explosive power out of turns in powder and on piste. The quadaxial glass also means that when you’re carving hard on an edge there’s no chance you’ll be slipping out onto your knees or your derrière. The amount of pleasure I had darting in and out of the Zauchensee trees and cruising around the red and blue groomers was immeasurable. My only criticism of the Banger is that by using a Nomex honeycomb in the nose, they’ve stripped any natural damping, and with the Pop Rocker, you get a nose that chatters when the speed is cranked up. However, because the start of each effective edge is raised off the snow when the Pop Rocker is loaded it doesn’t feel sketchy, it just vibrates like Rolf Harris’s wobble board.

Intermediate to advanced snowboarders looking for a great value powder specific snowboard that won’t constrict them to deep powder off-piste, is agile between trees, stable off drops and straight lining and a load of fun just shredding the pistes should check out the Banger, it’s a must have. In my opinion, the Banger is the board that bridges the gap between powder board and freeride shred, the perfect freeride board in a two board quiver…. pure class!

Alibi Renu 159 -

The Alibi has evolved! I rode the Alibi last year and I was extremely impressed with the pop, edge hold, super light-weight construction and the bargain price tag. Unsurprisingly I was little bemused when it was revealed to me at ISPO that Atomic had completely revised everything from the Alibi’s shape to its construction.

Starting with the construction, Atomic have gone all green; energy hungry fibreglass has been replaced with woven Juta, a natural Hemp like fibre. If you doubt this is possible, there are cool little windows on the topsheet where you can see the woven fabric. Last years CNC Poplar core has been toned down and looses the weight saving shavings but gains some Willow stringers, and the standard PTex sidewalls get replaced with wood, at least that’s what it says in the catalogue, the pre-production model I rode had recycled PTex sidewalls. As if the Alibi Renu wasn’t green enough, the base is now made of a 7200 grade recycled Ptex. Personally, I think it’s commendable that Atomic have invested so much time developing the green credentials of the Alibi, and to take a well established, big seller and completely change it into a product that barely resembles the board it was a year ago is courageous and ambitious.

Atomic didn’t stop with the construction, Atomic’s team of designers have also radically changed the shape and profile of the Alibi. Essentially the Alibi has migrated from an all-mountain board with a freestyle skew, to an all-mountain snowboard with a freeride skew. Instead of using camber like last year’s board, Atomic have introduced All Terrain Pop Rocker. Unloaded the Alibi is cambered, once weight is applied through the binding the camber runs flat and rocker creeps into the profile around 10-15cms after the binding. On the Alibi this doesn’t make the board any more buttery, it does however improve the ease in which the Alibi initiates turns, it improves straight line stability by raising the catchy part of the edge above the snow and brings the steering of the board to your feet. In deep snow you no longer get the feel of pronounced camber pushing the nose down into the snow so it’s a definite positive to the design. On the Pivot, a less heavily reinforced jib stick, I felt that loading the Pop Rocker caused the effective edge in side slips to feel short, and made stopping and side slip control harder work, on the Alibi I didn’t feel like there was a problem. The Alibi was stable and there was ample reinforcement pushing against applied loads at the tip and tail. Other tweaks to the Alibi’s shape although slightly more subtle include a slightly pointed tip and tail with a steel tip defender; trust me when I say it looks the bomb! To me these little design touches are more evidence that Atomic aren’t building a board to be thrown away after a season’s thrashing, the Alibi is built to last.

So what’s the Alibi Renu like to Ride? It’s different… but still a great ride. My first thoughts were that that the new Alibi feels heavier than last years ride. At the same time this additional weight is quite reassuring, the new Alibi gives the impression that if it picked a fight with a rock it would end up the better off. Vance who also rode the Alibi, and I, agreed that the Alibi was easy to get on with almost instantly. The flex is quite firm (Atomic claim it’s an 8/10, this is probably a bit of an exaggeration), however by rockering the nose with Pop Rocker under load, the Alibi rolls into carves with very little effort, committing to the fall-line is enough to initiate carves. Unlike a lot of rockered boards the Alibi does have a tail that punches you out of turns, essential if you want to be throwing 10ft high rooster plumes into the air. Despite being relatively easy to ride, the Alibi really like to be ridden aggressively and to it’s credit the firm flex and pop is noticeable when it comes to jumps and drops. Although I found the the Alibi had plenty of pop, it didn’t feel anywhere near as snappy as last year’s board; instead it felt damp and refined, this quality is even more evident when you are pushing your speed to the boundaries of sanity.

If you had last year’s Alibi and want to this years incarnation to mimic last years light and snappy feel, you might be better picking up an Atomic Hatchet or Axum; these boards are light and lively and perfect for pushing your freestyle skills. If you’re a dedicated freerider looking for a board to thrash in the powder then I’d suggest you take a look at the Banger, one of the best and highest spec fish shaped boards I’ve ridden.

The Alibi is snowboard suited to an advanced rider or at a push a strong intermediate, looking for a versatile board to charge pistes and get creative off piste. It’s a board that will handle sketchy run-ins, switch and regular; stick precarious landings and carve as hard as any cambered board on the market. As long as you have strong legs and aren’t worried too much about missing the rail-line out of your park runs then the Alibi is a great choice.

Axum 156 -

The Axum remains pretty much unchanged from last season. The new lick of paint will have lovers and haters, but the fact remains that the Axum is a very capable freestyle snowboard. Designed specifically for keen kicker riders, the Axum packs a lot of features under its skin including Freestyle Pop Rocker and RSR double edge technology. Like last years model, I liked the Axum off jumps; the pop was good and like a lot of rockered snowboards, toe edge initiation into backside spins was clean and catch-free. Heel-side carves into spins felt like I had a little less grip than standard camber but on smaller jumps it wasn’t noticeable an issue and to be honest it wasn’t something I hadn’t adjusted to by the end of a days riding. On rails I felt the Axum needed quite a bit of edge dulling, even though the Axum has 2.5 degrees of edge bevel, on the C-box I felt my toes gripping a little on backside boardslides, without attacking it with a file first you wouldn’t get me pushing it through any down to flat kinks. I didn’t notice any benefit from the RSR double edge other than the fact that it’s a good conversation piece on the lift. The sintered base was really fast, even in afternoon slush and I didn’t experience any problems with going fast other than the fact that the Axum could do with a bit of damping. Where I was most surprised by the Axum’s performance was in the pipe: the Axum was fast along the flat bottom and held a super solid line up the walls. Landings were forgiving and as a pretty inexperienced pipe rider, I felt the flex and Pop Rocker really helped me gain confidence to get higher out of the pipe and pump through the landing to generate speed for the next hit.

From my experience the Axum is a perfect board for someone who is used to riding slopestyle boards like the Rome Agent and Burton Se7en but who now wants to ride something a little looser than standard camber without committing 100% to the reverse camber revolution. The Axum is a great middle ground for intermediate to advanced park riders and could be a really great board for inexperienced pipe rider like me who wants to gain some confidence and learn some tricks.

Pivot 156 -

As Atomic’s entry level freestyle snowboard the Pivot tends to be the board that gets picked up my beginners or inexperienced riders looking for a second board to help them get to grips with rails and park transitions. Atomic have hit the nail on the head with the Pivot, it’s incredibly easy to turn, easy to pop and jib around on and most importantly its fun. The twin shape worked great on jumps and for those getting to grips with switch riding, you couldn’t ask for an easier or more progressive board to start on. On rails I felt the Pivot was much smoother and more catch free than the Axum.

So the Atomic Pivot is fun and progressive, but there a couple of characteristics that mean experienced freestylers might want to look elsewhere. For one, the Pivot’s extruded base is pretty slow compared with Atomic’s higher grade sintered bases. If you ride mostly mid-winter conditions or are committed 100% to riding rails, you probably won’t notice this lack of speed too much. On the other hand, I wouldn’t want to use the same drop in point as other riders for spring time kickers, you could find yourself a good couple of meters short of the knuckle. I also thought the Pivot was a bit of a wimp when it came to heavier spring snow, being bullied by late afternoon mounds and slushy landings. To be honest this was the last thing my tired legs wanted after a solid 6 hours of riding.

The Pivot is a great board for those looking for their first rail and jib snowboard; It’s cheap, easy to ride, forgiving and predictable. However, the Pivot isn’t all things to all men; snowboarders who want a board to ride the whole mountain might find that the Pivot struggles to deliver versatility in all conditions and on different types of terrain. Atomic market the Pivot as a great entry level freestyle board, as that, it’s one of the best money can buy.

Posted by Rich Ewbank in Features.

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