ISPO Preview - 2011 All-Mountain Snowboards

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.

1) Rossignol Angus. 2) Rossignol One. 3) Amplid Hi-Def. 4)Arbor Coda. 4) Lib Tech TRS. 5) Lib Tech Lando Phoenix. 7) Lib Tech Travis Rice. 8) Jamie Lynn Phoenix. 9) Bataleon Omni. 10) Bataleon Project Green. 11) Bataleon Enemy+++. 12) Rome Anthem. 13) Atomic Alibi. 14) Never Summer SL-R. 15) K2 Raygun. 16) Endeavor Guerrilla.

Not much has changed with Amplid’s all-mountain line up for 2010/11. The Paradigma continues to borrow an all mountain shape from his lighter, faster and stiffer brother the UNW8, new for 2010 the Paradigma acquires a Sintruded 6.6K base for a touch more pace, whilst the UNW8 picks up HEXO2 honeycomb core technology from the pipe slaying Hi-Def and Carbon V-Stringers for unparalleled acceleration out of turns and pop more explosive than an atom bomb. Talking about the Hi-Def, the new hologram graphics have to be seen to be believed!

It looks to me like Lib Tech is dropping plain old Banana rocker technology on their all-mountain weapons in favour of their C2 Banana technology. The Lando and Lynn Phoenix and TRS get C2 technology to become more like Travis Rice’s pro deck which is definitely a bold move from Lib, considering they’ve been championing out-and-out banana rocker for the last couple of years. By the looks of it the Lando will be packing power plates, with the C2 technology, I reckon it’s going to be a very different ride to this year’s Lando.

Not much change at the Bataleon camp, we’re all agreed that the Enemy +++’s new paint job is pretty tasty. Although Bataleon have resisted the reverse camber bandwagon, they’re well and truly jumping on the Green construction bandwagon. Recycled sidewalls and base and a solvent free topsheet cover an FSC sourced wood core.. responsible design from one of the most forward thinking brands out there. It’s not just Bataleon going all eco, Atomic have also stepped up to the plate with a completely redesigned Alibi. I’ve had the opportunity to ride the new Alibi on a visit to Flachau in Austria last month and it is a seriously smokin’ ride. Not only have Atomic replaced conventional materials for greener options like a recycled base and natural fibre laminates, they’ve also loaded the Alibi with twin pop-rocker but with plenty of carbon reinforcement, easy to ride, loose and powerful are three words that describe the new Alibi. The Alibi also has a pointy nose and tail detail which looks awesome and helps reduce drag in deeper snow by extending the nose and tail radius. There’s lots going on at Rome, one of my favourite graphics for 2011 is the Anthem, judge for yourself.

Price point all mountain snowboards seem like a thing of the past, especially if you want a nice graphic. Max at Endeavor has got a winner with the 2011 Guerrilla; it’s looking very Cypress Hill. Time to show your gang colours and dig out your copy of Black Sunday!

Posted by Rich Ewbank in Features.

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