Stepchild Headless Horseman / FTW

Posted: 02 December 2011 04:16 PM

Hi! I have been looking for an all mountain freestyle board that can actually carve well on groomers and handle backcountry riding. I guess i should look for a stiffer, rockered board. I narrowed the choice to: Endeavor BOD (zero camber, 2012 version) and Stepchild Headless Horseman or FTW boards.

However during autumn tests the BOD dissapointed me with its carving abbilities on steep groomers and hardpack/ice, the board behaves in a similar way to a Salomon Grip, its horrible on ice.  Unfortunatelly I did not have an opportunity to ride Stepchild Headless or FTW. Des anyone know, from his own experience, how does this board handle steep groomers, high speed riding, ice?

Thanks!

Posted: 04 December 2011 12:26 PM

Ice and hardpack, look for magnetraction….  Lib, Gnu and Rossi boards.  It’s the *hit for that junk. :)

Couldn’t comment on those boards, sorry.

Posted: 04 December 2011 11:08 PM

I’ve got the HH and while you can do it all with the board, it is StepChild’s top level park board.  Contrary to what I thought originally, the rocker starts between the feet but at only 6mm its really subtle, and so you get decent contact points to tip and tail.  The lift to the nose/tail, helps in any deeper powder, and by sitting to the back seat, you can blast through crud.

But you can apply that to pretty much any board out there!

I love it, and will never sell it, but for a true carving board? Look elsewhere.

Posted: 04 December 2011 11:27 PM

Thanks for replies! So I rather should stay with positive camber or try some hybrid construction boards.

Milly, after reading your posts I guess you are an expert on Stepchild boards. Did you ride a cambered Simon Chamberlain 2011 pro model? Maybe that would be an option for me: Jumps, boxes, high speed riding and backcountry.

Posted: 05 December 2011 12:05 AM

Not tried any of Chamberlain, Sexton or JP Walker’s pro models, so I can’t help you there!

If you can stomach the graphics, then last years Ex Pat - the stars and stripes liveried one - could be up your street StepChild wise or the 2010 Corporate (pale blue deck, demon headed business manager, as used in the 2010 olympic pipe competition by Markku Koski).  These are stiffer, higher end construction cambered boards that can cut it most places, but may give you more rear leg burn if you’re regularly hitting powder days.

I think rocker has its moments, and camber too, but I’m getting used to the hybrids whereby you have camber under the feet and then slight rocker to the tips, just to reduce that catchiness you can find and to give added float.  I’ll know more in a month or so when i head for the recently snowed on Alps.

If you want one board to do it all, you’re more than likely going to have compromises, so just try to make sure you know what you want to do more.

I got the HH because I wanted to jib and butter about the place, something to ride for no hassle and just take it easy on.  But I want more than that more often than not. I want to carve along groomers and then take the side hits to hit some powder between trees/under chairlifts, and so I got a Capita BSOD.

I can ride the whole mountain with the HH - and if I got a 157 rather than the 154 I did buy, I could have done it ‘better’ - but I needed something more, to enjoy more and be more fit for purpose.  I could have gone for the Ex Pat or the corporate, but I wanted to try a different brand.

Because of your riding needs, you may also think about starting a quiver, with a tapered powder/backcountry focussed board plus an all mountain freestyle stick.

And there’s hundreds of either of them to chose from!