urgent help needed. Do I buy a new board???

Posted: 21 February 2012 01:53 AM

I am a female rider and have been riding a soloman ivy 148 for the last 7 years which was supposed to be an all mountain camber… i think (not so good at this stuff) with ride lx bindings which are a bit battered now. I dont do loads of tricks and dont spend much time in the park, i am self taught and dont ride switch but I have been practising the last 2 years a little and would like to get better at it. I absolutely love powder but rarely get the conditions. I am from the UK and go boarding generally once a year :-( 

I am quite agressive on the pistes and like to go quite quick but i really want a board that allows me to improve in all areas, and really enjoy riding and have a good fun. I want to learn more tricks and do more jumps but I’m not getting any younger so dont want to break my neck!  If there is powder that would be my priority but i dont get enough to warrant having 2boards so a good all rounder that I will fall inlove with would be perfect.

Can anyone suggest some boards please?

Also I weigh 9stone do I need to be riding womens boards or does it not really matter?

I am going boarding on 3rd of March and want one for then so urgent help is needed!!

Thanks

Posted: 21 February 2012 12:15 PM

Hey - I’m roughly the same weight as you (and female!). Take it from me that if you start riding longer boards designed for guys, things start to feel like a barge. I usually ride a 145 for my all mountain board, but have a shorter one for jibbing and a longer one for powder… You’ll probably struggle to find many choices in men’s boards under 150. Women’s boards are constructed with the same materials and technology as men’s, so if you’re worried that you’re missing something then don’t be. Overall, women’s boards are lighter, and usually a little softer than the equivalent board for guys (due to the way we transfer energy to the board and the brute force we can put into it). Yeah, some of the graphics suck because board manfacturers sometimes have an issue with all girls liking pink, but I’ve also seen some pretty hideous guys boards!!

Anyway…

Something with a hybrid camber will probably help you progress the most for what you want, and the extra rocker will help you float in powder. My suggestions would be to check out the following:
Never Summer Infinity
Salomon Idol (haven’t been able to even find one of these to look at though)
Burton Lipstick
Ride OMG

These aren’t the stiffest women’s boards around, but they have the right kind of flex to enable you to try jumps in the park, pop off the sides of pistes etc, but also should be more than stable enough for you to speed down the runs on. They also have a twin shape, so if you’re practising riding switch these will probably be easier to learn on than your present board which (i think…) was a directional shape.

If you can get to one of the snowdomes to try some boards, do. You should at least be able to get your hands on the Burton and Ride models to try, whereas I think you’d be buying the NS or Salomon on faith. I can tell you though that the NS will float well in powder and will perform excellently all over the mountain in pretty much any condition. The Lipstick is a good all round board and really poppy, and the OMG is will be a fun board to ride wherever you are. But really try to go somewhere to at least try these first.

Posted: 22 February 2012 06:08 AM

^she knows what she’s talking about :D
the lipstick is a GREAT bored, although i wouldn’t know first hand its got some great technology and from the reviews seems to be an overall good board. right now i am riding K2. K2 has great all terrain boards. although for powder, a “fishtail” snow board is ideal, it is designed to float on the powder, only downside is that it IS a directional board, meaning you can only ride one way. i would highly recommend looking into a K2 board. if you’d like, i would be more than happy to look up some possible boards suited for you.

Posted: 13 March 2012 09:37 PM

Thanks for the advise guys. I bought a K2 eco pop after reading further reviews and my local shop had 1 left so I went for it. Just come back from Italy and I have to say I struggled with my toe edge turns for some reason on piste and off piste. The board I bought is 4cm longer than the previous one I had, although the correct hight for an all mountain board. I could definately feel the difference between the 2. The new one seemed to want to slide round abit at the back. I dont know what I was doing wrong. Maybe I should have had a lesson. Anyway thanks again for all your help. If you have any advise for my problems I would really appreciate it.

Posted: 14 March 2012 09:51 AM

I have an EcoPop 145, and I have a couple of quibbles with it - does any of the following seem the same as your experience?
- tail catchiness: on flat areas where speed is needed, I found the tail of the board catches quite easily and makes me feel unstable. For this reason I had to keep to my edges in these areas to stop me feeling like the board was going to throw me off.
- loose feel in the tail: I did have a couple of issues with the tail on icy patches where it liked to slide out on me - as if it didn’t have the grip I thought it should

So basically, the tail grips in the places I don’t want it to, and slides where I need grip.

I put this down to the rocker profile of the board - the mid-rise in the nose is fine, as is the flat between the bindings, but I find the low-rise rocker in the tail an issue for me in places.

Overall though, I like the board, just not as much as others I own. If only this was a proper camber board it’d be perfect.  It doesn’t ride as loose as some of the other rocker boards I’ve had, and when you get good conditions the edge hold is superb on carve. it’s also pretty stable on jumps. I do find that it’s a board that really likes to be ridden hard all the time though. It doesn’t seem to do well with flatter, cruise-y runs, or when I’m feeling lazy - that’s when I get the majority of the problems.

Did you try adjusting your binding position forwards to make your toe turns easier? Maybe you had the setup just a bit off and you could have been pushing into the board too far back from your toe edge?

Posted: 14 March 2012 12:20 PM

Thanks for replying. I agree with you because mine also felt unstable on the flats because the back edge kept catching which made me feel a bit twitchy all the time. Generally I didnt feel confident on it. It went quick on the flats though much quicker than my other board and much quicker than my friends too. I started with the bindings in the middle but then moved bothe back one because I thought it might help me in the powder which it actually didnt because I was throwing myself in to the toe edge turn. I felt like it didnt want to turn it just wanted to point down hill!! Again that might have been my technique adjusting to the board or it feeling too long. I also agree that on the icy stuff I didnt feel like it held the edge well just like you described.

If anyone else has any tips let us know.

Thanks again for your comments.