Best Length For Off-Piste

Posted: 20 April 2010 06:59 PM

Hi,

I’m wondering what advice you confirmed pow guys would give about board length. I have a Bataleon Goliath 161 and weigh 70kg. Nevertheless, even with the bindings set back, I find it hard to keep the tip up in heavy, wet European ‘powder’ on medium slopes. So I’m thinking of getting a specialist powder board. I really love the Bataleon TBT so I’m thinking of their Undisputed. However, the recommended length for my weight is either 159 or 163 and I don’t see how that would be better than my existing board. Do you think the 167 would work for me? Also, though, the Undisputed is quite a bit stiffer than the Goliath (7/10 compared with 5/10) but I’ve always understood that powder boards should be flexible. So another idea would be the wide version of the Goliath to get more float. Any thoughts on that would be appreciated.

Posted: 20 April 2010 07:15 PM

Hi Jenner,

My thoughts on your decision are like this; from personal experience float in the deep stuff is more about shape than it is about length, that is unless you are travelling at high speeds, which is where length offers you more stability. My advice would be to look at a tapered board or fish shape around 160 length. A board around this length with a 20mm taper will be really agile, offer tons of float and be really fun too, which brings me to flex. A moderate flex is really the best option. It will help you working turns of all different sizes and the board will be a joy to ride. Stiff long boards are great for point and shoot big mountain freeriding, but for stuff off the lift go for taper. A recent board I was blown away by in this department is the Atomic Banger… pure gold dust and you don’t need a canoe sized board bag to take it on hols. Here some articles that I put together on Fish boards:

Article on some of the best tapered freeride powder snowboards

Write up on my tapered Rossi twilight 164, with a couple of pow pics

Hope that helps :-)

Rich

Posted: 20 April 2010 09:04 PM

Thanks, Rich, I didn’t know about fish shapes. I’ll try one out.