All Mountain intermediate board, benefits of rocker/camber? Cannot be burton/k2/ride/salomon.

Posted: 06 November 2009 11:01 AM

IN SHORT, I am looking for:

[*] Board
[  ] Binding
[  ] regular straps
[  ] fast-entry system (Flow/Cinch/..)
[  ] Boots
[  ] Other

Measurements:

Body height:  175 cm
Weight:      65 Kg
Shoe size:    9/10 US (depends on boot/shoe)

Riding level:

[  ] Beginner
[*] Intermediate
[  ] Advanced
[  ] Expert

Riding style: (multiple selections allowed)

[  ] Piste     60%
[  ] Powder 25%
[  ] Park     10%
[  ] Rails     5%

Special requests:
> Cannot be Burton, Ride, K2, Solomon (or any derivatives of any of the aforementioned brands). I’m from Australia and can’t get these brands shipped out of the US.
> Twin or directional Twin - I need to be able to ride both directions.

Current gear:
> Flow NXT-AT bindings - Large size
> Sapient Evolution 155 (recommended to me when I was naive, found it way too slow, didn’t handle well at high speeds)

Price Range:  $300-$600

IN DEPTH:

I’m going on my first big snowboarding adventure to Austria this Jan/Feb for a month and a bit.  I’m from Australia and have spent the last few seasons mucking about in Australian and NZ slopes - I would classify myself as an intermediate rider that can handle blues and blacks and do some basic stuff in the parks.

I’m wanting to get a new board for the trip and am looking for some suggestions.  Unfortunately I don’t have the luxury of waltzing down to my local shop and demoing some boards as I live thousands of kilometres from anywhere remotely snowy. Furthermore, I don’t want to demo boards once I get there due to the incredible markup slope-side stores put on the boards.

My current ride is a Sapient Evolution 155, it won a few awards and was recommended to me a few years back as a good board to transition from beginner to intermediate rider - perhaps the reason being that it was slow :P

I would consider myself an all-mountain/freeride rider and I’m looking for a board with enough stiffness such that it can handle going fast when I want it to, but enough flex and playfulness that it can turn quickly, pop reasonably well and handle whatever the parks in Austria can throw at it (judging by the trail map there aren’t many).

I’d definitely want a sintered base for speed and I am considering the virtues of rockered boards over camber boards for their rumoured “playfulness” but I have read mixed reviews about their all mountain performance and their speed.

As far as my research goes, there are three main rocker ‘technologies’ available:

Signal Wavelength (signal omni board) - RC nose and tail, cambered between the feet
Never Summer R.C. (Evo-R, SL-R, Heritage-R) - Cambered nose and tail, RC between the feet
Libtech/GNU BTX - Full length RC.

All above technologies boast themselves as being the best, and all have positive reviews, this is where I need your help.

The RC boards I’m currently considering are:
> Signal Omni
> Never Summer SL-R or Heritage-R (you guys list SL-R as being all mountain, whereas many other sites classify it as park)
> GNU Carbon Credit BTX
> Lib Tech TRS BTX

And then there are hundreds of cambered boards that fit the bill and I’ve no idea where to start whittling down these into a few decent ones to consider.

Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated,
Cheers,
Mike

Posted: 06 November 2009 11:35 AM

Hey there Mike,
glad you are using our forums to get some help deciding. Also, thanks for filling out the Buying Advice Template!

First of all: In my opinion both, the Signal Omni and the Never Summer SL-R, are great boards!
I don’t know if you’ve already found our description of the different rocker types, so I will just quote it here: (more information can be found at the Snowboard Guide -> Basics section)

Camber / Rocker Hybrids: The most visible development in snowboard construction in 2009 has been the huge boom in the number of camber / rocker hybrids on the market. Currently there are two main hybrids:

a) Rockered tip and tail with camber between the bindings: Cambering the board between the bindings improves edge grip in variable snow conditions especially on ice and increases edge to edge response. Rockering the tip and tail offers more forgiving landings, improved float in powder and more predictable tracking through tight transitions. Current varieties include the Rossignol Amptek, Nidecker Camrock (used in YES. snowboards) and Signal Wavetech.

b) Cambered tip and tail and rockered between the bindings: Cambering the tip and tail improves the boards pop and ability to absorb tail heavy landings. Like all reverse camber varieties, this method raises the start of the effective edge off the snow meaning the twitchiness some people get with cambered boards is eradicated. Rockering the majority of the snowboard helps float in powder. Current varieties include Mervin C2 Banana, Never Summer RC Technology and Nitro Gull Wing Technology.

As for camber decks: You might want to have a look at Amplid boards, e.g. the Paradigma. Also, the Omatic Awsome is said to be absolutely as the name says.
We just had another thread here, mentioning the Rossignol Angus, make sure to throw a look at that deck as well.

So far, cheers

Posted: 06 November 2009 11:58 AM

Hey Zoryfl,

Thanks for your fast reply! I’ll take a look at the boards you suggested over the next few hours.  Quick question while i’m doing so, with a reverse camber board, are normal size suggestions still valid - or should you buy larger/smaller?

Cheers,
Mike

Posted: 06 November 2009 04:41 PM

There might be some exceptions but as you won’t be using the rocker deck for mostly jibbing you will be fine with your regular length I think.