Which board to choose?

Posted: 04 November 2010 03:48 PM

Hey guys,
First need to congratulate you on your site, it is by far the best source for snowboard info on the net.

So, my question is about which of the following boards to buy. I live in Australia and so don’t get to demo any of these brands, which makes it hard to decide. I’ve literally spent hours on this site reading all the reviews and it becomes hard to make a choice!

I’m 6’2, 82kg and wear size 12 boots. I’ve been riding since 1993.  My style of riding is dependent on where I’m living, if in Australia (which is most of the time) it is normally in-bounds all mountain freestyle, but when I’m in Canada it is more back country, super steep, drops and deep pow. I ride aggressively whether on or off piste. I’ve previously had boards for each style, but it’s time to upgrade and I can only afford one board and want to get something that will work back country but also something I can use to develop my park skills on the odd park lap. Basically just an all mountain ripper that is not so stiff that park is impossible. I’m not really into rails at all.

The boards I’m looking at vary in their style but are all appealing and I’m hoping you can shed some light on which you would recommend.

- Never Summer Heritage X
- Nitro Team Gullwing
- Rossignol One Magtek
- Bataleon Jam
- Burton Custom X
- Lib Tech Dark Series

Basically, I’ve only ridden camber boards but I’m open to trying some new tech for a season. At the moment i’m leaning towards the Rossi, but the TBT on Bateleon is interesting. Because Australia gets shitty, icy snow, magnetraction is very appealing too! I notice in your reviews that the 2011 Atomic Alibi seems pretty sick too, does it come in a wide?

Any thoughts?

Cheers,
Jed

Posted: 27 January 2011 07:21 PM

Hi Jed,

I’ve been in the market for pretty much the same board. I have a Bataleon Goliath right now, as well as a Jones Flagship. I liked my Bataleon when I first got it, but that was when I was riding a mountain that didn’t call for very fast runs. In my opinion TBT is great, but not for bombing any type of snow that is hardpacked and at all bumpy. I was telling myself that my Bataleon was the end to all boards until I got going super fast and felt like I was going to eat it at speed. I suggest trying out the Jam, I looked at it and wonder if it’s better than my Goliath as it’s a stiffer board. I just placed an order for a dark series wide, as I have a US 12 boot, but it’s more like a 11 because of the boot I’m rocking. I did a ton of research and it seems like it’s the board we’re both looking for. I will tell you more once I get on it and ride. I love my Jones, but found myself wanting to hit some smaller jumps here and there, and I also never hit rails or boxes, and I found the board way too stiff for that stuff, but the board can straight line anything and it’s more of what the rider can do, the board can go as fast as it wants. That said it was good in pow, really floated, but in the trees it was a little hard to make super sharp turns and ended up getting stuck more than when I rode my Goliath. I’m hoping the Dark Series will be a mix of both boards, because I’ve come to the conclusion that I wanted the best of those two boards in one board and from the shops I talked to it should be since it’s a Freeride/freestyle all mountain stick. Hope I helped! Good luck and post what you end up going with.

Posted: 29 January 2011 04:28 PM

Hi Jed,

This really seems to be a week of compliments, thanks for the kind words on the site.

Ok to your board choices. Your riding style doesn’t sound too dissimilar to mine, When I’m riding on pistes I like to really work the sidecut of the board, working into carves where I can get my elbow to touch the ground. Off piste I like to bury the throttle on wide open faces, hit pillows and nail drops. When I’m in the park I like to hit everything, from big jumps to jibs and when I’m doing none of the before mentioned I like a forgiving board for messing around. Which is why I have three boards. I have a Rossi Twilight 164 with 20mm of taper and a setback stance for riding powder, it has a progressive sidecut so it handles long turns and sharp tree turns fine. For hardpack piste bombing and carving I use my Rossi JDub which carves so so hard I like the feel of camber popping me out of turns and I feel that when I’m pushing against the camber in a chin scraper carve I have the whole edge engaged. For everything else i ride my Rossi Angus which isn’t too dissimilar to the one. It’s agile, poppy, grips well and best of all is fun to mess about on, it’s also no slouch in the powder. The reason why I’ve listed those boards is because you are effectively looking for a board that delivers on all of those qualities.

I think if you are an agressive rider and you really like to work your board, you might find that the TBT tech on the Jam is a bit mellow for you. I really like Bataleon boards but I only found that I was getting good response to aggresive riding from the boards that had Freeride TBT. The Nitro Gullwing is a class board, I’m yet to ride it, but it’s one of the softer boards on your list, this is the option that swings most to the Freestyle end of the spectrum. The Burton Custom X is an incredible board but it is cambered and you will need ICS bindings. The grip on off from the Custom X is insane you will be hard pressed find a better carving board and the snap from it is awsome, the board is so lively. So even though it’s cambered it will respond very well to aggressive riding, but for progressing in the park it’s a bit precise… the domain of very good park riders really. Lib Tech Dark series - This is one of the Lib Boards I haven’t ridden, it’s the stiffest in the line, but by all accounts I don’t think it’s unmanageable. If you want a slightly more playful board with the same tech check out the Lib Tech Phoenix Mark Landvic. Now the Heritage X, this will be very similar to the Dark Series. I haven’t ridden the Heritage X but I rode the Raptor and SL, the Raptor uses the Carbonium technology and the SL uses a similar shape to the Heritage. The Flex on the Raptor was extremely lively but wasn’t too much to handle, edge grip was fantastic, oh pop… insane! The Sl floated amazingly in powder for an almost twin board, only issue was that I felt it was a bit hooky switch, but that could have just been a dry patch on the base. Which leaves the Rossi One. The one has a slightly firmer flex than the Angus, I’m relaibly informed. My Angus is reasonaly soft in the nose and tail and then firm between the bindings, this means you can butter easier enough and play around on kickers and jibs but when you need torsional ridgidity for long carves and sketchy snow the board has it. The rockered nose and tail also do a really good job of dealing with powder, choppy snow and really tight transitions. If there’s anything that the Angus lacks, it’s a little grip on really icy slopes, but with mag edges it won’t be a problem. I think if you are coming from a firm lively cambered board background, you might also take a little time to adjust to the rockered tail. I’m fully used to it now and I think it’s made me a better rider as I’m quite light on the tail of my cambered boards now making my riding a bit more agile, but it does mean if you are uto getting right into the backseat of hard pack carves you’ll have to be a little less tail heavy on the one. The Alibi is a rad board too, I think if you enjoy your cambered boards this might be the closest to camber feel with some of the benefits from rocker. It’s a dam powerful board that worked in the powder, carved nicely on the piste and was nice enough off jumps. The slightly point tips look soo cool too! I believe Atomic make a 156, 159, 163 and a 166 with a mid wide waist.

Rich