Jones Flagship - first impressions

Posted: 29 November 2010 10:01 PM

I was up in Whistler yesterday and brought out the Flagship 161 for the first time.

About me: 5’11” - 185lbs - 30yrs old - advanced rider, usually get 35 days or so on the snow each year, been riding since 2004 (started late) - like to charge down runs, search for steep powder, tree lines, chutes bowls… basically whatever interesting terrain I can find. Don’t ride park at all.

Conditions/runs I rode: Mixed - Hard packed groomers, some sketchy windblown steeps, chunky chopped up powder, and some gnarly tight treelines with powder covering some nasty rocks an branches. Basically the whole gammut other than deep deep powder runs.

I like to go fast down runs… my first impressions of the Flagship: “holy sh!t, this board is fast!”. At High speeds my Rome Agent would usually get unstable and squirrely before I would get close to speed levels that scared me… When I pointed the Flagship I started getting some serious speed in no time and the board would be totally stable and locked on - its the first board I have ridden where I have backed off because of the speed rather than the lack of control… AWESOME!

I half expected the longer sidecut to make the board a bit hard to maneuver in trees and carving around at slower speeds which was one reason I went for the 161 instead of the 164. I still think the 161 was the right choice for me, however the 164 would not have been a problem in this respect. The board was really easy to whip around in the trees and initiated carves really easily, which I guess was down to the Camrock profile. Once you start to bomb you really appreciate the longer sidecut… the board wants to ride straight down the mountain and was really responsive edge to edge when doing so. All in all the longer side cut combined with the early rise profile seems to be a great combination.

For me, the Mellow Magnetraction is the perfect version of this technology that I have ridden so far. In honesty I have not been a big fan of Magnetraction I have ridden in general - I have found it a bit too catchy, but certainly appreciated its grip on icy terrain. On the Flagship I didnt notice the MellowMag at all for the vast majority of the day (you can barely even see it visually). The one time we ventured down some steep windblown icy/hard packed slopes, I noticed that I still had great edge hold, and had enough confidence to ride pretty much uninhibited down the face. When our group got to the bottom my buddies all commented on how much they were sliding out and losing control on the ice, which hadn’t happened to me at all… So I gotta put that down to the MellowMag despite the fact that I hadn’t really noticed it in the same way that I had when riding regular Magnetraction.

Whenever I did hit powder the board floated really nicely and was really quick to steer… most of the time I was plowing though a lot of chop and the nose really dealt with everything in its way keeping the board really stable, I never felt bucked around despite going over some some pretty chunky terrain.

The last thing I noticed was how tough the base is. I went over some nasty rocks and roots that were hidden under some dusting of powder, and some of them I hit pretty hard (much to my dismay!). I was surprised and happy to find that when i looked at my base at the end of day there was only one superficial scratch on the whole thing…

All in all I am really happy with this board, and it is definitely gonna help me take my riding to another level… It would be really interesting to compare this to some of the Rossi boards that have a similar profile but with more camber between the feet (the Flagship is very nearly flat). I am just gonna have to remember to speed check now and again, now that I dont have my usual signals like crazy chatter and lose of edge control :D

Posted: 30 November 2010 06:28 AM

Great review!!! I actually just bought a 163w, I read as much as I could and asked for opinions on here and thought about my riding style a lot and it seemed to fit great. Thanks for making me feel great about my purchase, I have the same thoughts on magnatraction, and similar riding style, so after reading your review I’m more amped than ever to get it out in the snow:)

I have a question, what bindings are you running with your Flagship? I have some older Unions, was told they’re a mix between the Data and Force, I ordered some Force SLs, but the place I ordered from ran out and don’t know when they’re getting more in, totally bummed, but maybe there’s something better out there.

Thanks again!

Posted: 30 November 2010 10:59 AM

Fantastic review powdog!  I’m curious to see if Mellow Magnetraction starts to trickle it’s way into freestyle boards next season.

Posted: 30 November 2010 07:12 PM

Thanks guys - first review I have done, but other peoples reviews really helped me make my choice, and i liked the board so much I thought it was about time I wrote one up.

Meatball - Yeah, I think if your riding style fits, you are really gonna love the board - let me know your thoughts when you manage to get out on the snow with it. As for bindings, I was using my old Burton P1.1’s - prob not the ideal binding as something a bit more responsive, but I can’t afford to get any other new gear this season and they are still in pretty good condition. On the plus side, limiting the variables by using the same Boots and bindings meant that I could make a better comparison of the flagship. TBH I dont keep up with bindings tech/brands as much as I do with boards, so I am a bit out of the loop with what would be the best ones for a freeride setup - maybe someone in the know on this site could help you out on that one..

Steve - yeah the mellowMag really seemed a good compromise to me - there when i needed it, but otherwise i didnt notice it at all… I am guessing if people mostly rode bulletproof conditions then they would notice the difference and would opt for full magnetraction, but for me it worked perfect.

Have you ever tried an freestyle boards with magnetraction? how does it work for jibbing? :S I haven’t, but rails scare me at the best of times, so adding grippy edges seems like a bad idea?

Posted: 01 December 2010 05:52 AM

I only have one personal experience with magnetraction and it was last year my rental board before I bought gear…  I was no where near the park that day.

Lib Tech and Gnu are quite popular park/jib boards out here and they run magnetraction on a lot of their line-ups…  never heard complaints from the folks that ride ‘em.

Posted: 01 December 2010 07:17 PM

Awesome review!  I bought my Flagship 163W back in October.  I’d read another review that said it wasn’t as damp as expected and didn’t soak up chop so well, so I was worried.  But it sounds like it
does great with that.  Can’t wait to ride it!

Posted: 02 December 2010 09:11 PM

Hey Mark,

Its interesting, as I had read the same thing re: dampness… what i found was that because the Flagship is not as super stiff as some other freeride boards, i could feel the terrain i was riding through the board (perhaps to do with the less pronounced camber profile), but it def didn’t lose any stability as far as I was concerned, and i didn’t get bucked around by the chop at all, like i have done on other boards - in fact i found that the stability + the extra ‘feel’ under foot gives you much more sensitivity, which i always like. Be interested to hear what you think… also be interesting to hear comments from anyone who has ridden bothe the flagship and any of K2s zero camber boards, to compare the profile.

Posted: 05 December 2010 11:52 PM

That’s good to hear. I’ve ridden a T6 for 4 seasons now, before they put the dampening pads on them, and it is super harsh.  Towards the end of last season, I decided I HAD to get something more forgiving.
I’m spending a few days in CO and will report back on how it does.

Posted: 29 December 2010 06:33 PM

Just got to use my Flagship up at Mammoth in California. The conditions were good, but a lot of tracked out powder, a couple icy patches up high, and some untracked waist deep stuff! I have the 163w matched up with Flux Dmcc bindings, and some Salomon F20 boots(a little soft for this set up). Also as a side note this is my first Freeride board;)

Going straight: You can fly, literally go as fast as you want and have no worry of unstability. I only slowed down for the chopped up and bumped out terrain.

Pow: As long as you’re not in stuff that’s way tracked out the board was really great, stayed up top, and was super easy to turn.

Crud: I wear F20 Salomon boots, skate feel, more of a jibbers boot in my opinion, and even with those the board felt damp, but like others have said you can feel what you’re riding, but not in a bad way, it blows through the chop.

Stance: I kept my stance centered, equal on both sides and what I noticed was how I felt like I was riding a lot more on the tail then on the nose. It bothered me when I hit some rollers as I felt awkward in the air and on the landing, but I was hauling ass and even though it felt weird I didn’t fall because of it. I think I just have to play with angles and stance setup.

Groomers: Go as fast as you want and turn on a dime. I had a handful of times I was slamming on the brakes to avoid people turning in front of me and the board just does exactly what you want it to, and there’s no speed limiit on this thing. It’s a beast!

Turns: I had no problem turning this board inbetween the trees in pow or on steep or mellow slopes.

Ice: I hit some ice and crust up high on the mountain where it was windblown and the mtx did it’s job. I never felt like I was going to eat it or slide out. Also a note on the mtx, it doesn’t catch or bother me at all like the Gnu’s and Lib’s I’ve ridden before:)

The board itself: Held up like a champ, ran over some branches on some tree runs, a skier dropped their ski on edge on my tail, and it didn’t have a scratch on it. Seems to be very well made. This boards has insane pop. I was riding a Bataleon Goliath and the Jones has so much more pop!

This board is really great, and this was my first time on it and the bindings. Like I said the only issues I had were the long nose feeling, which could just be me getting used to a freeride board or my stance setup. If you have a chance to get on one, DO IT!