New setup for intermediate - advice please!!

Posted: 30 November 2010 12:05 PM

Hi everyone - hope you can help me!

I am an intermediate boarder - been riding for 7 years but had a 4 year hiatus in the middle and have just started riding again seriously this year. I have never owned my own board (always hired) and am looking at taking the plunge for a trip to Austria next year and few weekend trips to Scotland, as well as general use at my local Xscape. I am looking for all round use preferably with good stability at high speed, but am just getting into jumps and rails so maybe a bit of this as well.

So here’s the spec: I need board, bindings and boots
My budget is about £600 for the lot (could go a bit higher at a push)

Height - 5’8”
Weight - 170lbs
Shoe size - UK 8

Also any advice on whether camber, rocker etc. appreciated.
Not fussy re brand, design etc - function comes first.

I can demo quite a few boards at my local Snowboard Asylum shop so if any are stocked there that would be a great help.

Thank you all in advance!

Rob

Posted: 01 December 2010 06:08 AM

If you want to get into more park stuff I would recommend looking at a reverse cambered ride.  I was out today for the first time and brought my cambered and rockered boards to the hill to make sure I had them dialed in.  It is like night and day the feel of a cambered vs. rockered setup.  At this hill it’s like under a 30 second dash to bottom so I put away my cambered board for most of the day to practice riding switch on my rocker.  The design helps ease catching an edge so it will definitely up your freestyle game.

Hybrid rockers are great…  Burton has the Flying V, Rossignol has Amptek, Lib Tech/Gnu has C2.  Technically those boards try to combine the best of both worlds and would be a good choice if you are only going to rock one board for everything.

Boards to get you started on researching is the Burton Process V-rocker, Gnu Riders Choice and Rossignol Angus.

Posted: 01 December 2010 09:35 AM

Hi Steve - thank you very much for your reply, much appreciated!

The Burton Process V is certainly one that is on my list to try - they retail at £350 over here (not sure what they come in at in Canada?) which is at the top end of my budget by the time bindings and boots are thrown in but could stretch things a little if needed. Seems to get a good write-up wherever you look.

Same for the Gnu boards on price as well - unfortunately my local slope doesn’t stock them so I wouldn’t be able to demo one. Rossi boards for some reason seem to be difficult to come by in the UK - very commmon to hire but not one of the major retailers stocks them, bit of shame really as they seem to get good feedback.

I have heard good things about the K2 Raygun as well, only problem with that is I may need to ride a slightly longer board for my weight. Also like the look of the Artec Alt Rocker.

Posted: 01 December 2010 10:54 AM

Hi Rob,

If you are buying at TSA their are a fair few boards I would check out that I think are great freestyle boards that can handle the rest of the mountain too.

YES Typo - I think the Typo is about £350 so it’ll fit into your budget.. just. Same principle with this board as the Rossi Amptek system. Camrock is basically camber between the feet and rocker at the nose and tail. I’m living out in Austria at the minute and I’ve been riding my Rossi Angus which is pretty similar to the TYPO for the last week. I’ve found that Camrock / Amptek makes snowboarding sooo much easier, which doesn’t make a scrap of difference when you are riding hard regular, but switch straight lining and carving and particularly moguls switch are no probes with this profile. Boards with this profile do have a little less pop than conventional boards for ollies although they still pop ok and you still get a bit of punch out of carves, but float in powder and stability for run-ups to jumps etc is much much better. For an intermediate who wants a board that will still enable him to keep up with hgis mates but wants to progress switch, freestyle and powder riding there isn o better profile. For advanced riders who want a freetyle board that lets them focus on tricks instead of edges… Camrock is ace. So yeah the Typo is worth checking out, nice graphic this year and probably more suitable than the YES Dudes which is quite a lot firmer.

Signal Omni - Same profile as Camrock, Signal call it wavelength… see what they did there. This board is a little softer than the Typo and a touch lighter by all accounts. Ex Mervin super hero Dave Lee puts them together in his own Huntington Beach factory, CA. Another board that works all mountain but this board is particularly good for the park. This bad boy comes in at £340.

Artec Pop Rocker - The only true reverse camber board in the list and for good reason. THis board is solid. We rode it for our Kind of Jib video test and everone was suprised by how much fun and how versatile it was. More than a jib deck you can ride the whole mountain on this board. Fairly damp and super responsive… we like it. £350.

K2 Raygun - It’s definitely an option but as you mentioned it’s weight limits are little strange. Personally I wouldn’t want to ride a 159 in a rockered shape for freestyle, in cambered yes, rockered… you’re supposed to be able to take a few cms off. Mikee C of FBBB who tested the Raygun for us, really liked it, but I tell you when he was riding it at speed with his weight on the back on choppy piste the nose chattered a lot.

Salomon Grip - A lot of site users are raving about this years Grip. Early rise tips combine with an almost completely camber profile so you get a less catch feel with camber pop. The equalizer sidecut has people devided. Personally I wasn’t blown away by it and some people have nicknamed the board the ‘slip’ but other forum users absolutely swear by it. Just to explain it, the sidecut has no radius, it’s a sidecut with 3 sides and two angles, the side along the middle being flat. Salomon claim it gives great grip even when you tune town your edges. I can see how it would work on softer boards, on stiffer freeride snowboards no way. Anyway people are raving about the GRIP this season ,particularly our tester Ben. A handsome price of £350.

Of course there are Bataleon boards too, but I hope the list I’ve made is useful.

Rich

Posted: 01 December 2010 12:15 PM

Hi Rich - thank you for your reply, very detailed - much appreciated!!

Looks like my ride list this weekend will be Burton Process, YES Typo, Signal Omni and Artec Pop Rocker - provided TSA has demo models in of course! I’m not too worried about the lesser pop I would get from a CamRock - I am quite squat (ok maybe a little fat as well!) and have pretty strong legs so I can generate a fair bit natural pop anyway as a result.

Yeah I was a bit perplexed by the K2 weight system (I see some Burton boards are similar as well.) I don’t think a 159 on the K2 would suit me - I usually ride a 154 or a 156.

The Artec Pop Rocker is an interesting one though the design is a bit crazy! I have to confess to having a soft spot for Artec, my brother bought his first pair of skis in Slovenia (or Yugoslavia as it was then) in 1988 and they were a pair of Elans. Cost him the equivalent of about £30 and served him well for about 10 years. Sorry to get all nostalgic haha!!

Should be heading down on Sunday so will let you know how I get on.

Posted: 01 December 2010 12:44 PM

Yeah deffinitely let us know how you get on.

Actually, Elan build boards for a huge number of brands, so without knowing it, you’ve probably ridden one. I think the factory is down near Klagenfurt on the Slovenian boarder, I live about 2 hours drive away so I should definitely try and get down there for a day and demo some more Artec and Elan boards. I like the fact that it’s a zero hype brand, they just build solid decks and that’s enough for them.. very humble.

Posted: 04 December 2010 10:19 PM

Just to let you know I went to Xscape a day early (roads much clearer today) and opted for the Artec in the end, with Union Force bindings and treated myself to a shiny new pair of Thirtytwos at the same time. A month or 2 living on baked beans awaits now :)

Really liked the feel of the Artec, very repsonsive edge to edge and quite flexy for tricks. I really liked the Signal Omni as well and it was tough choice between the two. Tried the Burton Process - liked the way it held the edge but not as responsive for me edge-edge, would make a nice carving board for me though, I reckon. Also tried K2 Raygun but didn’t feel comfortable riding a 159 at all.

Thanks again for your help Steve and Rich.