Time to retire the K2 Zeppelin - what should I be looking at?

Posted: 29 July 2009 11:05 PM

Easy chaps,

So for the past 5 or 6 seasons I have been riding a K2 Zeppelin and have been pretty stoked with it.  But 5 years of wear and tear and a recession busting bonus means I am in the market for a new deck.

I got to admit, since buying the Zeppelin I have not kept up with developments, so I am looking for some advice as to what to be looking at as my new board. To give you some perspective about my preferences I rode a Burton Rippey for a few trips before getting the K2, so I am all about all mountain, all round snowboards.

Do they still make either the Zeppelin or the Rippey (appreciate they will probably be under different names now) and are there other do anything boards that have emerged in the past few years?

Posted: 29 July 2009 11:49 PM

Recession busting pay rise hey… I need to get me one of those!

What kind of riding are you doing? All mountain riding, a bit of park, cruising pistes?

I tested so many good boards out on the test in Kaunertal in Austria. For general all mountain riding the best stick I picked up for riders of all levels was the K2 Zero. Insanely light, stable at high speed, unbelieveably responsive and damp even on ice courdroy (the syuff you get at 9 in the morning on a weeks snowboarding in May). Not to big up K2 too much I thought the K2 Turbodream was pretty versatile too. Also worth checking out the Lib Tech Travis Rice… so good in the pipe, on jumps and cruising down the pistes at full speed. Tom enjoyed riding the Custom… can’t go wrong with the best selling board of all time, and by all accounts the new channel binding system rides really well.

Those are just some of the boards looking good for next season. If you want something a bit more specialised i’ll try and make some more suggestions, or you can try the Board Selecta! on the main Snowboard Review site!

Posted: 30 July 2009 08:40 PM

Thanks Rich.

I normally spend the first half of the morning cruising pistes, and for the rest start to seek out the areas of the mountain that offer the best off piste, then spend the rest of my day hitting that.  I should point out that off piste for me generally is not far from the piste, rather than proper backcountry hikes and couloirs!

I’ll take a look at the boards you suggested - I have nothing against going for a board from K2.

When you say the Custom, do you mean the Burton Custom?

Looking around the site a bit more I just came across the article talking about the Slayblade replacing the Zeppelin, so I guess I answered my own question there, and checked out your review also (K2 Slayblade).

Posted: 31 July 2009 12:56 AM

Decisions decisions! The Slayblade is the replacement for the Zeplin but it hasn’t been a simple rebrand. For one, the Slayblade has a rocker profile where as the Zeplin was cambered. The Zeplin offered damping but the Slayblade has harshmallow damping! Sounds really cheesy but it really erradicates the vibrations out of riding. So yeah the Slayblade is pretty impressive but for me the Zero just seems to be a lot better… I hate to suggest a board is better because of the cost, but in this case, it just is. The Zero is the bomb!

Posted: 26 August 2009 05:45 PM

Is the Zero worth picking up?

It sounds really impressive from the reviews. I need a new all mountain board and a park board this year but kind of stumped as what to get. Im happy with my Palmer Crown LE for the riding we do but i split my old Zep last season and never had a park board.

Posted: 02 September 2009 04:10 PM

I’d always suggest trying a board first if you get a chance, but yeah for me the Zero was really impressive as a general all mountain freetyle board, of course if you want to get more specific there are other great boards. Another board in the same vein as the Zero which is killing it this year is the Omatic Celebrity, I’ll be posting a review on it as soon as I can get the description and spec off omatic.