Help/Opinions on Reverse Camber mainly Pow boards

Posted: 21 January 2011 07:15 PM

Hi

First off I just want to say thanks for an awesome site.  Came across it while researching boards and it’s real nice.

So I’m looking to pickup a second board that will perform better in powder and have been focusing my search on reverse camber boards.

Currently I ride a Forum Seeker (2nd season currently), twin board, 160, feels pretty stiff to me (the only other board i’ve owned was a Rossingal Nomad, 155 from when i first started, 03ish, and it’s much softer, and totally trashed now).  Recently we’ve been lucky enough to get dumped on here on the East Coast and it’s become apparent that my board just doesn’t like to stay on top of the pow.  I’m also lucky enough to be able to take a yearly west coast trip with friends, J-hole this year, which is why I’m interested in more of a powder board to compliment my current board.

Other possibly pertinant info: 5’9”-230lbs (ya, i’m a bowling ball out there, but significantly more athletic than my shape might otherwise indicate, powerful legs and butt), Size 10.5 boots, I believe my bindings (Burton Cartels from 04ish) are size large.  Duck stance, +15, -8, though I play with that stuff alot.  I would consider myself an Advanced to Expert Rider (on the mountian, not the park), no doubt I can get better, but I’m still capable of just about any terrian, diamonds, double diamonds, smaller drops (5ft not 25ft).  When we get enough snow I build jumps at home to work on freestyle (so far i got the 180 down, working on goin bigger and a full 360, somewhat limited on the amount of air because my hill isn’t that big or steep).  When I gotta pay for a lift ticket I prefer freeride, trees when the conditions allow, will try and hit natural features, but not gonna spend alot of time in a park.  I do like to work on riding switch, mainly on the blues on the way back in to the base, or later in the day when I get tired, but if I can get good enough at it I’d like to be able to ride switch all over the mountian, it’s a work in progress.  I also like to scream the occasional steep groomer, but I feel my current board performs nicely for that, way more stable than my last board, no chatter.  I don’t do alot of true backcountry, basically one tucks/mt washington trip in the spring, but it’s an area i’m looking to expand my skills in (the adirondack high peaks have beein calling).  Sorry for the long description, hopefully that gives you an idea of what kind of rider I am.

As stated earlier I’m focusing on a reverse camber pow board.  I rode my friends lib-tech bananna board, it’s an older model, first or second year I believe.  I was impressed with it’s turning ability, I only got one tree run on it, and it was later in the day so it was somewhat tracked out, but it really turned in the troughs that form and around trees way nicer than my current board, felt softer, more carvy, smoother.  Currently when I need to make a tight immediate turn I often kind of jump up a little and just muscle my back leg in the direction I need it to go.  Sometimes I feel a bit mechanical.  I did notice the bananna board felt sketchy on the flats, but I’m more than willing to deal with that to have something better on the terrain that I enojoy (no one pays to ride flats).  I also think with more time on it I will adjust to how it rides.

The boards I have keyed in on include the following:

Strongly Considering:
Gnu C2 BTX Billy Goat
Travis Rice C2 BTX (the longer pointy tipped version)

Also Considering:
Rossingal Experience/Jones Flagship
Ride Machette

I looked at some S rocker type boards, but my research seemed to indicate they won’t be very good riding switch.  I based my selections mainly from online reviews, and TW good wood awards, also brands i’d heard of, I dont buy equipment often so I’m not real up to date on good mfgs vs bad.  I guess I was biased to Mervin having ridden my friends board and also knowing they have been kind of pushing the whole reverse camber movement I think.

I like the idea of the combo camber, billed as “the best of both worlds” because most east coast riding isn’t the champagne powder, but I do have my current ride for the hard pack, no chance of powder days.  I’ve been hesitant to pull the trigger on the C2 BTX design because I’ve never ridden it but I’m hoping to demo one, I just dont have a ton of time before I head out west (Feb 5th).  Sometimes I find myself wishing my board was slightly more flexible/easier to turn in the trees and moguls, but in general go with stiffer stuff due to my weight which turns everything less stiff I feel.  Also I’m not afraid to purchase a more “specalized” board cause I still have my current board that I feel is pretty solid all mountian, just not quite so good in powder.

Sorry for the book I just wrote, any comments/help would be appreciated.

Posted: 21 January 2011 11:22 PM

Hi Jake,

Yeah there are two ways really of generating extra float in powder, one is by using reverse camber which works a treat, the other way is using taper, whereby the tail is narrower than the nose. For freeriding I’m in the taper camp. I like the edge hold of a cambered board on sketchy snow and a firm tail for slashing and backseat landings. However this season my main all mountain board has camber between the bindings and rocker at the tips and it id fantastic in the deep stuff. I also rode C2 BTX in heavy wet fresh last May and it floated great. So yeah all these methods of creating extra float work. I’m guessing by the look of the boards in your list that you intend the board to be one of a quiver and really only for deep and balls-out charging days. The fact that you want to ride the board switch means that taper would be no good for you so I’ll talk you through the boards you’ve listed.

Rossi Experience & Jones Flagship - Two pees in a pod, they look almost identical, because Jeremy Jones rode for Rossi before Jones and was able to take his design work across to his brand, the shape is the hard work of Jeremy, Xavier De Le Rue and Rossi really. The Experience is a touch firmer flexing and the Mag edges are a little bit more aggressive, but listing the differences is kind of like splitting hairs. You can ride this board switch but it really is for gunning pow and everything inbetween. Even a Canon Ball couldn’t sink these boats.

GNU Temple Cummins - I saw a Board Insiders video on this, I’m not the greatest fan of their vids but that’s only because our sites are doing the same thing and they are our sworn enemies… I like to think we’re a fair bit different. Anyway in the vid the testers were unanimous that the board was a beast for pow but lacked pop… all of them said it lacked pop.

Lib Tech Travis Rice - Everbody loves this board, and the reason for that is because it is the absolute business! To be hones, it’s an all mountain board that rips in pow. It’s not an all out gun so you might find that your Forum goes into storage after your purchase of the Rice… if you can live with that, this board will be great.

Here are three boards you haven’t listed that offer a similar ride to each other but are a bit different to your listed boards. I’d have alook at the Ride Slackcountry, K2 Gyrator and Arbor Element RX. These boards are totally reverse camber so there is no camber to be seen. They’re also aofter flexing than the boards you have listed. They are designed to offer freestylers an easy and fun board to take into super deep pow and still have th option of riding switch and larking around. They’ll handle cliffs and will work easily through the trees. Woth having a look and seeing if that is what you are after.

Rich