A whole bunch of mini reviews!  K2, Ride, Rossignol, Burton and… Oakley?!

Posted: 27 January 2011 10:53 AM

Tuesday I was lucky to be invited to a Sportchek demo day at Nakiska.  K2, Ride, Rossignol, Burton and Oakley were there demoing this seasons gear and giving some low downs on next years stuff (fun, fun!).

Naskiska is a fun resort, rode the bottom all day…  nicely groomed but it got a little icy and choppy towards the end of the day.  Stuck to pretty much the same runs all day so all the boards got the same respect in that level.  I’m an intermediate rider, very much a cruiser and was left in the dust by the senior riders from my store.  I’m 5’11”, 170 lbs and 9 US (27 mondo) boots for reference.

The first brand that I hit up was K2.  Owning the Parkstar I am a little biased towards K2, that must be said.

First board was the K2 WWW 156W.  They had the 152 but that is so short I decided on the 156W.  Even with the extra width this board was super fun and loose!  I’m sure the extra width made it cruise better but this board is ridiculously easy to press, manuals all day long on this guy.  This is the only board I took in the rail park and I only hit 2 ride-on features but I would imagine in the hands of a seasoned jibber this deck would be at home tweaked out on some features.  2012 info:  the jib tips get replaced by tips similar to the Morrow Spoon…  long and squared, interesting…

Number 2 was the Raygun 159.  What a fun all mountain cruiser!  The All-Terrain Rocker is very forgiving yet has good edge control compared to the Jib Rocker that I’m used to.  A nice flex this is a great board to explore the mountain with.  One of the best value all mountain boards the shop sells.

#3 was the Turbo Dream 159…  my favourite board of the day.  So…  much…  fun!  I have a soft spot for these type of boards, the all-mountain freestyle.  Mad pop, got some nice ollies off this deck.  And the Harshmellow is legit, I LOVE the dampening on this board.  All that groomed corduroy felt like silk underfoot of this deck.  It was purchased by one of my co-workers at the end of the day, enough said.  2012: the core gets bamboo strips & 2 year warranty!

#4 the K2 Believer 157.  The bindings on this one were some XL K2 Cinch’s that I needed to tighten way down so that did influence the ride for me.  It was a great deck, so light and fun as well.  The flatline rocker is different, gives the board a more stable feel compared to the last 3.  Would be awesome on some jumps however RCR has a strict no-jump policy at their resorts.  I did find some moguls and hit an outer one on the Believer, very stable air and solid pop.

Now on to Ride.

Board #5 was the Kink 156W.  Not as pressable as the K2 WWW but still had great pop.  On this deck I could feel that extra width so again not the perfect board for me to demo.

Board #6 was the Antic 162W.  This board demo was totally off for me, wrong length and wrong width.  I don’t want to add comments on this one since I didn’t have the proper setup.  They did have a 157 but with so many other boards I didn’t want to head back for it.  I will say this board was the favourite of one of my co-workers.

Now Rossignol…

Board #7 was the One MagTek 156.  I finally had my hands on it, my on-paper favourite board of this season.  They didn’t have the 159, so the length was an issue.  This board was awesome, didn’t beat the feeling of the Turbo Dream but such a solid deck.  The Amptek rocker is sweet, combined with the stiff core and magnetraction this board felt like it could handle anything I could throw at it.  Naskiska has some gnarly pitches, the ones that make your stomach hit the back of your throat…  I could cut them all to shreds on this deck.  Sometimes on the mellower parts the edges would hook up but nothing that couldn’t be adjusted too in my mind with a few riding days.  Could easily recommend this board as a do-it-all, especially freeriding.

Now Burton…

I had high hopes for Big B.  I saved them for the end which may have been a curse…  I had already done 20 some odds runs so I was getting tired aka sloppy.

Board #8 was the Process V-Rocker 159.  I had my eye on this board at the shop, has some neat specs on paper.  On the hill this board was the biggest shocker to me all day.  The v-rocker is VERY loose, like you could easily spin 3’s on the snow on this thing.  I was close to doing a tail block on this board, something I haven’t been able to do yet.  Again tackling the steep pitches of Nakiska I finally ate it on this deck.  Frostbite edges?  More like Frostlick…  I don’t even think magnetraction could save the squirrelly nature of this deck.  My co-worker nailed another weird phenomenon of the frostbite edges, they give you a strange sensation that only at your feet is real contact being made with the edges.  To say this board is an all-mountain deck is a stretch…  it’s real home is the park in my opinion.

Board #9 was the Custom Flying-V.  Definitely more stability on this deck but again I was surprised how loose the flying-v profile was.  I was pretty much spent after riding this deck so I can’t say it was the best condition to be in but I expected more from Burton, especially in a flagship model that the Custom most certainly is.

I will say the Channel is sick, I absolutely love it…  you can change your stance to anything with two screws, how rad is that?!

Dragging my body to Oakley I took a peak through there lens.  Man, Oakley’s have great lens!  I was most impressed by the G30 and high intensity yellow.  G30 made everything pop and was great for late sun.  And the yellow, holy shit that was awesome!  You CAN see in the shadows!  Definitely NOT a lens for bright days but nothing can touch this lens for overcast, flat light.  The dealers favourite was the pink iridium which is a solid all round lens.

All in all 25’ish runs later I have a better idea on those manufactures.  Any questions ask away… :)

Posted: 28 January 2011 10:04 AM

Steve you legend!

I’m loving the micro reviews and the comparisons. I’ve been a big fan of the Turbo Dream in the past too, it’s a fun easy to ride all mountain board that hits the spot for most riders. Very interesting to hear that next year they are putting bamboo in the core… it’s going to be even better! Now I can’t wait to ride it in May.

Hey what do you reckon about putting these thoughts together for an article on the homepage?

Posted: 29 January 2011 05:14 AM

Sure…  I could work this into an article.

Just let me know how I should tweak the info from the thread.

I am jealous of all the pow you’ve been hitting lately. :)