Amplid Paradigma - yes? Alternatives?

Posted: 20 February 2011 12:31 PM

Hi,

I just spent my first two days ever on a snowboard - sort of “accidentally” riding an Amplid Paradigma 163 (2010) out of the local board rental. I massively enjoyed the board - carving worked well, the board did exactly what I wanted to do.

The only concern I have about this board is its width - is it wide enough, at 253 mm waist width?

My profile is 85+-3 kg distributed over 188cm; current shoe size is US 12 (30cm). I am an experienced kitesurfer, so snowboarding did come sort of naturally to me (and it felt great on the Paradigma - fakie+normal, heel+toe). I was riding goofy, 30/15, which felt very natural, but might wish to try duck (familiarity with kitesurfing).

The board I intend to use for hard carving and jumping (rotations / grabs). Powder - never tried, would like to, when possible. I have no interest in making contact with obstacles. This will be my only snowboard.

So, any advice? The Paradigma seems to be very hard to find - what would be my alternatives?

Many thanks!

Posted: 20 February 2011 03:36 PM

Hi Daffy,

+30/+15 binding angles is quite old school, I’d definitely give a duck foot stance a go, most people now ride duck as it’s more natural, especially if you come from other board sports.

Personally I think that your feet are a little too big for the Paradigima, which is a shame because as you are well aware the board is awsome! By the way if you want to purchase Amplid goods, the Amplid banner on their Snowboard-Review page goes through to their shopatron site… when you order goods they pass the sale onto the retailer nearest to you. Everyone is a winner!

So essentially you’d like advice on similar boards that will perform like the Paradigma but have a little extra width?

Rich

Posted: 20 February 2011 03:55 PM

Hi Rich,

many thanks for your reply!

Yes, I am focused on the ride, not on the board - I will take anything that fits my feet and gives me that feeling I had on the Paradigma again.

I had a little look around and noticed the Burton Custom X 164 Wide - which seems to be a tad on the stiffer side compared to the Paradigma? Would it be too stiff? The Burton Custom seems to be on the softer side? Then there seems to be a Ride HighLife?

I am not focused on any brands. I am just clueless, and I just want the feel of the ride :)

Posted: 20 February 2011 04:57 PM

Your pretty much spot on with where the Paradigama sits in ragerds to the Custom and Custom X, it’s kind of a halfway house on the flex front. If the Custom is a 5/10 and the Custom X is 7/10 then the Paradigma is 7/10. I gues there is no real way of finding out if your like a slightly firmer board without trying it. Personally I don’t think the Custom X is a hard board to ride if what you want to do is fly down the mountain, doing big carves and popping huge off rollers… it’s just not a great board for progressing in the park because it’s so precision. However, off bigger jumps 8m+ I think it’s going to be amazing because of the edge hold, pop and speed. When I ride next year’s X in May I’m going to take it off some big table and see how comfortable I feel:)

Other boards you should look at are:

The Salomon Special II - THis board is light and precise.. pretty much the Salomon equivalent to the Custom X. Probably a little cheaper and I think the wides have a touch more witdth.

Nitro Blacklight - Anothere cambered high performance pipe and freeride board with a lively flex and a midwide waist.

Endeavor Live Series: So I haven’t ridden this board but I’ve ridden the cheaper Guerilla Series. Without doubt the best looking brand on teh market, Endeavors have performance to match. All thier boards have carbon reinforcement for pop and aggresive sidecuts which means they respond well to aggresive riding and feel really lively. The Liveis a directional twin and has a medium flex probably similar to that of the Custom so it’s a bit more dialled for park riding.

2010 Atomic Alibi - The wide 163 would fit your request too. I say last years because it was a little lighter and livelier than this years which uses eco materials and is much damper… more freeride-ie. Might be hard to find, but if you can you’ll get a great price on an awsome board.

Check out these and let me know what you think.

Rich

Posted: 21 February 2011 01:34 PM

Many thanks for your additional advice!

I looked around and ran into availability issues (brand/make/size). I also decided to skip an auction on ebay for a Burton Custom X 164W with Burton CO2 bindings (which ended up at 425 Euro) because of concerns about the additional stiffness of the Custom X being a hindrance to my progress.

So, in the end, I picked up the phone and got myself a new 2011 Paradigma 163 at an acceptable price from an officially listed, physical shop in Germany (by-passing their very own Internet shop). I am deliberately taking the risk that I have to tune my bindings and/or shoes a bit - but, hey, that rental Paradigma was *so much* fun to ride as it was, how much can go wrong? We’ll see how everything turns out.

For the record (and for search engines to index): I got confirmation from Amplid that the 2010 and 2011 Paradigma have the same internal construction; from that I conclude that the 2011 only received technical upgrades for improved durability of the looks (which I can attest to as being effective for kiteboards) as well as a change-over in visual design.

Many thanks for your advice, and the very helpful information on your website - keep up the good work!

Posted: 21 February 2011 01:47 PM

Sure.. I can understand if you loved the Paradigma you’ve got to have it!

I’d look into Burton boots that have shrinkage footprint reduction technology like the Burton Ruler… it’ll minimise your overhang so you can use more conventional angles.

Rich