Is my setup any good?

Posted: 02 April 2011 11:43 AM

Profile
Male
Shoe size: 40/US 9
Length: 172/5’6
Weight: 60 kg/133lbs
Riding level: Beginner –Intermediate
Snowboarding for 4 years (one week per year) + 4-5 times indoor per year. Always with rented boards. So this would be my first board.
Green+blue: no sweat, often go off piste looking for natural SMALL jumps, switch, 180’s and that kind of stuff, small rails. Problem to pick up some descent speed!
Red: also no problem, but without playing around to keep my concentrating up.
Black: once, not my cup of thee yet!

What I want to do with my board in the future.
70% groomers
20% between pistes/off piste: some fooling around
9% park (starting to try some easy jumps and rails)
1% make huge face smashes

Set up
Forum conflict 154
Burton Mission bindings S
Celsius cloud 9 – O Zone

The forum conflict and mission bindings were a gift. I bought the boots myself. The gift was bought in a other country so can’t be returned.

The board
Is this board any good for my experience. I’m getting some mixed information. Some people say to keep it (because its far better than a rental and I will just do fine with it) other say to get rid of it (because of the camber). Also mixed information on the board itself. Some websites call it stiff others say it soft. I’ve heard you always have to deduct 2 points on the stiffness rate with forum snowboards to be able to compare it with other companies.

I’m worried about the official description of the board. Will I be able to have a good ride with the board looking at the description, of being a aggressive board and the rate of stiffness. Will I be able to handle it?

If you have to compare it, should you compare it with the burton custom or the burton custom X?

Bindings
I think I’m gonna keep this anyway, in my opinion a good binding for any board. Feel free to correct me

Boots
I know they are for women, but they were by far the best fit in the shop.

Posted: 02 April 2011 07:29 PM

Firstly, I think the size of the board is perfect for your height and weight.

Secondly, forums are funny places where people can only give you their opinion. If you’re worried about your setup, most forums aren’t the place to put your mind at rest.

About the Conflict. It is the stiffest board in the line, I have a Rossignol designed for John Jackson and it is stiff. I can’t imagine his taste has changed much since moving to Forum. The Conflict is cambered too which makes it a little more demanding than some of the rocker and hybrid rocker alternatives. For someone of your experience the board might not be ideal, it’s a board designed to meet the demands of experienced and aggressive snowboarders. That said, if most of your time at the moment is spent trying to improve your carving and trying to push your speed, a firm cambered board is the most suitible for that and it will certainly help fill you with confidence in big fast carves.

As you can’t return the board my advice would be to give yourself a week on the board. If you find that you’re unable to progress because of the firm flex, then see if you can demo a softer board, perhaps reverse camber. The Conflict won’t loose much value if you ride it for a day or two and then decide it’s not for you.

As far as bindings and boots go, if they fit and are comfy then they sound perfect.

Posted: 04 April 2011 08:44 PM

Thanks for your advice!

I want to hear people personal opinion, so I can decide on their experience! So what is your opinion if I for exemple could return it?