Ride Crush, K2 WWW, or Arbor Draft

Posted: 10 September 2011 11:21 PM

Hey I am a decent all mountain rider (5’5” 140 pounds) who knows the basics of the park (boardslides, 180 on/off boxes, 50-50 small down rails, etc.)  but really wants to get good at jibs. I am thinking of the Ride Crush, K2 WWW, or Arbor Draft. Which would be best for REALLY good presses and butters while not being terrible at small jumps and cruising the mountain? (so basically a good jib board for progression from intermediate to advanced) I am also kinda looking at the bataleon disaster/lobster jibboard and artifact rocker but they are not what I’m leaning towards as much…

Thanks

(P.S. I am mainly looking for advice from people who have personal experience with these boards i.e. they own the board, have demoed it, have a friend that has it, etc.)

Posted: 13 September 2011 08:14 AM

I’ve ridden the K2 WWW and Arbor Draft and both are extremely soft… I wouldn’t be so happy taking them all mountain. A freind who used to be the editor of a snowboard magazine rode the Crush and he said it was one of his favourite boards at the test we were on… same goes for our tester Ally this year, I think the general feeling around the Crush is that it is Jib focused but a bit more versatile than the other two boards you have listed. You might also want to have a look at the Arbor Westmark, Never Summer Evo and Academy Propaganda.

Rich

Posted: 13 September 2011 10:09 PM

Okay thank you Rich.

When I said I wanted a board for jibs that could cruise the mountain I am talking about a tiny PA hill (whitetail and liberty mountain) that have groomers and some ice with no pow or tree runs or anything difficult. I say this because you said the WWW and Draft would be no good for all mountain, so I am just clarifying that I only ride a small hill so am unsure if their poor riding ability will really matter on the relative ease of where I ride (Plus I will be focusing on park anyways). So would those boards still be terrible for what I mentioned?

Also, about the Crush, would it still be as good as the WWW and Draft for park PLUS better at all mountain or does it lack a bit of park ability (soft flex, pressability, etc.) in order to be better for all mountain? Also will this board (or any of the others) have a fair amount of pop?

As for the Endeavor Color Rocker and the Bataleon Disaster, do you know anything about them and how they would compare to the other boards I mentioned? I feel like the Endeavor would be good because of the rocker in between the feet only (like banana rocker) and in their site they say it has a sintered base (I don’t know if this is better or worse for rail riding). Also the Bataleon is super soft plus TBT so that seems good but I really don’t know…

Lastly, you mentioned the Never Summer Evo. Would the Evo be softer and more playful than the Skate Banana (because I think that the 149 banana seems a bit to stiff for what I am going for)? How would its flex compare to the other boards mentioned? The Westmark also seems too stiff (mid flex) for what I am looking for and the 150 is a tad bigger than what I was thinking of getting (I’m thinking 147 or maybe 148). The Academy might be worth looking into some more but I think I am leaning towards the other boards…

Thanks again for your time!

Posted: 20 September 2011 10:36 AM

Eh up mate, i’ve only been riding a year and have only just started on the park stuff really so not the greatest expert but i ride a WWW at the mo . Love the board in the domes and find it easy to progress with. I took it to Mayrhofen last year and although i got on ok with it on the reds it was definately too soft for my liking. Not a great deal of grip and found it pretty unstable in general. For those reasons i’m looking at the Never Summer Evo or SL to take away and keeping the WWW for dome/park riding (will be putting a post on here shortly lol).

So,
Positives: soft, forgiving, great fun and great park board, ok for blues and not so much fun on harder red runs
Negatives: rubbish grip, not very stable