Lib Tech 2012 Snowboard Reviews

Watch Brain Farm’s latest release, the Art of Flight and bear-in-mind that Travis Rice was riding this snowboard when he filmed it! The Lib Tech Travis Rice is an all-mountain charger that tracks perfectly through the pipe, is snappy in and out of turns, glides in powder and fires off jumps like Evel Knievel on his Harley Davidson, minus the broken bones.

Read full review of the Lib Tech Travis Rice Pro 2012 Snowboard.

It’s about time Lib Tech created the Attack Banana! It’s been a tough time choosing between the Skate Banana with the buttery soft and playful Banana profile and the TRS series with the more aggressive, responsive and lively C2 Banana profile. Now you can go straight down the middle and take the Attack Banana with its EC2 Banana profile, a halfway house between the two.

Read full review of the Lib Tech Attack Banana 2012 Snowboard.

What’s left to say about the Skate Banana that hasn’t been said? 12months on SB-RV and it’s still the second most popular snowboard on the site, only just behind the mighty Burton Custom. The Skate Banana’s combination of Its loose and buttery Banana reverse camber profile and Magne-Traction edges mean that for freestylers who want a fun and forgiving snowboard that performs on an edge too it’s still one of the best snowboards out there.

Read full review of the Lib Tech Skate Banana 2012 Snowboard.

The Box Scratcher is the mid-wide twin tips designed to allow riders to size down to their ideal jibbing length. An 80kg rider with Size 10US feet could happily ride the Box Scratcher 152 without it feeling like a slipper wet noodle. Its shape has shorter kicks that mean the 152 Box Scratcher has an effective edge between that of the 154 and 156 Skate Banana so there’s plenty of grip. This year the Box Scratcher won a Transworld Snowboarding Magazine Good Wood Award.

Read full review of the Lib Tech Burtner Box Scratcher Series 2012 Snowboard.

You really have to pick the Lib Tech Birdman up with your own two hands to understand the pure scale of this snowboard. The shape is pretty regular at the rear of the board, then the nose starts and standard dimensions got out the window, it honestly looks like half of the board is made up of the nose but in reality the stance is only 4 inches set back… ok well that is 12cm in Euro measurements. Coming in at 170cm and 180cm in length, the rest of the dimensions are pretty conventional; the sidecut has a mere 8.3m radius and there is only 13mm of taper which is really minimal. If there’s one certainty about the Birdman, it’s that it will fly in the deep stuff

Read full review of the Lib Tech Birdman 2012 Snowboard.

Mr Landvik has been spending an unhealthy amount of time with Mr Rice, with the trailers of the Art of Flight as evidence it appears some of Travis’ craziness has rubbed-off on Mark. Mark’s board is designed to handle everything Mark can throw at it which is a lot more than you and I can. Enormous drops, insane pillow lines and mind bending jumps are a warm-up. The Phoenix Lando like Jamie’s board the Phoenix has a mellow sidecut, C2 Banana profile, Basalt laminates and Mag edges. The Phoenix Lando is almost a complete replica of Jamie’s board (Jamie even did the cool Crab graphics in his classic style) except for the addition of Bamboo Throttle pads under the bindings for increased response and to channel energy through the Power Transfer Internal Sidewalls.

Read full review of the Lib Tech Mark Landvik Phoenix Series 2012 Snowboard.

This year the Lib Tech TRS took home a Good Wood award. Good Wood testers tend to be park focused, they like a board to perform in all elements of freestyle riding from rails to pipe. More importantly the boards need to perform on little jibs for the many photographers to catch on film. If that’s your kind of riding take the biggest snowboarding publication in the World’s advice and buy a Total Ripper Series.

Read full review of the Lib Tech TRS Total Ripper Series 2012 Snowboard.

Lib Tech old-schooler and Mt Baker local Matt Cummins has been representing the brand and freeriding at an insanely high level for as long as anyone can remember. For the last few years Matt has been working on the McKink but for this year he’s dedicated his time to developing the directional La Nina and more specifically its new C1 camber rocker profile. C1 puts reverse camber between the feet and plenty of rocker in the nose for float. To keep a snappy feel the C1 profile has camber in the tail to keep the board poppy, make big rooster tail slashes possible and keep you from washing-out on backseat landings.

Read full review of the Lib Tech La Nina MC 2012 Snowboard.

This is without doubt going to be the only Banana you’ll ever get your kid to take to school! The Lib Ripper has Lib’s Banana profile and Magne-Traction edges, it also has Power Transfer Internal Sidewalls and an H-Pop core which is manufactured from harvested dead trees (they’re dead before they cut them smart arse) surely making the Lib Ripper the most tech kid’s board on the planet.

Read full review of the Lib Tech Lib Ripper 2012 Snowboard.

Jamie Lynn needs no introduction and neither should his pro model on Lib Tech, where he’s had a pro model before time began. The Jamie Lynn Phoenix series has a pretty shallow sidecut for cruisy powder turns and additional stability, the sidecut is matched with a firm flex and the Magnetraction edges have been toned down a little because Jamie likes it that way. To top it all off, Jamies board has the C2 Banana profile and Basalt Laminates for more pop per pound.

Read full review of the Lib Tech Jamie Lynn Phoenix Series 2012 Snowboard.

The Lib Tech Banana Hammock is no longer an enigma I’ve actually seen one with my own eyes and if you have a quick browse on Youtube there are a few videos circulating of people riding them. To be honest the Hammock is extremely specialist, the very fact that it has a reverse sidecut like a wakeboard means this snowboard is only for the deepest of days where there is absolutely 0% chance of encountering solid snow.

Read full review of the Lib Tech Travis Rice Banana Hammock 2012 Snowboard.

If you’re about to release the biggest shred movie to hit the big screen in the history of snowboarding your sponsors I expect would be falling over themselves to create the ultimate snowboard for you to stomp those tricks on. It’s base on Travis’ standard Pro ride with Lib Tech but instead of fibreglass they replace the glass fibres with Basalt, a material with a smoother riding feel and a higher strength to weight ratio allowing Lib Tech to trim a few grams off Travis’ board and yet improve the pop, response and overall feel.

Read full review of the Lib Tech Travis Rice Pro Horsepower 2012 Snowboard.

How does the most progressive snowboarder on the planet access the most remote terrain on the planet? He travels by splitboard my friends and the kind folk at Lib Tech have made his big mountain chariot available to all.

Read full review of the Lib Tech Travis Rice Pro Splits 2012 Snowboard.

Just because you’re bigger than your average snowboarding weed it doesn’t mean you don’t love fresh turns. The Skunk Ape is Lib-Tech’s all-mountain snowboard designed specifically for big men. The waist of the Skunk Ape is 26.8cm for every length and it’s not shy on tech either, packing Magne-Traction edges, C2 Banana profile and Basalt laminates into its construction.

Read full review of the Lib Tech Skunk Apes 2012 Snowboard.

The firmest flexing snowboard in the Lib Tech range, the Dark Series has earnt itself a reputations as a great freeride snowboard. It’s punchy out of turns and has edge hold by the bucket load, in deep snow it floats and on sketchy snow it works hard with few complaints. Freeride World Tour rider James Stentiford graced the podium a fair few times last year and you certainly can’t sniff at a 3rd place at the Verbier Extreme, he rides and swears by the Dark Series. I’m inclined to take his word.

Read full review of the Lib Tech Dark Series 2012 Snowboard.

We can probably get away with calling the Banana Magic Lib Tech’s flagship snowboard, because the Cygnus X-1 is so out of this world in terms of technology and expense. The Banana Magic pioneers Basalt laminates, using zero fibreglass in its construction. C2 Banana profile keeps the waist soft for pop and with the tight 7-ish metre sidecut makes deep carves a breeze. The Twin shape means the Banana Magic will work great on jumps and in the pipe where switch riding should be second nature. Magne Traction edges mean this is the least slippery Banana you’ll ever tread on.

Read full review of the Lib Tech Banana Magic 2012 Snowboard.