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2012 Ride Highlife

3K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  DePOW 
#1 ·
This was my old thread I used to pick out this board, and here is the review now that I've ridden it.

Setup:
2012 161' Ride Highlife with 2013 Rome Atlas bindings (using the stiff inserts for the bindings), and Salomon Malamute boots. I'm 180 lbs and 5'11.

Ridden in:
Grouse, Cypress, Whistler, Baker and Revelstoke on everything from ice, groomers, hard packed crud, shallow pow, deep pow, good pow, powcrete, the whole range of good and bad.

Pow:
Amazing. The stiffness of this board, the regular camber tail to sink, big floaty reverse camber nose, it's super stable and rips hard feels goodreally. I started with the bindings centered (it is a directional board), but now ride the bindings all the way back. Tons of float and I love it in pow.
It prefers big arcing high powered carves, but is much nimbler in pow than on groomers. No problems navigating tight trees in pow.
Riding this in steep pow on revelstoke was some of the best boarding I've done.

Groomers:
It's not nearly as quick turning on groomers as is it in pow, it really carves hard when you lay into your carves. Super stable at high speeds.
I'd say it 'performs' well in ice and crap, but I'm used to magnetraction (and have ridden other types of edge tech) and find that without any edge tech this responsive board is really harsh on ice and small bumps. The highlife does a good job holding an edge through ice, it's just really harsh physically.

Jumps:
Stable landings jumping off of small cliffs.
Works fine for straight airs and grabs, stable take off and landings. I can still do ones and threes on it but thats not really the type of riding I do with this board.

Final Thoughts:
I got it on sale for $270 and it's been good value for money, but I only ride it if it is a pow day or a soft groomer day with no ice. It's such a stiff and responsive board that it's not fun on ice or choppy crud, I have more fun on my Altered Genetics in those conditions. I do still think the highlife will be great for spring corn/slush in a few months, it's only choppy hard crud and ice that it's a brutal ride.

I'm still super happy with it, but if I'd known I would mostly only use it on pow days then I might have been better off with a different board.
 
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#2 ·
Great review and on point!

I like ride! They make great boards. I had a Machete once and it was the best fun board I had with the LEAST leg burn I ever experienced and fastest edge to edge.

I tried the Highlife and was honestly expecting more from it! Good board, but sucked on ice compared to other boards i have or tried. And east cost is mostly ice hard pack. So I passed...

Cheers...
 
#3 ·
Highlife 2013

I just purchased a Ride 164 Highlife 2013 for POW only. I am 179cm, 95kg, last time I tackled real POW my Ride 163 Freestyle board l had plenty of problems keeping the nose up and I weighed a little less.

This board will be used with Ride RX Bindings. I am hoping for big POW on my next trip and I especially invested in using this board only for this purpose. I really like using super responsive boards so I am hoping it will go well on groomers.

Probably a useless board for use in Australia as we get mainly hard pack ice.

I am expecting big leg burn on hard groomers but I love POW and jumping on soft groomers and bombing down small cliffs so it should be worth the $550AUD it cost me to get it here.

My other board I intend to take and be used for first time will be a Travis Rice Libtech either a 157 or 161.5. They tell me the 161.5 is better for groomers and also great for POW as I see Travis has already proven:3tens:

I already have a Park board, Force 155(Old Aussie brand), poor board but very flexi, I call it my wrecking board, usually it wrecks me in the park somewhere:dizzy:.
 
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