I've been really curious to try a totally flat board, but wondering what experiences other have had with this relatively, new to the scene, camber style. I keep reading conflicting things...good for park/good for groomers. I don't really hit the park, and I love the control of my regular camber board--I can't help but think one would have better edge control, making it more suitable as an all mountain board.
Nothing beats the edge control of a positive cambered board in my opinion. Flat camber is the next best thing though. Edge to edge power on flat camber is quick and responsive given that the particular board in question is a quality one. Flat cambered boards like the Slayblade are sickeningly fast too. One negative I found on some flat camber boards is that they can be boring. You don't get the playfulness of a rocker/hybrid and you don't quite get the edge hold of a posi camber. It really does sit in between the camber types.
Pros - Maximum Stability. Longer running surface. Boards can be ridden shorter.
Cons - No inherent rebound. Without additional measures these boards tend to feel less lively. The contact points of the effective edge (roughly the boards wide points) are in constant contact with the snow. That can mean caught edges and some hard take downs.
I switched to the machete from basically the same board cambered. The machete is flat with slightly raised contact points so... it has less contact (friction) making it faster.It carves better than a cambered board and can make sharper turns at high speed. Of course it spins better though is softer on big landings (can't be a sloppy on weighting).I love mine... though not for everybody. Demo b4 buying.
My jib board is zero camber, Nitro Swindle. I rode it all last season (20-30 days). Like people have said, its right in the middle. I've heard some people say its like riding a well broken in camber board, maybe. Compared to my Sierrascope, its not as forgiving. After riding the scope and then going to the nitro, I did do a couple of scorpions. I think thats just the forgiveness of rocker/elevated contact points/etc...Either way, I could ride the whole mountain on the zero cam. Its a fun board, but if you're looking for forgiveness/playfulness, go with some sort of RC board, if you want edge hold, and response, go for a posi camber board. If you want a little of everything, but right in the middle, zero cam is for you.
If you like camber but don't want to go to rockered tips, center reverse, or some crazy hybrid flat is the way to go. Take your favorite board that you've ever ridden and at the end of its lifespan it was probably flat that's how it's going to ride. Personally I've been digging flat a lot lately.
Thanks for all the feedback. Sounds like it's worth a shot...now only if I could go demo it or get a flat board on a ridiculous sale. Any reco's for size? I currently ride 156, 5'8" 160lbs (female). Should I go a little shorter on the flat board?
is it true that you can size down on zero cambered boards since the entire effective edge is flat? seems like it would make sense to me. I was thinking of getting a 52 for a jib/park/groomer type board...i'm 6'1" about 165 lbs...
I´ve been on at least 20 cambered boards in my two decades of snowboarding. My Nitro Team Gullwing carves as well as almost any of them (except my boardercross-Palmers). The one thing a great cambered board preforms better in is catching an edge in a icy landing after some serious air!
My personal opinion is that rocker/flat boards is more forgiving on edgepressure and therefore can be pressed harder. With cambered boards, especially on groomers, i sometime press my board into a nosedives (the front edge cuts to deep) causing major bails..!! The rocker/flat boards i´ve tried handles this kind of carving smoother and don´t causes the same type of "nosedives".
Its legit! Im thinking about getting a Stepchild and its zero camber. Cross reference threads and you will see
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