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Review: 2012 Arbor Westmark 150

23K views 60 replies 16 participants last post by  swissarmybottle 
#1 · (Edited)
This format was borrowed, with permission, from Snowolf. Thanks!

The MSRP for the standard board is $419

Available sizes: 150, 153, 156, 159

General Construction:

THE ARBOR SYSTEM

A FUSION OF INTERDEPENDENT TECHNOLOGIES THAT SUPPORT TRUE-ROCKER PERFORMANCE

Arbor offers The System to provide riders with an amazing amount of edge hold in a rocker design that preserves the full range of performance associated with true-rocker shapes. We did this by perfecting the true-rocker profile (Parabolic Rocker), while building in real edge control through a unique sidecut (Grip Tech). In our opinion, the award winning “System” has proven to be the best rocker design yet offered.

This design is built on the Park System, which utilizes a flex and shape that are specifically tuned to Park oriented riding.

OTHER FEATURES & TECHNOLOGY

Power Ply Topsheet
Bio - Film
Medicine Core
Shadow Flex
Rocket Base
Unblended Progressive – Grip-tech
Rhythm Rails Side Walls
Butter Glass – Biax over Biax layup
Sumo Stance - 2X4 14-PACKS Inserts
Recycled Steel Edges
Two Year Warranty

Technical details:

Overall Length: 150 cm
Construction: The System Rocker
Effective Edge: 116.9 cm
Sidecut: 8.4m / 7.5m / 8.4m unblended
Nose Width: 29.1cm
Waist Width: 24.8cm
Tail Width: 29.1cm
Stance Range: A lot. Sorry, no numbers listed.
Flex: "Medium-Soft"
Weight Range: 106lb (48kg) – 186lb (84kg)

My Setup:

Height: 5'7"
Weight: 145
Boot: DC Park 9.5, regular laces
Binding: Burton Malavita Restricted, size M
Stance: Regular, 23.5", 15/-15 and 18/-18
Rider Skill: Freeride and Freestyle Intermediate
Wax: Hertel Super Hot Sauce

Conditions: Keystone, A Bay and Breck. Choice pre season parks, frozen granular, softer hardpack, chop, dust on frozen granular, 2-3" of fresh on frozen granular, windblown artificial packed and night conditions. Mostly bluebirds with the conditions softening throughout the day then freezing up as the sun went down and a couple of overcast days.

Philosophy of Use: This is a term I'm borrowing from "nutnfancy" on youtube, a guy who does excellent and quality reviews of firearms and knives. If you are into either, go check out his youtube channel. He does very high quality reviews and has experience in field to back it up.

Anyway, this is a park stick that is neither biased toward jibbing nor jumping but also designed to ride the whole mountain with a park-approach airing side hits, snapping ollies off rollers and transitions, bonking gladed trees, jibbing natural features and buttering up the mountain. As far as the succeeding in this mission, which is their stated goal, they have succeeded and done so admirably. I'll speak in detail to those elements further in this review.

Sidecut/Manuverability: Wow, this board is *dialed*. There might be more mellow cruisers out there on the market, but I would be hard pressed to find one that matches the versatility of the Westmark. From carved turns to skidded turns, this thing just behaves with great predictability and approachable limits. I'd find myself cruising down hardpack with a nice 2" layer of fresh on top, hit a patch of frozen granular and I could instantly transition to tip toeing it and save myself from an embarrassing wash. This predictability is awesome for riding variable conditions. The grip on hardpack is not Magnetraction level but riding it is not undoable at all. You just need to have some caution. I didn't find any of the above listed conditions more than a rider with intermediate skill could handle. Most of all, it's just fun to ride around.

The sidecut is a park cut and gives you good finesse for approaching jib features. It's not overly deep, but deep enough that you can really get on at the angle you want. I found myself getting front boards to fakies deep on longer features and the ability to approach exactly at the angle I wanted definitely helped. Most of all, there isn't a learning curve to it; you just drop in and ride it and that's it.

Dynamic short radius carves on this thing are awesome, like widdling a sculpture with a sharp bowie knife. That center side cut is right there at your toes. Grip-Tech isn't propaganda, it's the real deal. I couldn't believe how well this thing carved on edge for a short, softer park stick. I'm not the best free-rider (understatement) and I could lay pencil-line trenches everywhere I went and had fun doing so.

This predictability and stability gives a good platform for carving off the lip of park jumps or rollers for throwing down spins and progressing your park riding. I started learning to throw frontside off my heels and I'm not going to credit the board as being exclusively responsible for helping progress this area, it certainly never hindered me.

Stability/Damping: Here you might make a decision based on preference, but you're not going to get a Never Summer like ride. You will feel the texture underfoot and get feedback like a finely design sports car steering/suspension. That said, while you do feel everything, this board never seemed really upset with bombing down A Bay through frozen granular balls of death chop left behind by people getting in their pre-season lines. I was actually surprised how fast you could push it on questionable conditions and given the intention (park driven approach to the mountain), I think it's plenty stable enough. For all you park rats, I think you'll find more than enough stability here to meet your needs.

Flex/Snap: Longitudinal flex is a right around where I prefer it. It's soft enough to press easily and presses right inside the binding and throughout the tips. It's still plenty snappy off lips, rollers, side hits or whatever which is good given that it's design to get hits anywhere you ride. After I found the balance point and broke it in a bit, I could easily nose press the daylights out of this thing. It really locks in.

Torsional flex is a bit stiffer and perhaps this is what gives it such good stability on edge. It's not "stiff" perse, but it doesn't match the longitudinal stiffness as well for groundwork. You can butter it, but it's not necessarily effortless as some other boards. Perhaps I'm just spoiled by overly soft boards. This isn't a big gripe, at all.

Base: Plenty fast and durable. I got a few deeper gouges and they p-texed out nicely. Thanks goes to the dudes at Mountain Wave for fixing my shit while I went and got hammered at Mi Casa happy hour. I pre-waxed this season with Hertel Super Hot Sauce and the Rocket Base really gives you speed for dropping in on jumps. I could drop the jumpline at A51 too far down and have more than enough speed to nail the sweet spot.

Other note: I didn't find anything in the park that this board couldn't tackle. There were plenty of things in Park Lane and A51 that I didn't ride (or only aired or 50-50'd) but that's my ability, not the board. I have no question that this board will let you progress your park riding as far as your ability and work ethic will take you and that's exactly the board you want. It's a tad more expensive than some of the really bang-for-buck park sticks but it's still an incredible value. A perfect quiver killer for park kids or for full spectrum riding, it would be an awesome addition to any quiver.

edited: adding some formatting for readability
 
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#33 ·
Excellent review. It read very well, but didn't sound forced. Maybe you should be a board reviewer. :)

I'm in the market for a Westmark as well, it seems to fit the profile for the kind of board I'm looking for to compliment my cambered Burton Custom. You weigh like 20 lbs more than I do, and the problem is they don't make the Westmark under 150. How do you think this board would match up for my weight? I'm thinking that although it may not flex as easily for me, the length relative to my body weight might make it a little better in pow for me than it would for you.
 
#34 ·
Thanks, appreciate, just trying to get the word out more about this board.

At 125# a 150 would be fine. You're right in that it would blast through pow better for you. I think you'll find it's pretty playful, especially when you get the balance points dialed in for pressing and the fiberglass softens up a little. IMO, the board may not be rail specific but you can still do most anything you want on rails or flatland once you get dialed. If you did nothing but rails and urban stuff, I might point toward a different board but if not, the Westmark kills everything.

It's really a killer package and the only besides the lack of damping that you might not like is the durability. So far, I haven't had any problems but I haven't had it long enough to say it's good, either.

I did Killington this weekend and was blasting off huge back side air ollies off some of pow mounds from the snowguns. Soooo much fun. The thing snaps unbelievably well for a full reverse camber stick.
 
#37 · (Edited)
Hey cheeseforsteeze great review! Im just going to piggy back some of my comments on your thread b/c i dont think my "review" warrants a new thread.

I'm a 125lbs feather weight and a progressing beginner (close to intermediate freeride and a nub in the "park"). I just took out my 153 10/11 Westmark (same board...older graphic) on the local hill. All I can say is, when I was cruising I forgot I was on a reverse cambered "park deck". The thing can definitely rip. Coming from an older 151 cambered custom...I was afraid of loosing that spring that cambered decks provide when railing carves...but honestly...didnt really miss it much after a couple of runs :)

At the beginning it was a bit sketchy when skating between lifts and flat basing. However, need to keep in mind that this was the first run of the season for me so the first 2 runs i was trying to get my legs back. Once I got my legs/balance back and my body didn't fight itself on every turn, it was a very fun ride. I was too light/weak to flex my old custom to ollie...but with the reverse camber 'preloading' the flex for me coupled with the pop of this deck...i was able to boost off small little push mounds and rollers. I still couldn't butter it (cause I suck)...so Im gonna try and work on that this season. My only regret was that I got a 53 and not a 50 :( :( . I wonder if I should try and switch it for a 50...think that would help me to butter...? Or should i just get some skillz? haha :p

Overall...Arbor's got this reverse camber/side cut profile down! Griptech works in real life (echoing BA and Nivek).
 
#38 ·
My only regret was that I got a 53 and not a 50 :( :( . I wonder if I should try and switch it for a 50...think that would help me to butter...? Or should i just get some skillz? haha :p

Overall...Arbor's got this reverse camber/side cut profile down! Griptech works in real life (echoing BA and Nivek).
If I were you I would have got the 150. I weigh the same as you, and have a 151 Burton Custom (and a 149 Bataleon Evil Twin). With lightweights like us, length is good a tradeoff though... we can get a board slightly longer than what the board manufacturer recommends, and then we can rip more of the mountain with it. The tradeoff is flex though. The longer board is going to be stiffer because it accommodates a heavier rider.

For example, I had a 153 Never Summer Evo and it was slightly more toward all mountain deck due to the length. It was great!
 
#41 ·
Actually a 151 SL to a 152 Evo, and I can press pretty easy now, but it didn't make me a better butter'er :laugh:

It is definitely easier to press, but I still have to learn technique. The board didn't make me better, just allowed me to learn easier, but still have to learn it (and learning). I pulled off a damn long press on it the other day. No ground tricks yet, but getting the press down
 
#46 ·
So an old guy on skis ran into me from behind last weekend. It took a nice chunk out of my tail, including the Power Ply veneer topsheet and exposed some of the core/fiberglass laminate and layup. I dried it out over a couple of days inside and then epoxy'd it and am letting it cure before I sand/file it down. I think it will be ok, it shouldn't delam.

Base is holding up fairly well, at least. No real deep shots, yet.
 
#48 · (Edited)
The 'edit' (if you can call it that) was probably from the late 80s early 90s...so yea...no gopros, 5ds, reds, cineflexes, final cut pro there...lay off...hehe :p

And style...that was probably the first iteration of "style" on a snowboard...

Man hope your westmark is ok! I'll be taking mine to Stowe this weekend...hopefully it wont get needlessly battered up...

Was it a huge impact? Do you think other boards would've withstood the impact better?
 
#49 ·
Nah that edit is definitely from post 2000. Lonerider said his board was an '08 and the vid makes reference to Monster Energy drink which didn't come out until 2002. Good skills but a 4 minute video of it?

The impact knocked me off my feet, so it was pretty hard but no one got hurt except the board. I doubt anything without maybe a carbonium topsheet would have stood up. The damage wasn't bad, just a chip out about the size of a nickel. Nothing some epoxy and little elbow grease won't fix.
 
#53 ·
From a boot overhang perspective...I think sz 11 you'll be okay as the griptech side cut gives you more room for your feet. Not sure about your riding style though. At 200lb, it'll be purely a park stick...others can comment on that. Coda will give you more all mtn at your weight.
 
#55 ·
I epoxy'd the little chip using only 2 part Loctite as the filler. It held up fine and seems to pretty damned robust. I filed it down post application and curing and I think this is going to last.

I'm pretty happy with the durability so far, even if it isn't really above average. The base continues to get gouges but consider the shit I've been riding over and the fact I've spent several days doing nothing but hiking jibs, the abuse resistance can be considered at least "adequate" or "average".
 
#56 ·
Alright, this will be my final update for this since I managed to ride through some pow 8" average fresh at Sunday River with some deeper stashes 16-20" in places. It floated, as predicted, and any time I ended up going over the nose was a result of rider error, either misjudging the terrain or just being too lazy to react fast enough. I don't know if I'd call this a powder boat, especially for those of you who have access to bottomless, unconsolidated snowpack, but considering the size, I think it would do damned well. For shallow powder, it floats great and keeps plane with very little effort.

The base continues to hold up and while not as durable as I hoped (it definitely show its wear) this is a board that could easily go 50-75 days as long as you are just abusing the hell out of it. Rails are fine but rock or even thin coverage will do decent damage.
 
#57 ·
Picking up a new board for this upcoming season. Trying to decide on which board: 2012 Capita Ultrafear or 2012 Westmark? I'm gonna get some Burton Reflex Genesis bindings to pair up with the new board. Which would you guys prefer? I currently have a 2008 Capita Horrorscrope and 2011 NS Evo.
 
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