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Need help, Never Summer SL or Bataleon Goliath

5K views 20 replies 9 participants last post by  Loftness 
#1 ·
I need some help deciding my new board.

I like to ride all over the mountain, but my friends with who I ride have sort of split up in two different riding styles. The first group loves to just cruise and goof around, doing tricks, jumps, etc. no big park, park just very occasionally. But the other group just loves to bomb down the groomers and go as fast as they can!
I would love my board to have the best of both worlds, because I enjoy both styles and am sort of in between...
I want to keep improving my switch (not the greatest priority), and be able to cruise through the powder occasionally.

So I need a very all round board stable at high speeds in all conditions, even on hard packed groomers and ice, but playful enough to do tricks, jumps and some buttering.

Stats: ~170lbs, 6’, size 10 boots.

I’ve narrowed my choice down to these two boards, but other recommendations are appreciated:

Never Summer SL 155/158?
Bataleon Goliath 157 (Depending on if I like the TBT after testing it)

Tnx for your help!
 
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#6 ·
Well the SL will be the Stormtrooper next year. The Cobra would be better if you mix in a decent amount of powder (it handles everything well). And aside from buttering, I'd throw in a 159 Ripsaw suggestion as a true twin alternative that can pop and loves to bomb runs.
 
#8 ·
^I'm guessing it could be cool but that you need a few days to get used to it? I'd like to try it if I could find a demo. That's not easy though...I was speaking to a guy in a board shop in tahoe last week who has a friend who reps Bataleon along with a few other brands. Apparently they have scaled back their US ops this year. Not a lot going on with them. They are big in Europe but have found the US market difficult to crack apparently.
 
#9 ·
So I guess it will just depend on how much I will like the TBT? Good to hear that I can't go wrong with any of these two. But what sizes would you recommend? Goliath 157, SL 155 or 158?

Another question, Once you get used to TBT and ride it for a while, wouldn't it be very hard to return to a 'normal' board?
 
#15 ·
I'd only throw the Proto into your mix if you wanted to ride switch. Otherwise I'd still say SL (or Snowtrooper) or Cobra. If it's between actual SL and Cobra I would take the Cobra. If it's the Snowtrooper or Cobra....the day I demoed their boards I heard a ton of great feedback on the Snowtrooper. Enough so that if I had more time I would have taken one out to see why.

(And GD but I wouldn't take any of those over this Ripsaw I'm riding. I love the hell out of this board)
 
#16 ·
If the OP is riding in regular powder along with cruising on groomers then Cobra would be best fit. But if it's mostly just groomers, playing around and occasional hits of powder you could make the argument the SL would be better, it's more of an all rounder. And it's a bit cheaper. If I remember rightly, the Cobra was designed based on Snowwolf's feedback of how to make the Heritage more powder friendly, hence the drawn out nose etc. Dreampow's review of the Cobra is worth reading, as is BA's on Angry Snowboarder.

Snowtrooper looks a different beast all together. Can't wait to demo one of those next season.
 
#19 ·
fwiw, i have an sl - and a bataleon fun.kink, which is a lot softer than the goliath, but the same sort of shape and type of board.

i do not like the rocker between the feet on groomers or hardpack. at all.

i used to like the sl more on pow days because of the float factor, but after taking out my fun.kink lately on the deep stuff, i'm starting to like it more overall.

the ns boards i've ridden are all extremely damp. i really only like them on tracked out, choppy, push mound type conditions. they seem to plow over everything with minimal leg work. i think of them as like a luxury car on the highway...

bataleons are really lively underfoot from my experience, and for the most part, that's what i like. will prob sell my sl, and goliath or jam will be my next deck, i think.
 
#20 ·
Last weekend I went to my local board shop, and they didn't make the choice more easy for me... They didn't have the Cobra, and only the HDX version of the Proto. BUT, they could offer me a Lib Tech Attack Banana for a very good price. Haven't bought anything yet, because I might prospone the buying to the beginning of next season, but the Attack Banana does not make the decision any easier.
The guy at the shop told me that he had a simmilar ridingstyle as I have, and he loved the attack banana, but was not able to compare it to the Proto or the Cobra because he didn't try them out yet...
 
#21 ·
I have not ridden the Attack Banana, but from friends I have that have ridden it, and from reviews I've read, I don't think that's what you're looking for. Especially if you're trying run with the group of friends you mentioned that like to bomb hills. This is not a stable board. It has a very loose feel.
 
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