Opinions on zero camber (flat) boards...?
 

Hey,

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.

Thoughts?

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.

Flat

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.

your graphic is a bit misleading Lib/gnu's banana is what you have labeled as "flat rocker flat"

i've been on banana boards and flat with lifted contacts and i find the bananas to be the quickest to turn, the flat seems more stable.

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.

Did you just say a rockered snowboard carves better than a positive camber? :eek:

By the way, LowRize rocker is a super mellow rocker rise. It's flat between the bindings and rockered in the tips ever so slightly.

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.

BTX is not the flat rocker flat pictured. That's actually more like Gullwing or I-Rock.

Flat is my favorite park profile.

Would love to demo. My next trip is to Stowe but they only demo Burton boards and Burton doesn't make a zero camber board :(

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.