snaw

Guys,

Need some help picking my next board, hoping this is the right place!

Looking for an all mountain board. I'm an advanced primarily backcountry/powder/in the tress rider if it's there to be had, super fast groomers if not. Love gettign air but not so much in the park (10% of the time if conditions elsewhere are bad or a run through park on way down, prefer hitting natural terrain). Never do pipe or rails, switch sometimes when I'm bored or with slower peeps.

5'8, 170 lbs, size 9 feet.

Tossing up between Never Winter raptor or heritage or Libtech jamie lynn / travis rice. Not sure about sizes now with all the changes going on, open to any suggestions of alternates. Not fussed on price, just want what's best for me - looking to buy end of season deal - not gonna get a chance to get back out this year.

Appreciate any advice, thanks for your time.

Lstarrasl

Lib Tech Dark Series. Look into it.

snaw

Cheers, looks interesting.

How you think it would compare to a Never Winter Heritage?

Any idea on size, I'd normally go around 160 but seems like everything I'm reading now points towards going shorter as technology has changed (There's a 158 and 161 for the dark series)?

snaw

Just read a review on the dark series where it was rated average on powder, which kind of surprises me for banana tech etc?

Any thoughts on that?

danm

That's because the Dark has a narrower waist than average for a given length... Quicker edge to edge but obviously less total surface area... Just going by specs here as I haven't ridden a Dark... Currently riding a T.Rice 157 for AM and Mullet 160 for pow... I'm 5'5" 175 sz 9...

snaw

Ahh, makes sense.

Kind of rules the DS out for me then, at a minimum I want a good powder /speed /jumps board. Kind of looking at the Jamie Lynn (Had a couple in the past and always liked them) or toss up between the NS Heritage or Raptor. Though FK where I can find a Heritage in a 158 (Size I'd like, 161 seems slightly biggish).

Man, love this and hate this in equal measures. Big purchase, and what I'll be riding for next 3 years or so ....

Nivek

Arbor Coda, Nitro Team Gullwing, Flow Solitude, or a K2 Slayblade.

Arbor will float awesomeness with continuous rocker. Griptech grips well enough but doesn't get "hooky" like magne. Gullwing is similar to RC but with less camber, better float. Flow is Priced well and built well, great sidecut. K2 is a tank, Harshmellow.

__________________
Snowboarding Sucks.

Lstarrasl

I've had 2, 2 foot powder days this season and that board killed it everywhere I went.

snaw

I think you're right, I'm sure I'd ride in powder and be fine, just reading a few different reviews on it, and seems to be a consensus that it's the weakest feature of the board, as opposed to the JL phoenix which rates excellent in powder, even though specs look similar to me:

2011 Lib Tech Board
Dark Series C2BTX Size 158 Rider Weight 110+ Waist Width 251
Dark Series C2BTX Size 161 Rider Weight 120+ Waist Width 251
Contact length on each is 122/124, side cut on each is 8.3/8.4, nose & tail each 29.2/29.7, flex 7.5

Jamie Lynn C2BTX Size 157 Rider Weight 100+ Waist Width 251
Jamie Lynn C2BTX Size 160 Rider Weight 115+ Waist Width 254
Contact length on each is 117.5/121, side cut 8.75/8.75, nose & tail each 28.7/30, flex 6.5


Never Summer
Heritage Size 158 Rider Weight 130+ Waist Width 254
Contact length is 124 tip/tail is 30.0
Heritage Size 160 Rider Weight 140+ Waist Width 256
Contact length is 125 tip/tail is 30.2

All a wee bit technical for me, which part of that makes a JL ride better than the DS in powder or is that just bollocks?

Fk me, getting myself tied up in knots over all this spec stuff, wish I could just go out and demo each one for a 1/2 day. Unfortunately not an option.

BTW Just noticed I'm a mong and been calling "never summer" "never winter". duh.

gauntlet09

That is almost exactly how I would describe my riding style, and the type of board I was looking for. I had been riding the same board (a K2 Fatbob) for the last 13 years and finally decided that maybe my riding would benefit from some of the new tech out there. So I spent months researching, reading reviews etc...(I wasn't able to demo anything) and narrowed it down to a couple of boards, one of which was the K2 Slayblade with Flatline Technology (zero camber) which by some stroke of luck was 50% off and in my size at a local shop so I took it! I am 5'10" and 170-175lbs and I got a 159 (mostly because that's all that was available, but it was also the size that I rode previously). So far I've only ridden it about 6 times so this won't be a complete review.

First Impressions: I wasn't really expecting to notice as much of a difference as I did (traditional camber vs. flat).

The Good:

1) SCARY FAST! Thank god this thing can handle it!
2) HOLY EDGE HOLD! I was bombing down a steep run that abruptly ended with a near 90 degree turn to the right onto a cat track with a sheer drop into thick trees below. I didn't slow down at all, just chose a line and dug in my toe edge (regular)... not a single slip, man it was exhilarating!!! I know I'm gonna get killed on here because of this but, I think this thing holds an edge and carves as well as, if not better than, traditional cambered boards I've ridden (maybe I just haven't ridden the right one)!
3) LANDING STOMPAGE! I'm not much of a "techie" so I don't know why this is, but I've been stomping everything on this board (mostly natural kickers, cliffs, hucking off cat tracks etc...maybe one or two runs through the park). It performs especially well when landing in and riding out of tracked-up powder/chunk...really stable. I think this is my favorite thing about this board so far, I'm able to go WAY bigger with fewer consequences .
4) DAMP! Even though I laugh every time I hear or say the word "Harshmello" it really seems to work. I always used to think "I never get board chatter" but I guess I just never knew it. This board rides so smooth, it seems like I can ride harder and longer with less fatigue.
5) There have been at least 3 times when I was ABSOLUTELY-NO-WAY-AROUND-IT POSITIVE that I was going to catch an edge and eat it hard but rode it out! Thank you Flatline Technology!

The "OK":

1) Not quite as much pop when I'm trying to launch into orbit off a roller. This is the only situation that "pop" is an issue. Maybe I just need a little more time to figure it out.
2) Powder. Wishful thinking told me this thing would ride like a reverse camber or other "powder specific" board...I'm not really sure what that's like, but I can dream Definitely better than a traditional cambered board, but I was hoping for a more noticable difference (though I've never really had trouble riding pow). I guess you can't have it all Maybe someday I'll be able to afford a powder board for those 5-6 really good pow days!

Bottom line: I know there are tons of other great boards out there that I didn't have luxury of trying out, but after 18 years of riding (having plateaued 5-6 years ago) the last 6 days or so on my Slayblade have seen SIGNIFICANT improvement in my "balls to the wall" riding. And I'm still using old ass Sims bindings from the late '90s (it's really embarassing having them on such a sweet deck). I can't wait to see what happens when I can get a decent set of bindings. Good luck with your search!

(If I had the time and money to chase the pow around more, I'd look hard at a K2 Turbo Dream)