Looking for a new freeride/all mountain board.
 

Been riding an Arbor Element 161 for the past 4 years and am starting to shop for a replacement board.

5'10" and 170 pounds and I ride goofy. I board inbounds and stick mainly to groomers unless there is fresh snow.

Looking for something that is better in powder/what passes for powder in the Pacific NW, is able to handle groomers and icy conditions.

Like what I've read about T Rice but have never ridden a magna-traction or reverse camber board.

Am open to suggestions/recommendations. Any good deals on closeouts on last year's models would be appreciated.

Thanks

also consider the banana magic. I ride cypress/whistler/baker. For these conditions the magic 157 excels. Premium edgehold in ice. But never catch edges and faceplant. Also my supermodel x 164 is awesome for pnw. Carves better than magic. Faster. To me the smx is my big mtn board when i go to whistler. If theres mixed conditions and/or i plan on hanging out in the trees (limited viz) the magic is what i reach for... more manouverable, shorter.

For pow these 2 are about equal. For epic pow i use my fish ltd.

are you selling the arbor element?

Arbor Element RX? Rocker and griptech. What you have, but better and quicker turning... If not try the Signal Omni, or Flow Drifter.

Thanks for the feedback.

Probably not going to sell the Element right away and maybe not at all if I can't find a good deal.

Like what I've read about the Banana Magic but it is probably out of my price range. I like a lot of the Mervin products.
We have our annual ski & snowboard show in a few weeks and would like to have a few boards to look for. There are usually some good deals on last years models although not often on higher end boards. Hoping to get lucky.

Reading reviews these all seem to fit what I'm looking for.

Any feed back yeah or nay would be appreciated.

Never Summer SL
GNU Billy Goat C2 BTX Snowboard
Lib Tech Jamie Lynn C2 BTX Phoenix
Lib Tech TRS C2 BTX
Lib Tech Travis Rice C2 BTX and C2 Power BTX Pointy
Lib Tech Banana Magic
Capita Black Snowboard of Death
YES Optimistic
YES Big City
Ride Highlife
Rome Anthem

Thanks.

imo riding baker, c2 btx is better for bombing groomers, in chop chow and charging poo vs btx is fine fstylin groomers and relaxed goofin in pow, but a tad squirrly (quick, turn on a dime) for bombing groomers and for carves it really digs trenches...commits to biting in a carve and some effort to transition (no pop to the next carve), in chop it tends to bounce around instead of blast through and I like a bit of stiffness/push back in charging poo...vs charging on a banana the nose gives little too much and end up going over the handle bars. A less expensive option might be gnu with c2 btx.

Reviews I've read agree that the C2 BTX is more in line with what I'm looking for. Also want graphics that I can live with for a few years. Like the Jamie Lynn and Billy Goat for both what I've read and how they look. I've tried to demo a Lib Tech for the last several years and no luck locally so I'll probably just have to go on what I hear.

Come up to baker, do a performance rental at the lower lodge and then you can trade out a bunch of boards during the day...so for $50 you can get a good test ride of several high-end boards.

That's a good suggestion. I've only been up there once and had the mis-fortune of hitting a really icy day plus up until last year had seasons passes at Stevens. We had planned to hit Baker last year but it never worked out. The extra 1-1/2 hours of driving from my home versus Stevens makes it not as palatable, we usually hit Mission since it has nice long groomers and the drive is about the same and less crowded.

Unless something falls into my lap at the snowboard show I think it would be smart to do as you suggest.

What brands do they stock? Would be cool to compare the Mervin stuff versus Rome, Never Summer etc.

I have a 10-11 Highlife. I love it. Great in pow and super fast and stable at speed on groomers. It absorbs chatter very well which I believe is a good thing where you ride.
Its also available very cheap.

Maybe 380 or 350.

Worth a look IMO.