Im currently in the market for a new board and already have a skate banana and I was looking into a never summer board thats meant for the opposite conditions of the skate banana, I don't do the whole park/jumps type of riding, and i would consider myself more towards the advanced stages of riding. I find that the skate banana gets really shaky and unstable at high speeds, what would be something that can handle that in the NS line up? Thank you.
If you really are advanced, never ride switch and only carve on groomers, I say raptor. If you like to mess in the trees/pow, maybe the Cobra. Anything equal to or higher than the flex/dampening of the SL should meet your needs. You don't need to go super stiff unless you want to alpine carve it up.
I personally hate the Skate Banana for that reason. I dislike BTX/MTX in general (to be fair the last Lib/Gnuboard I rode was like 2010).
So to start out, Never Summer is not the only company out there... but since you are asking, in my opinion Never Summer is basically the opposite of a Skate Banana -they are more damp (less shake) and stable. For you I would look at the Cobra / Premier / Raptor (those get progressively stiffer).
Again, there are lots of boards that are better than the Skate Banana for the riding you want to do, but to narrow it down... we need more information. Where do you ride? Do you ride groomers or trees more often (percentages help)? Do you get a lot of powder where you ride, etc. Any video of yourself riding might help too.
First off, thanks for the responses. i agree the skate banana i guess is not the ideal board for what i am doing, however it was my first board and i wasn't sure what i wanted to do and/or the person that sold it to my didn't understand what kind of board i wanted. As far as the conditions i ride in, i live in the north east and go to killington about 10-15 times a season and to local mountains quite a bit, mostly its hard packed granular and ice at the local mountains and at killington the conditions are usually good, if they dont get any snow there usually good about making it. Also, im going to mont tremblant in early jan and if usually snows non-stop there so hopefully ill get some good power conditions while im there. I just dont want a board thats similar to the skate banana, because im going to be taking them both where ever i go (esp. to mont tremblant) and depending on the conditions and what i feel like doing for the day, i can easily switch
First off, thanks for the responses. i agree the skate banana i guess is not the ideal board for what i am doing, however it was my first board and i wasn't sure what i wanted to do and/or the person that sold it to my didn't understand what kind of board i wanted. As far as the conditions i ride in, i live in the north east and go to killington about 10-15 times a season and to local mountains quite a bit, mostly its hard packed granular and ice at the local mountains and at killington the conditions are usually good, if they dont get any snow there usually good about making it. Also, im going to mont tremblant in early jan and if usually snows non-stop there so hopefully ill get some good power conditions while im there. I just dont want a board thats similar to the skate banana, because im going to be taking them both where ever i go (esp. to mont trembling) and depending on the conditions and what i feel like doing for the day, i can easily switch.
Sounds like a good plan. I used to ride Killington and Loon Valley a lot with a longer trip up to Orford/St Anne/Tremblant late January (only place we could reliably get East Coast deep powder).
Never Summer have very good edge hold so I think they are still in the running. Beyond that, because I don't know your ability level/preference it's hard for me to suggest a particular board between the Cobra, Premier, or Raptor... I'm leaning towards the Cobra as that will be still very different in feel from the Skate Banana... without going completely hardcore freeriding as the Premier and Raptor are. Also realize that I have not actually ride the Cobra/Premier/Raptor... I've only ridden 2003, 2012 Evo, 2012 Proto, and 2008, 2009, 2012 SL and am extrapolating from my experiences with those boards.
As far as the feel your talking about (from the skate banana to the cobra) from my understanding the skate banana if a fairly soft board then the cobra is more on the stiff side, what will the major difference be?
So I've only ridden a 2009-2010 Skate Banana... and I'm guessing on the Cobra feel base on my expriences with the SL and read about the Cobra.
Skate Banana is roughly a 2 or 3 on stiffness and dampness. A Cobra is like a 5 out of 10 on both stiffness and dampness.
The Skate Banana is a true twin, where as the Cobra nose and tail are design to give you more float in powder and also more effective edge to allow more control at higher speeds.
The Skate Banana is flat-rocker-flat (Bananatech) which is very extreme variant of rocker and will make the board feel very boaty (like the board can pivot really easily without touching the edges). The Cobra is camber-rocker-camber so it will have less of the pivoty feeling and behave more like a cambered board once you get it up on edge (more control). In my opinion/experience, the mini-cambered sections will definitely give the Cobra more pop for jumps and turns.
The softer/rockered Skate Banana is easier to press and boardslide on a rail/box with (less likely to catch an edge on a rail too).
The Skate Banana has Magnatraction which you must have notices bites into the snow very early once you've engaged the edge. The Cobra will have a much more gradual bite feel (but I bet it will have greater overall edge hold as it is not as soft, more damp, and has a longer effective edge).
Well there are a lot of boards that are not like the Skate Banana.
The question is whether you like BTX/MTX and want to stick with a Lib/Gnu board?
My experience with boards (boards I've actually ridden) outside of Never Summer is somewhat out of date and relatively freestyle oriented... Ride and K2 make good boards, as well as Salomon. Do you have a chance to demo anywhere? That's going to be your best bet.
Surprised no one has suggested the Heritage as a NS alternative. Most companies have something like what you are after. YES pick your line, Capita BSOD, surely Burton have something, Smokin' KT22. There are tons out there.
If he's never riding switch, I feel like he would benefit from the directional shape of the Cobra, Premier, Raptor more.
As for other brands, I haven't found many good Burton freeride boards that were reasonably prices. Smokin is an option as is the BSOD... but I'm unfamiliar with them. Part of the issue is that the subject line mentions Never Summer... so most people reading this post own Never Summer boards.
Maybe Rome Agent or Anthem? I really liked my old 2006 Agent (I've recommend that if the current models are similar) and demo'd the 2007 Anthem and it was solid (could have been a little more playful have used more pop though)
I've actually have to agree. That slope wasn't very steep, the person wasn't going very fast or carving particularly hard.
I own both the Proto and the SL... this is me riding the SL (Proto isn't be able to do this). TBH, I wish the Proto was slightly stiffer between the binding (the Cobra is like this I'm told).
These guys are riding a lot faster and carving a lot harder than that guy (or me). Jump to around 0:45 to see actual riding... notice the person is riding switch at 2:00... I hate it when people say you can't ride switch on stiffer, longer directional board with setback.
Hey lonerider how about the SL for my needs, how do you like it? for the most part thats what i do as i go down the mountain. but still i don't plan on doing any park, apart from the occasional small jumps and such (no tricks, just up and over (i get some air though))
SL would be a good choice as well. While I mostly ride it on groomers (as seen above), I also do decently big jumps and some basic jibbing with it. It is very similar in general stiffness and dampness to the Cobra. As I mentioned, I wished it was a hair stiffer between the bindings (which both the Cobra and the Heritage are) for freeriding on slopes.
I think the directional shape of the Cobra will make it better for riding in powder (that's the main reason I suggested the Cobra instead of the SL or Heritage).
All of those boards are potentially good options... it's tough to know what is a good match for you. Heck, even I have trouble deciding which of the those boards would best fit myself
Buying a board(s) that you will enjoy through the season is just a age-old question that never really gets completely answered.
I've gotten boards I totally love... only to realize that I don't do the type of riding that they are good at enough of the time. One of the worse feelings is having multiple boards and always thinking "I was I had the other board right now". I had to break myself out of that prison.
Really just get a good match (even if it is not perfect) for yourself and just have fun riding.
i went there last season (dec 30 2011 to jan 6 2012) and it literally didn't stop snowing, during the day anyways, and the lift lines were 4-5 min max..... but im not here to argue
Right after New Years is a really, really good week to ride as everyone else went Christmas to New Years. For the last few years, I usually ride the first week of January as well and it is awesome.
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