GoggleTan

As a note: This board is slightly different from the regular machete which may make it ride different. The LE has the membrain top sheet and popstix compared to the regular machete. I have not ridden the regular machete but there is a guy who has that seems to think they are pretty close with the LE being a tad stiffer in the tip/tail because of the popstix.

I have never owned a board this soft before and wasn't quite sure what to expect. All of my previous boards were super stiff freeride boards and my other board is a NS Legacy R. I rode it the last two days in pretty much every condition except for park as our hill is still getting ours up.

Ride Machete 161w LE
Ride Beta's
Celsius Climate 13
Weight: 220
I ride almost maxed out cause of my hight and duck footed regular.

Initial impressions: Wow this set up is light!

Groomers: This board is fast and stable. Had no problem ripping groomers and never felt out of control. Lays down a sweet carve and I never had any chatter. I could notice it was softer but never presented a problem for me while carving. The lowrize rocker is barely noticeable here. I did notice it had a bit of a loose feeling when not on edge but laying into a carve it felt like a "normal" board.

Powder: So much fun in powder. The lowrize is definitely noticeable here. I wouldn't say it was tough to sink the nose but it wasn't easy either. It surfed over powder like a champ. It saved my ass more than a few times because it just pops back out of the powder if you screw up. Although I did manage to sink the nose and get tossed when I wasn't paying attention. My favorite part was bouncing on the board and having it pop a couple feet out of the air without any sort of bump for help. Great for early season pow ditch gaping.

Crud/chop: Not the boards finest point but it wasn't a big deal. Just more work than my Legacy. I am used to just slamming thought it and this board wasn't really into it for me. Not bad but not great.

Switch: Confidence inspiring. Not catchy because of the lowrize. Makes me realize how much I disliked my MTX.

Freestyle: Like I said no park, but i was able to hit some natural features. The board was easy enough to toss around and the lowrize made it really catch free for fooling around. I definitely found it a lot easier to spin than anything else I have ridden. The pop was amazing in this board. I hope they put pop stix in next years machete cause the tech is awesome. Im sold on it. I had a couple friends mention how much higher I could get it. Butters were easy and fun. The only problem I have had was doing drops about 10ft or so I would wash out on my tail. I think I will get used to it but I am used to having a stiffer cambered tail and the softer lowrize will take an adjustment.

Steeps: Decent. I definitely felt more comfortable on my Legacy for this. There were a few times I was fairly vertical on about 6" over crust and was really hoping not to eat shit bad. Its an all mountain freestyle board and can do it, but it was too soft for me in this regard.

Bindings: They were comfy. They were light. The ratchets didn't stick (where the hell where they 3 years ago). They were responsive but still flexible. They did everything a good binding is supposed to.

I had so much fun riding this board all over the place. I scared myself a bit on some steep stuff but I would probably still do it again. I can answer specific questions if anybody has any.

redlude97

great review, were those 08/09 betas?

GoggleTan

Yeah they are.