boardlifeword

Spending a season at a ski resort is so amazingly awesome. But what makes days great are demo days.

I woke up hungover one morning, with the drive to still get up early and ride, only to stumble over a demo day!!!! They were just setting up the tents, so I ended up doing a rip on my 2009 Burton Primo (cambered). On that deck I have the 2009 Contrabands.

To my surprise demo day lasted for two days. Needless to say I was happy the entire two demo days, followed by an extra day of left over happiness.

Here's what I was blessed to try:

Day 1:
Never Summer EVO = 153
FLUX PK Bindings

Never Summer Titan Raptor = 159
Lib Tech Skate Banana = 154
Lib Tech Box Scratcher = 153
DC MILF = 153
DC Tone = 155
DC PBJ = 155
Capita Horroscope = 151

Day 2:
Ride Crush = 153 w
w Ride Optima Contrands
Bataleon Evil Twin = 154
Bataleon Airobic = 155
Nitro Subzero = 152

Here's what I thought of each board in the order I loved them Keep in mind that I'm a 70 to 75% freestyle rider, I like jibbing, bonking, tapping, and spinning. Though from time to time I like to rip as fast as possible, until the water in my eyes forces me to slow down and blink.

1) Never Summer EVO. = 153

This board was absolutely my most favourite board over the two days. It was also the first board that I checked out. The EVO has reverse camber under the bindings, with cambered tips. While I rode this board, I could feel the rocker shape, but when I spun or did nollie rolls it felt like I wasn't going to spin out or easily wash out like the edges of a rocker board. With the rocker shape ending just on the outside of your bindings, a simple lean of the shoulders easily puts you into the press position. The shape of the board also allows you to easily go from an ollie to a press.

The cambered tips on this board give you that extra pop that you might not find on a fully rockered board. Landing jumps are extremely easy on this board, and are nice and soft. Boxes and rails become much easier to land and stay on due to the slightly wider underfoot cut.

I tested this board at high speeds, and because the conditions were hard packed, this board chattered quite a bit off the groomers, but the board still holds a nice edge on the grooms.

2)Nitro Subzero 152

I asked the rep for the noodliest board that he had available. And his eyes lit up. Yup! Subzero is perfect for you. Even before riding this board, you can feel the flex in the board. Wheelies become extremely easy with this board. Tweaking out on boxes and rails is pretty simple with this board. For the amount of flex this board has, it didn't chatter as much off the groomers. The narrower cut of this board sometimes makes landing larger jumps a little unstable, but the softness of the board does make for a nice landing if your jump is dialed in.

3) LibTech Skate Banada 154

I demoed this board last year, and absolutely fell in love with it. The magna traction on the board definitely allows your to rip down a run with bumps and hold an edge quite well for a soft board. The reason why this board dropped down the list, is that there is some wicked sick tech that's coming out. The 2011 Skate Banana didn't seem like it offered anything really new. Though it definitely didn't feel as noodlie as I remembered it being last year. Also it seems next year's model isn't as washy but still continues to give you that surfy feel.

Personally I think this board was ground breaking for the industry, forcing companies to rethink the traditional shape of a board.

4) Never Summer Titan Raptor = 159

So I'm typically not a freerider. But this board make me rethink my style of riding. I've always really enjoyed soft boards, nice and noodelie and jibby. But I wanted to demo a nice range of boards, and so I asked for the stiffest board they had with the stiffest FLUX bindings. On a hard packed day, I usually stick to the groomers and don't venture off too much unless it's in the trees, definitely not charging down the mountain. This board let me rip through bumps, without feeling a thing in my knees. The stability of this board at high speeds is incredible. All I kept thinking was I wish I was heavier so I can gain more speed, because this board can definitely handle it!

I started writing this post, with the intention of giving a slight peak, but I've still got 8 more boards to talk about... stayed tuned and there will be more to come.

Cool_As_Cakes

nice job! look forward to more

phile00

Nice review, keep them coming. I have the EVO-R and I bought it a few cm larger than I normally would considering it's a park board. I haven't gotten any chatter, and that's with riding groomers/hardpack/choppy snow- and I like to ride real fast after I get out of the park. Compared to my goliath jump landings aren't soft, but they aren't exactly hard either. It still does a great job that's all that matters.