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Review: Proto CT on Japanese snow

8K views 22 replies 10 participants last post by  ippy 
#1 ·
I ordered this some time back and it finally arrived yesterday:thumbsup:. Couldn't wait to try it so I took it out of the box and headed straight to the local hill (no detune or wax). I will be taking it for a proper 3 day trip to Nagano next week and the snow is looking good.



2012 157 Never Summer Proto CT with 2011 cartel bindings.

Rider: 6ft 170~175lbs.Size 11 boots. I would say my level is advanced.
I ride mostly powder and love tree runs through steeps. I also love to hit natural features getting 1s 3s and a variety of grabs. I ride across groomed runs to get to the goods and enjoy short and long carves as well as presses and butters along the way.
I ride mostly excellent conditions in Nozawa onsen Nagano about 30 days a year (will go for 50 next year).
On this occasion I took the board to a local hill which is not that great, but just wanted to try out the board.


Conditions: Was pretty icy with a little dusting of snow on top. In some windblown areas it was solid ice.

Weight: Very light.

Edge hold/carving: This board is my first NS board and I was super impressed with the edge hold. Very solid and confidence inspiring.
I was carving down steep icy runs and as long as its nice and high up on edge it carves like a champ. Short turns and long drawn out carves are very good. Not as good as a set back semi directional freeride board, but for a playful twin board I would say its excellent.

Flex/pop. The pop is superb, as many have said, this is one of the stand out features of this board. The flex is maybe a 5.5 or 6 out of 10 for me. I am used to stiffer free ride boards so it was super easy to press and twist around.
This along with the rocker, also makes turn initiation very easy.
The flex is playful, but when you get it up on edge the camber zones kick in and it feels solid and more stiff through the carve. A really good balance IMO.

Damping: I sold my 2011 ride highlife to buy this board. I enjoyed the highlife a lot, but it was very damp and since I ride mostly good conditions I wanted a little more feedback from the snow. The proto has the damping just right for me.
Its damp enough to absorb chatter that you don't want, but feels lively and gives plenty of feedback from the snow.

Conclusion: The proto is a super playful board that can also lay down a good carve when you want to. Its a really good balance. I don't really do park, I wanted an all mountain twin that can help me progress my freestyle while being good at carving and in powder. I also wanted to ride more switch.
The proto is ticking all my boxes so far.

I will check the powder performance in Nagano and add to this review next week.
 
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#4 ·
I was sorely temped by by the blacklist too. In the end I am sure they are both great boards. Maybe I will try a blacklist next time around.

I like the way the cartels match up with the board both looks and performance wise. Always a bonus because I never had this board in mind when I bought the cartels.

We look set to get a decent dump for next week and I will check the performance in the powder:D. No doubt it should be good in anything up to 30cm though.
 
#8 ·
powder review

Just got back from a trip to Nozawa in Nagano. Spent 3 days on the proto in proper snow so I wanted to add to the review.

Just to give you the idea of the kind of snow here are a few pics.

















Day one was 30cm of fluffy white and it stayed cold all day. Day 2 was clear blue skies and the powder from the previous day was still good in the woods, but started to firm up and get heavy towards the end of the day. Was pretty heavy icy chop on the lower part of the mountain.
Day 3 brought 40cm of fresh fluffy powder:D. It was very low visibility though.

Basically I took the proto though a wide range of conditions most of which were good quality powder.

For this board I have settled on a 23" stance centered with +15-15 duck stance.

I am used to riding semi directional boards with a setback in powder, this board just floated through with absolutely minimal effort even in 40cm.
Really happy with this because I ride a lot of powder and with a set back its quite hard to 180 and land switch or even do switch turns because you have to work pretty hard to keep the shorter nose from diving.
Being able to stay centered on the board means you can play around a lot more and ride switch for long sections which I love to do.

Now I have 4 days on the board and a range of conditions I am hugely impressed.
It carves superbly well for a twin. Short or long turns you can set the edge and with a good fore aft movement really lay into a carve.

Popping off jumps is taking some adjusting because it pops of the lip much higher than I am used to. Its really lively in a very good way.

I rode some pretty choppy conditions and it is pretty good. Yes, you will feel quite a bit of chatter but its not bad at all. The plus side of this damping comes in powder.

In the powder the float was great as I said, but you also get great feel from the snow so you can really enjoy each powder turn and each slash. The flex and the rocker also make it very easy to initiate a turn even in quite deep heavyish powder. So much fun in the powder and way more playful than a setback semi directional board.

Powder, butters, jumps, switch, carving this can do it all very very well for such an all round board.
I will be riding it for some time to come on anything other than 40cm plus.
 
#9 ·
Just wanted to add a note about speed. When absolutely blasting down a groomed run with fairly heavy powder (20cm) you can feel the softish flex and you definitely need to stay focused and with a good solid low stance.

Compared to my stiffer freeride oriented decks this does have a lower speed limit. You can still go very fast, as fast as I would need to, but you can feel its not that stable beyond a certain speed. Of course thats to be expected for this type of board and it also depends on weight. If I were on a 160 I'm sure it would be much more stable at very high speeds.

Don't get me wrong this board can go very very fast, but its not going to be quite as stable as say my old ride highlife was at speed.

Still overall I think this board has a huge range of things it does well and is very versatile and fun.
 
#11 ·
Have some more time on this board now so I thought I'd update.

Firstly the powder performance is way better than I thought. I have been in up to 1 meter of fresh and as long as its not too flat the board floats with ease.

I did set back a little that day but even so I was able to ride switch a little in the powder and do 180s and powder butters.

I am 175lbs and I ride the 157. Definitely way more float than my old 161 posi camber with a full setback. Also way more float than my old 2011 ride highlife (158). No sore back leg at the end of a full day in powder.

Because its not the dampest board you get lots of feedback which is a bonus in the powder.

On some of the steeper slopes (40 degrees is the most I have been on) you feel the lack of rigidity and a little more stiffness would be ideal.

Especially on chopped up bumpy steeps you would rather be on a stiffer damper deck.

Still holds up well and you just have to ride with good control and technique when you get going fast on bumpy steeps.

Fortunately most of the conditions I ride are not bumpy and on smooth hard pack or powder it carves and turns extremely well.

Super easy to press and spin with and very playful all around.

Had a few knocks and the board especially the top sheet is proving to be bulletproof.

Really enjoying the board a lot and would like to try out more NS boards, especially the heritage.
 
#13 ·
Depends where you ride. I ride in Nagano and because the terrain is a little steeper I would say you can get by on the proto, maybe the occasional silly deep day where it will struggle.

If we are talkin hokkaido with flatter terrain and deeper snow I would say you want a proper pow deck. Hakkoda as well.

If you have the means a pow deck is the way to go but if you know how to ride pow and if you are not a big heavy guy the proto does very well indeed.

I ride lots of pow and regularly blow past guys on their fish tails (mostly aussies) on my proto.
Rider will always be more important than the board. I aslo know the runs at my regular resort and that helps a lot too.
 
#15 ·
The Proto is probably the best, most versatile does EVERYTHING board Neversummer makes. It`s going to be a mainstay for a long time to come I think.....:thumbsup:

I will trying out that custom Summit (the Snowolf 1) that Vince and Tracy made for me this week in the 6 feet of fresh powder that has dumped on Mt. Hood.....:yahoo:

Standby for a a Neversummer Summit Review as well as a 2013 Gnu Billy Goat Splitboard....:D
Interested to hear about that summit, have my eye on one of those badboys.

Enjoy those face shots.
 
#16 ·
The Proto is probably the best, most versatile does EVERYTHING board Neversummer makes. It`s going to be a mainstay for a long time to come I think.....:thumbsup:

I will trying out that custom Summit (the Snowolf 1) that Vince and Tracy made for me this week in the 6 feet of fresh powder that has dumped on Mt. Hood.....:yahoo:

Standby for a a Neversummer Summit Review as well as a 2013 Gnu Billy Goat Splitboard....:D
thought the SL is the does everything board in the never summer line ? regardless good review and I love my proto.... second season with it now and still loving how it rides
 
#20 ·
I'm probably selling my Evo and my Heritage to go with the Proto. I have a 158 Evo and a 162 Heritage. I love the playfulness of the Evo and the bomberness of the Heritage, I'm just no longer able to ride enough to rationalize having both of them.

If I had to pick one, I'd go with the Evo. I love how nimble it is in the trees and just how soft and fun it is. It can bomb almost as well as the Heritage once you learn to trust it. That's why I'm going Proto. I'm confident that it'll be able to hang in there when I want to bomb while also being able to butter and play when I want to do that.

I have a dedicated pow stick that I'm gonna hang onto.
 
#21 ·
If you can bomb on your evo I'm sure you'll feel fine on the proto, wasn't that bad at all, just a little more flapping in the tip and tail than say my old highlife (stiff as hell).

Didn't have any "OH shit" moments but you definitely need to keep it up on edge and stay in a good posture.
 
#23 ·
Bumping this to add that neversummer have a demo week on nozawa. Had a play on the premier down a couple of runs on skyline and was suitably impressed. From what i saw they have:

A few evos.
A few SLs
2 heritage 158s (only one i asked about size)
a revolver
the premier (forgot to ask size but think 159)
a few cobras
some protos
a lotus
an infinity.

I think thats it. If you want to check out some neversummer gears and are in the area i think the dude said he was there until the 20th but theyre definitely in nozawa for all three days of the long weekend.
 
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