firlefranz

Did somebody already had a chance to ride a board of Gigi Rüf's newly founded brand Slash and could share some impressions with us?

wildshoetwt

I'm interested in this as well.

wildshoetwt

just got mine. review soon to follow. board feels like a slightly lighter, more flexible more manueverable burton custom with a better sidecut, base, and with more pop/camber to it.

but we'll see how it behaves in the snow.

firlefranz

Which board, the ATV?

wildshoetwt

Yep 2012/2013 ATV 161cm

wildshoetwt

Here's the review I wrote:

Rider info...

Height 5'10"
Weight 175
Boot Size US12
(Burton Boot = US11 Footprint)

Board: Slash ATV HUB 161cm
Boots used: Burton Driver X '12
Bindings used: Union SL

Style: All-mountain / Freeride

Overview:

This board is phenomenal for the freerider who wants to be a bit more playful on the mountain and hit some jumps, I would not reccomend this board to a pure park rider despite Slash labeling this board their "Freestyle" board. This is an all-mountain ride with uncompromising versatility if you have no desire to hit jibs/rails, and you dont run into deep powder situations too often this would be a Great buy and is fully deserving of the Transworld Good Wood award. This board adapts to and dampens changes in terrain exceptionally well, meaning nothing is out of bounds and you don't have to worry about dipping into any area of the mountain (unless its deep powder) because the board literally lives up to its name, ATV.

Edge Hold: At first I wasn't sure about Slash's Ultimate Traction Bumps, but it's much stronger of a grab than you would think. The board is rather good on icy terrain but steep+icy and you will run into problems. The edge hold is uncanny on groomers, the faster you go the more the camber seems to bite down and happily pops into your next turn with equal edge hold. The camber+edge hold allows this board to carve on terrain where most boards would wash out or feel slippery or skiddy.

Groomers: As noted, this boards performance on groomers is just silly. I challenge anyone to find a faster more aggressive groomer board that is equally at home on steeps making wide carves. This board is just superior here and I suspect a lot of it has to do with the sidecut, camber and edge hold.

Light Powder: This board changes its behavior a bit in powder, more playful and less speed demon. It still excels, and viciously digs at the hardish-pack underneath. Super steeps are fun, and backcountry is a blast, I still would say this is not the boards strongest point in comparison to competitors that specialize for park and powder, but it still performs great and still wants to grip and slash pow and get air, it definitely feels slightly more sluggish than other boards here, but in a playful way. The rockered tips and directional flex help a lot here. This board is great here, especially if you're doin more freestyle than dense tree runs, you will be happy.

Deep Powder: Steeps are your friend here, but the board feels incredibly sluggish and heavy in more moderate to easy terrain. Backcountry deep pow is fun if you have the speed and grade to keep the board moving. This board is actually surprisingly responsive and floaty in big mountain territory, but again without speed, it starts to feel like a brick, even with your stance set back.

Moguls: For a cambered board, this board performs excellently on moguls. Moguls are actually -fun- which pisses the people I ride with off, but in all conditions this board slashes through moguls better than any board cambered or rockered that I've set foot on. Chutes are a similar joy with this board.

Turn Initiation: This board was a little on the long side for me, and it's definitely a bit wider than I would prefer, turns on this board happen in the blink of an eye, but they definitely require some effort even with the help of the camber, I felt most of the difficulty in turning was getting used to disengaging the crocodile like bite this board has.

Speed & Stabilty: Not the fastest board I've rode, but certainly one of the fastest and more importantly most competent. Other boards can go faster, no doubt, but confidence and stability on them seems to dwindle as they reach peak speed. Perhaps it is because this is a longer/wider board than I normally ride, but I felt that this was as a lresult, the fastest ride simply because it seems to thrive at high speed, everything great about it becomes excellent. I have one caveat and that is that high-speed stopping is not the most immediate, this board does not want to slow down, it's best to give people a wide berth when charging and don't charge into the lift line expecting to slash yourself to an immediate halt.

Flex: Definitely stiff but lively. The directional flex is part of what makes this board an insane carver, but also means that switch riding is not only unpleasant but unforgiving (in comparison to this board rode regular).

Jibs/Rails: horrible. I'm not good in this area and I certainly did not have fun trying it on this board.

Half pipe: Incredible, fast, huge off the lip. A bit slow on the spins, but light and definitely feels like it was made for pipe riding, a bit unforgiving landing switch...

Jumps: This board has some serious pop, some cambered boards are heavy and feel dead and flat off the ground. This board is light and poppy and likes to get air. The cambered profile is more forgiving than you might think on landings.

Durability: I rode this board to my limit and its limits and put some damage on it. The black finish makes scratches stand out more than other boards, I would say this boards base and tips are very durable but the side cut is vulnerable to some serious dings, if you do a lot of tree runs, my experience was that even a moderate collision had enough force to put a ding in the edge.

Conclusion: This board is definitely aggressive, it craves speed and aggressive boarding and wants to get lift off anytime it gets the chance but also has a strong unrelenting but undisruptive edge hold to it. It's actually a rather good training tool, my beginner-intermediate friend used the board for a day and his riding improved dramatically. It feels like this board was designed with the steep freerider in mind who likes to off-trail it, get air, bomb groomers and go big in the pipe.

4.7/5 for poor performance in deep pow and a few other nitpicks, an otherwise incredible board from a little known company. For the style and conditions I ride, this board is perfect.

Supra

where do you ride?
how long have you been riding?

wildshoetwt

Big Bear is closest, Mammoth is for long weekends. I generally end up riding @ Utah(Park City), Nevada (Heavenly) Oregon(Timberline), Connecticut(lolkillington) and New Hampshire(Gunstock) plus or minus 1 or 2 of those.

The first time I got on a board was 13 years ago. The first time I reasonably felt comfortable on a snowboard was 4 years ago, and I've been on a mission to improve since.

Supra

nice. that qualifies your review more than your rider stats.
Can you elaborate anymore (if possible) on why you felt the board was sluggish in deep pow?
Can you compare this board to any others? I've heard it's supposed to be based on the old unincs.

wildshoetwt

It feels sloppy compared to many boards on groomers at low speeds, like I said it craves speed, it almost takes on a life of its own (in a great way) when you have the right amount of speed for the terrain, when you dont have enough speed it feels lackluster. This extends into powder, the deeper it gets the less the rockered tips and a max setback matter, and the more the camber nature begins to drag you, you just get less float, less response, playfulness and less speed than other boards will give you, and the more it feels like you chose the wrong snowboard. if you are riding blacks or doule blacks in deep pow you'll have the speed necessary for this board to shine, I have no doubt this could be used as a big mountain ride. I just dont think this is your best option if you ride a powder heavy mountain, one board that springs to mind as similar but better for this application would be the NS Heritage.

I've never rode the Uninc but I have rode many Burton Customs, and this is a good example of how a board on paper can be similar to another one and behave completely differently. The Uninc I thought was more of a park board, though looking at it on paper it seems similar but Id be wary of on paper comparisons, and the Customs felt dead, almost flat to me, like a cheap rental board.

The Ns Heritage comes to mind as a board that rides similarly to the ATV, performs better at slow speeds, better at laying down a perfect carve, and better in pow, and more forgiving, but the ATV is just a machine at speed, Transworld calls this board "slashy" and I would agree, it can carve like the best of them, but when you start slashing it around in moguls or the trees you really get to know the full nature of this board. The ATV is loose in all the right ways, which probably accounts for its difficulty in stopping on a dime, the Heritage feels tighter and rides sort of boring but in a high-performance way, the ATV is looser and less forgiving which is an interesting combination that gives it a ton of character. When I say loose I mean loose in a slashy, poppy kind of way, not the typical way you use loose to describe a buttery park board. But again, they ride very similar and it should be easy to get your hands on a heritage to demo. The Slash ATV is just fantastic and I have no idea how they did it, but it is one of the most natural connections I've felt with the mountain in a long time, this is not just a piece of wood, it belongs in snow, and it doesn't care what snow you throw at it. At high speed the camber almost rides itself and I was glad I had a stiffer binding/boot combo.

Don't judge the Slash by the Heritage, but do know that they ride rather similarly, one rides like a drift car and the other rides like an F1 (gross exaggeration of their qualities but hopefully demonstrates their slight differences). I know it sounds retarded but Slashy is a great way to describe the Slash ATV