Has this turned into a dating forum, LOL :cheeky4:
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So another update incoming!
Only my second time using it, I didn't want to jib with it yet. I left out of my last review that I had to have the board ptexed (somehow I forgot). The snow conditions were all over the place the first day I took out this board because it had rained there, and it ruined a lot of the snow. The continued snow making and fresh snow made the conditions variable.
I was riding switch, and I reverted back to my regular stance, and I was right by one of the poles holding up the lift and it looked like it was covered in fresh powder. But when I rode over it, it felt like a mogul with spikes. Grip was impossible on this icy spike demon. I don't care if you have serrated edges, weigh 1500lbs, and can euro carve down an embanked ice skating rink. Anyhow, I didn't bail or anything, but it really sounded like it ruined my board. It sounded like I coasted through a parking lot for a couple of seconds. I took it to the board shop to have a wax (the factory wax was so slow it was insane) and have the base looked at. It had a couple of deep scratches. One scratch was right on the inside of the edge, and it looked like it could have pulled the edge right off. True to their claims, NS makes pretty tough boards.
So yesterday's trip: I took it through much better conditions this time, and it performed well. I rode the steeps this time however. It wasn't too bad, but for some reason I got a lot of heel side chatter and skipping. The steeps were very very choppy, but I never seemed to encounter skipping and chatter with my Goliath on the steeps even if it was a little choppy. I power through that normally. It really felt like my heel side technique was bad, and trust me, I know how to carve. I wasn't really at the top of my game yesterday, though. I was very tired and not feeling well.
I'm going to go again Thursday. I'm taking the EVO-R down the same steeper run 3 times in a row, and I'm immediately going to switch it out for my Goliath and do the same thing. I'll post my findings here. This way I can decide if it's the board or if I was just tired. The EVO-R is after all heavier on the park side of things as shown on NS's website, but I am a light weight rider and I bought a longer board. I'm convinced I could call this an all-mountain board for me. Then again, I should probably take it to a bigger mountain, which I will do in the next two weeks.
Aside from my problem with the choppy steeps, oddly the 149 Goliath and the 151 EVO-R are pretty evenly matched. In terms of fun factor, the EVO-R is winning so far though.
I'm going to review the Nitrane bindings in a separate thread, since there's a minor problem with them.
Only my second time using it, I didn't want to jib with it yet. I left out of my last review that I had to have the board ptexed (somehow I forgot). The snow conditions were all over the place the first day I took out this board because it had rained there, and it ruined a lot of the snow. The continued snow making and fresh snow made the conditions variable.
I was riding switch, and I reverted back to my regular stance, and I was right by one of the poles holding up the lift and it looked like it was covered in fresh powder. But when I rode over it, it felt like a mogul with spikes. Grip was impossible on this icy spike demon. I don't care if you have serrated edges, weigh 1500lbs, and can euro carve down an embanked ice skating rink. Anyhow, I didn't bail or anything, but it really sounded like it ruined my board. It sounded like I coasted through a parking lot for a couple of seconds. I took it to the board shop to have a wax (the factory wax was so slow it was insane) and have the base looked at. It had a couple of deep scratches. One scratch was right on the inside of the edge, and it looked like it could have pulled the edge right off. True to their claims, NS makes pretty tough boards.
So yesterday's trip: I took it through much better conditions this time, and it performed well. I rode the steeps this time however. It wasn't too bad, but for some reason I got a lot of heel side chatter and skipping. The steeps were very very choppy, but I never seemed to encounter skipping and chatter with my Goliath on the steeps even if it was a little choppy. I power through that normally. It really felt like my heel side technique was bad, and trust me, I know how to carve. I wasn't really at the top of my game yesterday, though. I was very tired and not feeling well.
I'm going to go again Thursday. I'm taking the EVO-R down the same steeper run 3 times in a row, and I'm immediately going to switch it out for my Goliath and do the same thing. I'll post my findings here. This way I can decide if it's the board or if I was just tired. The EVO-R is after all heavier on the park side of things as shown on NS's website, but I am a light weight rider and I bought a longer board. I'm convinced I could call this an all-mountain board for me. Then again, I should probably take it to a bigger mountain, which I will do in the next two weeks.
Aside from my problem with the choppy steeps, oddly the 149 Goliath and the 151 EVO-R are pretty evenly matched. In terms of fun factor, the EVO-R is winning so far though.
I'm going to review the Nitrane bindings in a separate thread, since there's a minor problem with them.
It's fine bombing down steeps. I'm guessing you're probably just not used to the early kick the board does doing sudden turns. It's hard for me to describe. It feels like the board kicks from the mid-rear end upon transitioning(kinda like a mid-engine/RWD vs a front-engine/RWD). This probably explains the 'skatey' feeling you're experiencing. Hit the pipe and you'll actually want this control, well, at least I did.
Agree with it needing waxed constantly! Rode for about several days non-stop last weekend, got lazy and didn't wax. On the third day, started out at the park and did a simple 50/50 on a box. I about stopped at the middle coz the thing slowed down bad... I'm like, WTF?? :dunno:
might have been the wet snow sucking the board down though, it was a rather warm day.No, I never said it had a problem bombing steeps. In fact I said it's great at it. I was talking specifically about steeps that were choppy with skier made moguls (you know the kind that form when pretty much only skiers are going down a particular slope and it never gets groomed).It's fine bombing down steeps. I'm guessing you're probably just not used to the early kick the board does doing sudden turns. It's hard for me to describe. It feels like the board kicks from the mid-rear end upon transitioning(kinda like a mid-engine/RWD vs a front-engine/RWD). This probably explains the 'skatey' feeling you're experiencing. Hit the pipe and you'll actually want this control, well, at least I did.
Hahah. I'm glad I'm not the only one. You gave me an image of a snowboarder at dead stop in the middle of a box looking around like "Does this thing have breaks?" It wasn't wet when it happened to me though, it was about 14 degrees.Agree with it needing waxed constantly! Rode for about several days non-stop last weekend, got lazy and didn't wax. On the third day, started out at the park and did a simple 50/50 on a box. I about stopped at the middle coz the thing slowed down bad... I'm like, WTF?? :dunno:
y'all need wax designed for sliding on a box instead of snow maybe
</old guy>
</old guy>
Update 4
Small update here. After about 5 straight hours of boarding with maybe a piss break and 15 mins to eat, I start to get tired. This board saved my ass. As much as epic is overused on the internets, this was an epic save. I think I would have been dead on any other board.
I'm bombing really fast down a hill, the bottom of the lift is in sight and there are a series of subtle rollers you can ollie off of and get some good air from if you're going really fast. Anyhow, I was really sloppy and tired, and as I landed on the downslope my weight was at the back of the board (although my stance probably looked normal), and I wasn't on an edge. As I tried to fight the speed and get my weight shifted overtop of the board again to get an edge, the tail and the nose board kind of bounced back and forth from toe to heel like ping pong. There was a catchiness to it, but it would only hang up for an instant and shoot the force over to the parallel edge. If this happened on my Goliath, I'm pretty sure I'd have caught an edge hard and tumbled down the hill. Coordination helped, but the board design did the rest.
It would have been a really bad fall. I would have just eaten hard it at high speed. None of that falling and sliding bullshit. I would have just slingshotted into the ground like I did last year. I popped out a rib when that happened.
One thing to add though, if you're short on your followthrough with rotations, this board will catch sometimes, and it sucks. I ate it once last week. But really every board does that
Really the only thing I have left to do with this board is try to butter. And not like half-assed, slow motion ones like I was doing at the beginning of this review. Shit like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLLUh6-xbhM Problem is, I suck at it.
Small update here. After about 5 straight hours of boarding with maybe a piss break and 15 mins to eat, I start to get tired. This board saved my ass. As much as epic is overused on the internets, this was an epic save. I think I would have been dead on any other board.
I'm bombing really fast down a hill, the bottom of the lift is in sight and there are a series of subtle rollers you can ollie off of and get some good air from if you're going really fast. Anyhow, I was really sloppy and tired, and as I landed on the downslope my weight was at the back of the board (although my stance probably looked normal), and I wasn't on an edge. As I tried to fight the speed and get my weight shifted overtop of the board again to get an edge, the tail and the nose board kind of bounced back and forth from toe to heel like ping pong. There was a catchiness to it, but it would only hang up for an instant and shoot the force over to the parallel edge. If this happened on my Goliath, I'm pretty sure I'd have caught an edge hard and tumbled down the hill. Coordination helped, but the board design did the rest.
It would have been a really bad fall. I would have just eaten hard it at high speed. None of that falling and sliding bullshit. I would have just slingshotted into the ground like I did last year. I popped out a rib when that happened.
One thing to add though, if you're short on your followthrough with rotations, this board will catch sometimes, and it sucks. I ate it once last week. But really every board does that
Really the only thing I have left to do with this board is try to butter. And not like half-assed, slow motion ones like I was doing at the beginning of this review. Shit like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLLUh6-xbhM Problem is, I suck at it.
Well, I have both a Goliath and an Evil Twin now. I prefer the benefits of a traditional cambered board, with the added benefit of a catch free tip and tail. My NS board was awesome, but I like my Bataleon boards better. Never ridden BS tech though. As it stands I haven't caught an edge because of the sidecut yet. Have I leaned too much when trying to land even small spins and caught an edge? The answer is yes. You'll do that on any board. It's hard to say which board spins better. I'd say they're near equal. I caught an edge on my EVO on a box, but that's neither here nor there either. It's more technique and less the board, although rockered boards are probably less catchy.
That odd behavior that saved me from catching an edge on the EVO probably wouldn't have saved me in teh case of the Bataleon, though I still prefer the Bataleon. Hope this helps.
Cheers!
Sure it helped! Thanks a lot!Well, I have both a Goliath and an Evil Twin now. I prefer the benefits of a traditional cambered board, with the added benefit of a catch free tip and tail. My NS board was awesome, but I like my Bataleon boards better. Never ridden BS tech though. As it stands I haven't caught an edge because of the sidecut yet. Have I leaned too much when trying to land even small spins and caught an edge? The answer is yes. You'll do that on any board. It's hard to say which board spins better. I'd say they're near equal. I caught an edge on my EVO on a box, but that's neither here nor there either. It's more technique and less the board, although rockered boards are probably less catchy.
That odd behavior that saved me from catching an edge on the EVO probably wouldn't have saved me in teh case of the Bataleon, though I still prefer the Bataleon. Hope this helps.
Cheers!
Can I make some more questions?
Evil Twin vs. Evo, as I need a small board (like 147-149) and I don't like setback. I had a bad experience with my Burton Custom X, a pretty old model that had big setback.
Which one is more stable at speed?? Not huge speeds, just a good speed to get some 20ft-40ft jumps and most "medium" kickers of the parks.
How do they perform in diffferent snow conditions like icy, moguls, chopy, hard packed, pow ??? I believe the Evo must be better in all those conditions besides groomers, because they have more damping, Vario grip and rockered for pow.. But that's all theory, never tried any of them. I can't demo boards, I live in Brazil =\
Thanks for the answers phile! As you ride 2 board I'm really interested, you can help me a lot!!!
Cheers!!
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