[Cambered234]

Arbor El Camino

 

[Cambered234]

View attachment 175089

There’s another graphic, not sure if it’ll end up in production.
But yeah… that’s the board Arbor has been needing and I’m stoked for it to come out!

 

[Cambered234]

For some reason and without having any stats, this gives me big Alternator vibes... looks like a slightly directional freestyle board. I think the graphics' theme is sending me in that direction too.

It’s like the Alternator with some slight changes. Side cut is tighter at the ends of the side cut and construction is slightly more burly on one of the two proto’s and hoping it makes it to production.

 

[Cambered234]

View attachment 175093
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😎… been waiting for those bataleons to drop images. Boots are getting interesting again

 

[Cambered234]

Better shot

Nidecker is coming through strong! Loving it!

 

[Cambered234]

View attachment 175101
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I think this system will do well. I wasn’t able to find a downside in performance and the only negative is a slight increase in price. IMO

 

[Cambered234]

When I talked to my Rome guy a month or so ago he indicated that the Katana was getting a price drop, and that Katana FASE was going to be the same price as the not FASE. Which surprised me, so maybe that wasn't right, or changed since his info came through.

That’s actually my understanding as well but I didn’t completely believe it, yet. I know there was pressure to get the regular stuff down a bit as the piece to piece pricing was roughly ~30% higher than the competition.
Good to know I’m not the only one that heard this about the pricing!

 

[Cambered234]

While I do think this is a stiffer passport like you said, I don't think that this is the board Sage is working on with J stone. I only know this because J stone and I chatted on instagram a while back and he said "If you're looking for an all mountain/pow board for next year, Sage and I made a new board called the sky pilot that's insane"

Thank you for this info, any idea which season it’s supposed to come out?

Otherwise, I agree with Nivek about the placement of the boards. I think the instrument has gotten completely lost in the lineup and there are too many boards that don’t make a lot of sense and, from what you are saying, there’s yet another one on the way. It’s a clusterfuck.
I think the instrument could/should get a revision anyways. At first I wasn’t sure if they actually changed the core or just renamed it, but apparently they changed the core and seemingly it hasn’t been a popular move. It’s not the most versatile shape in the group, so I’m thinking they could either drop it from the lineup or revise by loosing some volume in the nose to give a bit more ee and camber length, and completely update the construction… actually now that I’m think about it, perhaps just dropping the instrument would be better and then coming out with the new board. Even then, they could trim the line so there’s less of an identity crisis within the line.

 

[Cambered234]

Do they even offer the carbon Infused 5500 sintered any more? My buddy has that on his Manifest Team and it's fast AF.

I will say this though… they come with a proper factory edge tune.

 

[Cambered234]

looking for colorways for next years Burton AK line or Volcom Guch. All I have seen so far is an ugly reddish brown color. View attachment 175165

That red wouldn’t be bad with khaki pants.
It’s a lot better than that salmon bullshit color and some others they’ve had in recent years.

 

[Cambered234]

No more niseko pleasures or instrument! End of a era

Sky pilot looks kind of like a revised Instrument shape… perhaps it’s the replacement? 🤷‍♂️
The Commonwealth looks interesting, but the name is tripping me up.

 

[Cambered234]

Maybe an overly, trying-too-hard, clever take on the passport name, like for the Brits? 🤷‍♂️ I’m a bit tired of the “Pro” nomer on boards, like maybe try something else clever and ”Commonwealth“ is the result 🤦‍♂️ I wonder if it will indeed be full camber vs how the Antidote (current/past) shows camber graphic but it‘s cam-rock.

Sky Pilot looks interesting, I like how they switched it up a little bit and moved out the Instrument. Who knows if its better, but I think they needed a change there.

Geeeez I forget how many boards K2 has until I look at the catalog, looks like a mess tbh.

I’d like to give the commonwealth a try.

 

[Cambered234]

Ditto, is it supposed to be a chilled out alchemist?

More like a stiffer, responsive, and poppy passport. Camber profile is different as it supposedly doesn’t have rocker in the nose but is otherwise the same shape as the passport.
Regarding its stance versus the alchemist, the only thing I’m aware of is that it’s somewhere in the middle between the passport and alchemist.
I’m not sure about the purpose of removing rocker in the nose from a freeride standpoint, but from what I’ve been told from someone that’s ridden it, it’s a solid addition to the lineup.

 

[Cambered234]

Can someone please buy one of the amplid protos? I want to live vicariously through you.

That one thing looks like a shape meant to fit in a Swiss army knife or something. lol no way.
They fix the fact their two centrifugal freeride boards are significantly subpar in pow. I feel like Amplid is stuck in tunnel vision that every high end board needs to have groomer performance/chalky pow as the main focus they make nose compromise pow performance for anti-phase, etc. Therefore they make a ton of badass groomer boards. While have some shapes in the line that are alright in pow, they have too much overall overlap. Centrifugal board are the best turning groomer board I’ve ridden, but the proto collection is uninspiring.

 

[Cambered234]

I’m not sure how useful anti phase would be on a pure powder board. Guess it would help in some tracked out conditions. I think it’s kinda heavy and costly.

I think they’re so European that they don’t even know about tree riding lol. I’d like to try an old school asym carver like that proto. Pretty sure that one only comes in regular. So yeah- uninspiring indeed.

Can the surfari and SG ride untracked deep steep pow? Yeah. It’s a snowboard. But there are moments where it’s felt and it’s a weary feeling that I don’t think a true freeride board should run into. I’m not usually fully setting my stance all the way back, but I felt these boards needed it… more so for the front foot and Amplid only gives 5 insert rows up in the front and 6 in the back, very frustrating.
I’ve been told Peter is not building these boards with powder like that in mind as that doesn’t represent the normal conditions at euro resorts with the clients that buy these. Peter gave my buddy the board to use and then he gave feedback that the nose needs to be less rigid so it can work with the pow, etc. 🤦‍♂️
I just think it’s a bit misleading for Amplid to point out the contouring of the nose (e.g., 3D nose base) and explain how well those two boards are so wonderful for pow when they are not. I truly believe that these boards could be SO much better in steep untracked deep pow if the nose bend/radius has more of a dual radius thing going on so it can accommodate for pow better given the rigidity of the nose.
I maintain that I think the SG is one of the best daily resort drivers especially for groomers (surfari is awesome too, just less of a daily driver; the others in the collection are great groomer boards too but they tend overlap so much because groomer and non-daily drivers becomes the same theme), but dammit the centrifugal boards are so awesome yet designed with such tunnel vision. I mean, at least give us 6 insert rows in the front to match the back!

 

[Cambered234]

Interest/Hype from my point of view:
-Union Source bindings and Union Reset boots. No idea if they are for me, but they are at least interesting.
-Updated Bataleon and Nidecker boots look extremely intriguing.
-Seeing how the market responds to the Fase bindings.
-Jones Howler and K2 Commonwealth