Freeride Board - Ultimate Versatile Design

[rcrobar]

Imagine you could take only ONE board to the mountain, which board would you choose?

For this discussion imagine that the conditions would always be either hard moguls or powder riding in tight trees, what board would you want?

Would you use a hard or soft set-up?

You are standing at the top of a run and see either moguls or a treed powder run, like the attached picture below. What is the most VERSATILE board design, currently available or that you are dreaming of, for the mogul/tree/powder parameters given.
1. Length-
2. Width-
3. Sidecut Radius-
4. Nose Shape-
5. Tail Shape-
6. Flex Pattern-
7. Hard or Soft Set Up?-
8. Other Comments?-

I have also attached pictures of two styles of All Mountain Freeride boards, from left to right:
Style #1
Dupraz-D1, Pogo-LB, Prior-Spearhead
Style #2
Donek-Axxess, Coiler-AllMountain, Prior-AVT

It seems that these two styles of freeride board design are the 'state of the art' with regards to All Mountain versatility.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

[hangloose16]

Hy, the Board i would take for such conditions is not post on your pic. It is the SG cult, it is stiff like a BX Board and you can ride it wonderful with hard boots. If you don`t like the shape, for next season will be another shape for the All Mountains with a round nose, the tail will be still the same.

Radius: 9M
waist wide:23M
overall length:169cm
nose wide: 28
tail wide: 27

greets ben

[Hans]

Long time nothing heard of you, nice topic Rob.
Don't know the other boards, so can't tell you. My first board for every circumstance is definately my POGO Longboard. If this one breaks down, I will buy a longer one with the double concave bottom, just sold out for now. Superb edgehold, enough floatingcapacity in soft deep snow (not as good as a somewhat softer swallowtail), excellent carvingmachine. Tight and long turns possible. Topnotch buildingquality. A great allmountainboard, did some touring with it. You can board this one with soft or hardboots. I have chosen for softboots here. I find the surffeeling with softboots nicer in comparison with hardboots. Light enough to jump around trees. May be I would take the 170 for the trees and the moguls (don't like moguls anyway, not funny and no fun). Somewhat safer because with a longer one the chance you will possibly end up in the trees, is bigger. I also like the wooden topsheet. You don't see it anywhere as with the big extravagent swallows.

By the way, I have no stocks in this company

[rcrobar]

Thanks Ben

I had not heard of this board.

Here is the link:

http://www.sgsnowboards.com/

The nose, tail and general shape of this board appear to be like the boards I mentioned in group one, the Dupraz, Pogo and Prior Spearhead.

Cool!

[rcrobar]

Hi Hans

It has been quite awhile since I have posted, but I visit here and bomber often

Thank you very much for the Pogo Longboard feedback. I did a search and read some of your past posts on this board, I would LOVE to try it. It is a beautiful board to look at with a very cool shape. I was amazed to read that the the 180 has a 8.5m sidecut radius, I think I would love this in tight conditions I mentioned in the first post. I was also surprised that the nose and tail are the same width, no taper like a swallowtail. The idea of a board being designed for both hard and soft boots makes it even more versatile.

Thank you again Hans!
Rob

[rcrobar]

Hmmmmm, a lot of views but no replies.

Here is one more attempted to spark a bit of interest, and hopefully a few replies, in this topic.

Gentlemen, let us hear your opinions!

A few years ago I e-mailed the three main North American custom board builders (Chris Prior-Prior Snowboards, Sean Martin-Donek Snowboards and Bruce Varsava-Coiler Snowboards) and asked a similar question regarding moguls.

Their interesting and conflicting replies are quoted below:

I asked Sean, Chris and Bruce, the North American 'Big Three' board builders the same question basic question.

Have you ever designed a board specifically for moguls? If you had to ride with guys skiing in VW beetle sized moguls all day, on a steep hard pitch, what size, shape, flex would you recommend?

Here is what they had to say, as always they were very generous and gracious with their time. Very interesting and confusing answers, hence my post.



Here are some general comments from the 'Big Three' (Summary)

None of the carving communities 'Big Three' board manufacturers said they have ever built a mogul specific board. All 3 builders basically said that very few people spend much time in the these types of moguls and is basically no demand for such a board. Moguls, they said, are physically very demanding, are harder to do on a board when compare to skis, they require very good technique and are a serious challenge as a result.



Here are specific comments on board design from the 'Big Three' (Quotes)

(I have purposely not stated which builder made which comment to avoid brand loyalty entering into peoples' biased opinions


Builder A
I think a good sl board rounded tail (standard all mountain shape) appropriate waist to suit the riders angles, and a lot of practice. A standard all mountain style board or small slalom board that is light I think will work better 161 cm in length 9.5 meter radius. Perhaps a wide waist 22-23 cm. Very sharp edges, and lots of strength!

Builder B
The only board I've ridden in bumps that really seemed to navigate the bumps like a pair of skis was a longer 180 ish standard all mountain shaped board. When riding in bumps I find a standard 160 freeride to be a lot of work because you have to be involved so much with maneuvering the board. A longer 180 ish standard all mountain shape seemed almost to steer itself through the bumps.

Builder C
My thinking would be that anything long is going to get hung up somewhat especially if it had a racy flex as the mid sections of those boards are stiffer and transmit the power out to the ends of the board too much. Something pretty flexy in the middle would allow it to conform more to the nasty terrain. Torsional stiffness I would think should be pretty low to allow more freedom without getting stuck in a turn. If you incorporated those designs a longer board would be more manageable for sure.

An interesting discussion followed, here is the link for those interested:

http://www.bomberonline.com/VBulletin/s ... ht=rcrobar

[JonDahl]

My pick would be either a 161 ATV, or the same-ish length Spearhead. If I could have a Spearhead type nose on a ATV width board, that would be perfect. Short for the bumps, after a bump session @ Whistler in February, I am convinced that the narrower shorter board is best for that, balanced out with the desire for nimble tree action in pow is a bit of a tossup, I like a bigger nose than the ATV. 'Cause I already have a 192 Tanker for fast pow runs, I, in the end, lean to the ATV...but still indecision reigns, the Spearhead would be nimble in a short length with the float in the nose.

[tigger]

i had the possibility to test a lot of boards this weekend, on perfect slopes and even in powder. and there are 2 boards standing out when it comes to overall performance, the new g-force razor and the classic pogo longboard. both boards have a solid construction, they are userfriendly but can be pushed really hard. they feel right under your feet from the start, and even 70km/h later.
the longboard needs a little bit more input to get it onto its edge for carving, but thats no problem and once your used to it. you will be rewarded with really good carving ability and legendary powder performance.
the g force razor really wants to carve once you tip it to one side, it can handle a lot of speed, but you can still drift it easy and push it into some tight turns. the nose works extremely well in powder, you hardly have to lean back, i was never afraid to to a nosedive. plus the g force boards have the fastest base i have ever tried!
i own a dupraz d1+ which i love, it has a little bit more float in the powder than these two boards, but is a bit different to handle onslope, it takes some time to find the sweet spot for carving (it carves really well once you figured it out!) but the boards mentioned above will give you a blast from the first second.

[fivat]

You were using hard boots??

I agree that long boards rule in powder. I'm always surprised to see so many riders with short boards (sometimes 155cm) when there is deep powder. They dive, get no speed and make big efforts...

On soft snow most boards are good at carving. But I agree about the Dupraz D1, it could be better. Unfortunately you had no hard or icy snow during this week-end to evaluate real carving behaviour.

About freeriding, I also make tests in narrow and steep corridors (between rocks and cliffs). The Dupraz, because of its big nose, is not easy to control with fluidity and speed. But it's just a personal preference.

Patrice Fivat

[tigger]

yes, i always use hardboots, but very soft raichle 123 and some cheap soft plastic plates. i tried the dupraz d1+ on hardpack already, it has some enormous edgehold even in those conditions, but you need some big muscles in your rear leg, and the big nose makes it a bit unstable at high speeds.
i tried the dupraz one day with softboots and i hated it, suddently the board felt heavy and long. but i m not used to softboots at all.
yes, long boards are really fun in soft snow. most boards i tried were really long, and i was surprised how easy they were to use, even the 190cm long alpinepunk. an other board i enjoyed in the powder was an 185 pogo swallowtail, the float and controllable speedpotential in powder is amazing.
you really shouldnt be afraid of lenght in those conditions, as soon as those boards are in their natural environment they become very handy.

[tigger]

...rode the SG cult 169 and the SG cross team as well, they were a lot of fun too, as they were nearly the shortest bordds i rode all weekend they felt very agile, easy to ride fakie and do all sorts of tricks on them. didnt try them in the deep snow. their tail is 1cm narrower than the nose, something you have to get used to. definately a good choice for narrow treeruns and crowded resorts.