Recently, Boris and I have had the opportunity to ride the new "Virus Extremecarver" against the Swoard Extremecarver. First a short abstract for the hurried amongst us:
Virus: The Virus is made in an excellent quality. It seems to be impossible to destroy this board.
Swoard: The Swoard convinces by its superior riding qualities. It's still the board of our choice in this class.
Read on to get some of our impressions.
Because we're always looking for improvements, Boris and I were demanding for a board that beats the Swoard in both - quality and riding performance. The new "Virus Extremecarver" seems to have the potential to outrun the Swoard.
Viewing from the top (see pic #1), the Virus has almost the same shape as our 175cm Swoards (Boris is riding 175M, I've got the 175S):
- Both boards (Virus, Swoard) are 175 cm long.
- The Swoard is 1cm wider than the Virus
- Virus states that they use elliptical side cuts, Swoard uses circles. However, by eye it's hard to distinguish the side cut. Therefore, we do not expect a large difference in the riding radius.
It made me very happy that the Virus is narrower than the Swoard, because I sometime have the feeling that the Swoard is too wide for me. There were some discussions in this forum about the pros and cons high and low binding angles: viewtopic.php?t=650
Viewing from the side (see pic #2), there is a big difference:
- Whereas the Swoard has almost no bias, the Virus has a lot (compare the distance to the purple line).
Touch and feel:
- Length flex: The Virus feels a bit harder than Boris' Swoard 175M and of course much harder than my Swoard 175S.
- Torsional flex: Twisting the boards by hand, the Virus seems to have more torsional stiffness than the Swoard!!
Quality:
- The Virus is made in an excellent quality. To proof this statement it would be necessary to carve it rough for at least a whole season. But because Virus has the reputation making excellent boards and because the "Virus Extremecarver" looks manufactured like the other boards from this company, we believe that it would be hard to damage this board.
- At the opposite, there are serious quality shortcomes for the Swoard (more about this later in this text).
Price:
- Swoard: We paid about CHF 1300.- (internet order)
- Virus: CHF 1500.- (retail dealer)
Summarising all these impressions, Boris and I smelled fresh blood: This new device MUST beat the Swoard - good quality, good shape, high torsional stiffness, a bit narrower than the Swoard. Yes, we really WANTED the Virus to be the better board. Not a really fair starting condition for an objective riding test. But read on ...
Boris' impressions of riding the Swoard 175M against the Virus:
" After 8 months of riding absence I first snatched up the "Virus Extremecarver" (because I was very keen to test this promising board) and after one day on the slopes of Scuol/Switzerland I was very happy with the board, the Virus infected me...
The board was very aggressive and versatile. Last winter I had sometimes the feeling that the Swoard is somehow dull, like a truck, it needs some time to gather momentum. The Virus board did not show that behavior, it was very agile. I was able to perform deep frontside and backside turns, with a proper rotation and almost-stretched body. However, I recognized that in non-perfect situations (bumpy slopes, icy slopes) I had some stability problems. Especially in deep backside turns I missed the edge grip I was used when riding my Swoard! First I thought that after 8 months of riding absence, I had just too less riding experience yet and that the "feeling" for the backside will come back sooner or later and has nothing to do with the Virus board. In short: After the first day I thought that this board has the same extremcarving qualities as the Swoard and beyond that was more agile and versatile in bumpy and narrow slopes than the Swoard.
On the next day I took my Swoard 175M with the purpose to compare its riding performance against the Virus board. After the first deep laid turns I realized (remembered!) the superior carving quality of the Swoard. I was able to perform deep and laid turns on a icy slope as well as on a slope with moderate bumps. My backside "feeling" was back immediately!! The stability problems I experienced with the Virus board disappeared. With the Swoard I had the feeling that I was moving on a rail. Moreover, the SWOARD allowed me to precisely determine the trace I wanted. This gave me a lot of self-confidence, i.e., I was not afraid of laying down on steep or icy or bumpy slopes. The Swoard combined with the push-pull technique just made me brave and self-confident, because you can trust in its enormous edge grip. I missed that feeling with the Virus board. Surely, the Virus board was aggressive and agile, but it was also a kind of nervous, especially in almost-stretched and stretched turns on non-perfect slopes. With the Swoard the transitions from one edge to the next edge were more smooth and natural. It was easier to adapt to the slope conditions, to adapt the radius of every single turn and to be all the time very deep and of course stretched.
To get sure about my feelings, I switched back to the Virus in the morning of the third day and back again to the Swoard in the afternoon. In short: In my opinion the Swoard is still the better extremecarving board and I won't buy another carving device this winter. Why? Almost surely, there is no better one!!! "
Even if I did not ride that much as Boris (I didn't push it to the limits. Just some easy carves - no EC), I completely agree with his judgement: Riding the Virus is very demanding. I always had the feeling to restrain a wild horse. One non-attention and you're gone. Switching back to the Swoard, the good feeling was back too – immediately. Riding the Swoard is not like being on a device that has to be controlled - It's more like the body and the board is one single entity - not two.
We started this test with a well biased opinion. But the results where so clear that it was easy to correct this unfair starting condition.
We do not know why the Swoard is so easy to ride. I talked to two other board manufacturers. Both stated that control of torsional stiffness is easy done. Jacques, at some time you have to tell me, what's the secret behind it
We also do not know why the Virus is so demanding to ride. Maybe it's too hard? Maybe too biased? Maybe too much torsional stiffness? Maybe it just needs a heavier rider (85kg+)?
Last but not least I have a quality Issue about the Swoard that has to be stated here: It is known that there are problems with the cover sheet. Unfortunately, laminar separation of the cover sheet like shown in pic #3 happend not only a single time.
But there is also an other serious thing: I have the feeling that my Swoard 175S has degraded in performance over time (especially edge grip). When riding Boris' Swoard 175M, it's much better than mine - on hard and on soft slopes. Is it possible that the lifetime of my Swoard is already over? There is also a strange effect that can be observed at my Swoard: I can look through the cover sheet and see the inner structure of the board (see pic #4). May be this effect is in connection with the degraded performance I observed.
We think that the SWOARD boards are still best in class. When the quality of the production is improved and the riding performance is fine tuned, it will be difficult to find a better carving device on the market.
The VIRUS could be a serious, high quality competitor. Especially because it’s a bit narrower than the Swoard - and therefore an option for riders who prefer higher binding angles and easier backside rotation. Maybe this boards needs just an other development cycle to catch up.
Best Regards and Stay Deep
Olaf & Boris
both can be beautiful.... especially at the same time 
great review, I learn more every day
)
