Yet another SWOARD 2D 3rd gen. "personal" review

[simima]

Hi all

I promised to provide a short review after the first days, so here it is. Keep in mind that this is my personal feelings and my experience, based on my skills (or not skills)...

The purchase and delivery.
I didn't see physically a SWOARD before, so it was kind of a hit-or-miss purchase. I knew SWOARDS were made by VIRUS before, and as I had several VIRUSses before, I decided that it can't be all wrong and ordered a SWOARD. Not one, not two, but all three "Swoarders" participated in the email backs and fourths and helped me finding the right length and stiffness. So I was very well taken care of...!
The purchase itself is fairly easy, and the board arrived well packed and quickly.

Why SWOARD?
Well, as said, I had VIRUS boards before, the last one a custom Lightning. I liked them, but found the last board too hard for me and hard to control. Somehow the concept of SWOARD looked right, but in the end, it wasn't a rational decision, but one from the stomach.

Me and the board settings.
Being 186cm tall and bringing along 74kg, I ordered a 175S SWOARD.
Jacques helped me decide the stance and angles, so I started with the middle position and 42/52° (if I remember correctly).
This wasn't for me, and after some trying, I ended up with 51cm stance (which is 3cm or so closer than the middle position) and much steeper angles: 47.5° and 57.5°.
I'm using a somewhat suboptimal binding, namely the F2 Intec step in. I slightly enlarged the heel holes in the binding, giving a bit more flexibility sideways... perfect now.

And finally... how it rides.
Well, honestly, it needed a day or so to learn how the board works. But then... WOW! The conditions these three days in Zermatt were windy, snowy, with a lot of fresh snow on a rather hard base. So not the ideal extremecarving conditions I guess, but workable.
Guys, well done. The board handles like a smaller one, turns easy, allows quick and slow turns. With my limited skills, I could handle much steeper slopes, making niiiiiiiice carves. With the VIRUS, I couldn't handle comparably steep slopes.
The grip is perfect - I almost never "lost" a carve. I believe the stiffness is perfect as well, although I couldn't compare of course. It just felt right.
We'll see how it handles icy surfaces.

What to say more... the VIRUS went to Ebay....

-Simon

[tobsinger]

Well, honestly, it needed a day or so to learn how the board works

Can you be more detailed. i had my second Swoard-day today and I know it's different than my old Blast but i cannot quite put it in words. So maybe when i read your details on how the board works what you had to change maybe it helps me.

I personally still feel a bit insecure especially when it's getting steep. (Riding my Blast steepness was not a problem) know i kind of don't know what radius the board will do. or let's say I'm not used to the fact that i can change to various radius so easily. The Blast was so hard i had to really push it to make a small radius. Now I have the feeling i have to be really careful to bring the right pressure to the board.

On the other hand the board is so less tiring to ride. I can ride a full long slope no problem, with the Blast my legs where burning after a short ride.
So in terms of flex i'm pretty happy. Good Nils and Arnaud advised to get a hard flex.

[simima]

Oh, well - I don't know. It's just that the Swoard fits my needs and skills perfectly.
It was probably good for me to have a less stiff board (I'm quite tall, but rather light), so I always had troubles getting the harder boards through the turn. I had a blast, too, but wasn't happy with it either - too hard.

Probably my description won't help you much, because the likings are individual. Just go and try... :-/

A few years ago, I've made a long board myself (over 185cm), and it was quite soft. Too soft actually, and the board twisted in the turns (that's why torsion stiffness is important). Nevertheless, I found at that time that larger boards were capable of making nice carves (my self-made board was capable for this only in very soft snow). So it is actually no surprise to me that a large, long and soft board works well for me for narrow turns and steeper slopes as well.

Happy carving

Simon

[fivat]

Thank you for your detailed review!

We'll see how it handles icy surfaces.

After Christmas holidays, could you tell us what you have experienced on very hard snow (or icy surfaces) during intensive tests? It will not snow for the next 7 days, so you could find such conditions.

Many new Swoard owners are going to ride the Swoard generation 3 for the first time during these holidays. But we have already many excellent feedbacks in the French Forum! People are confirming that gen3 is even better than gen2 and gen1.

Merry Christmas!

Patrice Fivat

[tobsinger]

I was already wondering if i'm the only one who was riding his new toy so far?!

to bad my french is so bad. It's a pity that this forum is divided into different languages. It kind of seperates the comunities i think, and also i can only read or participate in a part of the entire forum and its knowledge that is written down here.

I realized that on several technical topics when i used the search function there where many hits in the french forum...

maybe you should give up on the different languages?

[pokkis]

Language is no problem
Use this one: http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/tr

[tobsinger]

hehe i tried it i think they were speeking of being flexible in the knees. but it's kind of a laugh.

so question pokkis: are you using this tool for your german posts on frozen-backside? i don't think so and if yes the german-finish translater is much better than the french-german....

[pokkis]

I know few words in german, 10 years reading of Surf-magazine in eighties has helped lot. But unfortunately no french for me, only babelfish