Feedback on the Swoard DUAL

[fivat]

Some riders have already got their DUAL and some lucky ones have already ridden it!

This is the place to post your feedback: your impressions about the purchase service, the board finishing, how the DUAL worked on the snow, how it behaved compared to other boards, what surprised you, what were your settings, the type of terrain/slope, etc.

Thank you!

Patrice Fivat

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EDIT: Other feedbacks on the Swoard DUAL

• November-December 2011 > bradipo, leeho730, moosehead > Dual vs production camber boards
  
  January-April 2012 > Feedbacks received during the "Test and Win a DUAL" contest of the Swoard Demo Tour 2012.
  
  March-April 2012 > canmanski > Swoard Dual vs Voelkl Coal

[manuchill]

Underneath the email I sent to the Swoard guys, after testing the Dual on Nov. 5th

"Last evening I went with my brother to an indoor area to test the Dual.
Unfortunately the piste wasn’t very well groomed and we had to share it with a few guys who were training a slalom downhill. All in all it was quite bumpy, but hey I was going to test the Dual so f*** them

My first impression about the board is: the design is awesome and a bit skeptical about the fact that you can do laid turns with this board which looks like a freestyle board.

The first descent was a bit strange, but that has more to do with the fact that the last time I was on a snowboard was about 9 months ago. After a few more runs the feeling got back and I could follow the instructions you once told us. And what a feeling it gave me, so much grip and cutting right through the bumps I encountered, loving it, loving it, want more.....

This board is less forgiving compaired to the Swoard, and I mean it in a way if you put to much pressure on the front or the back it will break out of the corner and you will turn sideways. With this board you can really try to work on your position, to be centered and keep the force balanced on the board in the corners.

After knowing that, I made some nice turns on a crappy slope, but my god I’m in love with this board aswell, just like my Swoard Extremecarver!!!

Can’t wait to test it on a nicely groomed slope and off-piste offcourse. But I can imagine/predict what my ending result/verdict will be

A big thumbs up for you guys, for producing another great board which is more versatile than the Swoard and having both of them in your possession would be heaven on earth"

Bytheway, I tested with my hardboots in the same setup as I have on my extremecarver, 48 degrees on the front and 45 on the back

[rstalfoort]

What more is there to say - read Marc his comment above

The ordering was fast and easy, and the delivery even faster - 3 day's later i received the Dual @ my door in Holland.

I took it to the indoor slope a week later, with my hardboot setup. Angle settings were 55 on the front and 47 on the back foot.

The board is absolutely amazing and fun to drive. It is a teacher under your feet on riding with a perfect centered stance. After managing this, it was easy to ride linked (laydown) turns on the crappy indoor slope.

So i can't wait to test it in champagne powder as well

Big applaus for the Swoard team. There are no excuses not to go out on your Swoard!!!

[drzone]

First report on the Dual.

Condition around 0C, granular man made snow, well chopped up by race training.
Dual 158M, Flow NXT AT, 30F 10R, Burton Ruler. I'm 170cm, 60kg
My visiting brother was on my Extremecarver 161M and we played cat/mouse, watch and feedback since it was our first day out this season.

Pro: very smooth, no problem with edge change even with the width. Carves from a slight distance looks like I was on carving gear according to my brother. Got some deep trenches, easier on frontside, some getting used to backside. The board holds great to almost EC (did not quite have the steepness today). No problem with the chopped up snow even at speed.
Small feet, so no booting out.
I usually don't ride soft boots, but compared to the other softbooters, I was carving a LOT more.
Felt more free in that the ankles are working a lot more like surfing, or it felt like riding the Northwave with extremely soft springs. A very pleasant feeling.
The Flow bindings were great.
The graphics on the Dual are amazing.

Cons: more tiring than riding hardboots when carving hard as expected(3hrs and I was getting tired). The nose is softer than on the extremecarver, so one must be more careful not putting too much weight on the front foot, the extremecarver is more forgiving in that respect. EDIT***Must be not being used to riding soft and low angles, went out again today, no problem with fatigue. Also must have been soft snow on that first ride, today in -10C, man made snow, it was holding great and no problem at all with 'soft nose'. ***EDIT. Riding neutral kept the edge going good through the length of the turn. Flow bindings were slower than F2 Race Titanium to put on (we're talking 15sec longer).
No powder around here, but I wish there were some!
Other than that I was absolutely thrilled after this first ride of the Dual.

Thank you for building this board. I'm going to do most of my riding on soft in the next while, to learn new tricks, getting into carving switch, trying to go lower on softies etc...if I started on the Dual, I might never have tried hardboots!!

Another winner!

[drzone]

Small update.
Carved last 2 days on hard man made snow and -10-12C.
And it's a blast on the soft set up.
Since I don't have the pitch for lots of EC around here, this board is a god sent. Tons of fun, carve just as hard. EC front side no problem. Back side I the rear boot out if more than 60 degree board incline (currently 15/-5 so I can start learning to carve fakie). The board bite and holds great. The board feels so soft yet not.
The surfy feel on this set up is great. Not sure if it's because I'm a lightweight but the flex of the boots and bindings feels good.
No hardboots for this guy for the next while.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

[Whitey]

Hello there,

ooh la laa, we have decent, good ole' style winter up here in Finland! Weather has been cold, and the White Lady has visited us. Hence, I have been riding my Dual 175 for 10 days now. I have been using my normal soft setup, F2 Hurricane boots with F2 Joint HBX bindings. That setup is rather stiff: at the time F2 was marketing them '"for the hardcore carving junkies". Ehh...marketing men..heh heh! However, it was not totally bullshit, that setup is not that bad for softboot carving.

I have been riding Dual mostly on the normal, good condition slopes. Eventhough I like hard boot carving, I also like snowboarding/carving with soft setup. Feeling is very surfy, and at the same run you can go offpiste and/or do some jumps/tricks. I would not really even think about put plate bindings on Dual. For me it is a board, which I want to use with soft setup because of better agility.

Dual looks (and at first also feels) almost like an ordinary freestyle board: it is very, very flexible. It also looks very professionally made (eventhough I like a lot snowboards, which look like home made). But when turning Dual on the slope, you realize you are not riding a normal FR/FS board. It gives you very good egde hold and more it is tilted on the edge, the better it holds. It is also effortless to handle.

Here in Southern Finland we have seldom any change to ride powder. However, I have used Dual a little bit on powder as well. It floats very nicely, and is also easy to turn.

In a nutshell: Dual is maybe the most versatile snowboard I have ever ridden. If I had to use only one board, it would be Dual.

See you soon in Zinal!

[docrob]

Whitey
What made you choose the 175 instead of the 168?
and what are your stats?

[Whitey]

Well, I'm 183 cm / 83 kg, my foot size is 28. Accordingly, it was easy to choose 175.

[docrob]

Thanks Whitey
I'm set to improve carving and push it a little towards extreme perhaps, and would like to start off on the dual with softboots. I have a few less pounds (at 175) than you, but same boot and height. I was thinking the 175 dual wouldn't be manoeverable enough to manage the tight spots on and off piste, otherwise It'd be better for a lowish angle stance/give more stance options.
What's your opinion on the manoeverability issue, and what angles are you using? What min angle could you get without overhang?

[nils]

Taken Jan 10th 2010 at the ECS meeting in Peyragudes in the Pyrenees mountains...no comments needed to show versatility at work: do all !
thnx Fred Baup for the beauty pics, and Petit Pierre for the great riding!

[starikashka]

Nils, any video availiable? Static picture is useful only for desktop decorating If we are talking about board performance, stability - the video tells much more.

I`m not impressed by rider and the board

[nils]

there is a vid about the meeting, not showing too much Dual footage, but there should be soon more footage of the Dual...the idea behind showing the pics is not to show someone doing perfect EC turns, but showing what you can do with powder and carving on the same board...I'm not sure we've ever seen such power turn on a board with that shape on piste for a long time...anyway, those are the first high quality pics of the Dual, more will come for sure

N

[Syldavid]

I am 1.78m and 85 kg.
My foot size is 27.
I bought a dual 168, and I ride with soft boots.
I have a Swoard 168 H and M, an Elan Ascent (free ride board) and now a Dual.
The dual takes the place of the ascent.

I have ride this WE with the dual at the Italian resort "La Thuile".
I have ride in powder and on the slope.

First, when you ride the Dual, you know that you are on a Swoard board. The turn on the slope are really amazing. I have ride a lot of boarder cross, it was the first time I can go up like this on back side turn.
With soft boot, you can't do extreme carving but you can do carving and good carving.
On powder, I wasn't surprised by the board. The comportment was really good, you can do big or little turns, between the trees, etc.....I just had to put the binding at the last hole because the powder was very heavy.

I think you can find a better board to go on powder like Swallow, but it's difficult to snowboarding between trees with a Swalow, however on the slope I think it's difficult to find a better soft boots board.

I think the Ascent is the perfect board when it's not good to do extreme carving (for instance bad slope on the afternoon, snow not enough stiff, etc...). But now I am sure that the Dual is perfect for the slope and perfect for me on powder....

[starikashka]

the idea behind showing the pics is not to show someone doing perfect EC turns, but showing what you can do with powder and carving on the same board...I'm not sure we've ever seen such power turn on a board with that shape on piste for a long time...anyway, those are the first high quality pics of the Dual, more will come for sure

N

Ok, got it. Was confused by DO ALL thing in your previous post

[yomama]

I finally got to ride the Dual so here is my first impressions report.

Short report
Great mix of all-mountain/freestyle board with EC in mind.


Longer Report
Weather conditions were groomed snow + 3cm of fresh snow on top.

Well, even though I had the Dual with me, I could not help myself to go out first on the Extremecarver to have the morning groomer first.
After ~ 2hrs of carving fun, during a front side turn, the nose folded on the soft snow and I went over the handle bar.

That was when I realized it was time to "retire" the Extremecarver for the day and pull out the Dual.

While switching board/boots, I chat with my brother over the phone and he insisted that I try ECing with softboots + Dual. So instead of taking the Dual out at 25F/-15B as initially intended, I switched everything to 30F/20B on Flows NXT/AT + Salomon Malamute boots (Nils, are you happy now? I did not ride duck!! )

While riding the shuttle with the Swoard Dual by my side, a girl beside me said "I have never seen this brand before, what kind of board is that? It looks great!"
I congratulated her for her good observations and pointed to her the Swoard.com as stated on the board. I simply said that the board was derived from alpine snowboarding.

On first impressions, the board felt very light underfoot, quite soft and forgiving. On the greens, it was great fun and it had very similar feels to the Extremecarver so I felft comfy right away.

Ok, time to try the ECing on soft boots on blue/black.
Front side turn: the board was ripping laydown turns on the front side. It was easy and fun!!
Backside turn: I crashed every single time and after 2 runs I realized that I booted out on the heel big time (remember I was at 30/20).

Then, I changed the angles so that no front/back boot out was possible and ended up with 40/35 .

Conclusion It was completely possible to link EC turns on the Dual with soft boots.

That said, I would like to share my personal take on high angle soft boot ECing.
- The "show off" factor was multiplied by 10. Everybody was watching when I pull those front side laydown but when I linked front and back, the whole world stopped to watch.
- From the personal "fun factor", well....carving linked EC turns on soft boots was NOT that fun because it took too much efforts from the legs to compensate for the lack of support from hardboot
- The shorter radius also reduced the fun factor of a prolonged EC laydown
- At those angles (40/35), I rather be on hardboot, enjoy the ride and have fun.

On another note: I personally found the Flow Bindings to be great for carving.

So this is my first impressions of the Dual. I am keeping all options opened when it comes to soft boots but there are good chances that I will hardboot with the Dual at 40/30 in the future because it is a great All Mountain board but with a possibility to throw some EC turns in the mix.

I will revisit for another Dual report by the end of the season.

Many thanks to the Swoard team . This is another great design!!

Cheers

Peter
ps: sorry, I do not have any video to prove linked EC turns on softboots so you would have to believe me