Burton Custom 158

Leave a reply

By John

Board Model and Year: custom

Board Size: 158

Age: 38

Riding Style: freeride

I am 38 years old, and have been riding for 8 years. I started my illustrious career on a burton custom 158. After two years, I bought and rode a burton omen 163 (gr8 board for pow). After two years on that, I switched to, and have been getting my freak on with a custom X 160 (gr8 responsive board). I had mounted burton P1 HD bindings (they don’t call them that anymore, but they were p1’s with carbon fiber highbacks). I rode Salomon F24 boots. Altogether, this was a super stiff set up, which translated into vigorous carving at high speeds. Lots of fun. however, this year I got back into bumps and trees and wanted a much softer set up. I have returned to the custom 158 with burton triad bindings, and a more forgiving Salomon F22 boot. Let me tell ya… If bumps and trees are your thing, the custom 158 is the one. I never cease to be amazed by the sheer number of customs I see on the mountain, any mountain, year after year. After years off that board, I now have enough riding experience to understand why.

Never Summer Evo

Leave a reply

By Forrest

Board Model and Year: 2009

Board Size: 155

Age: 27

Riding Style: All Mountain / Park

The new NS Evo with the rocker camber tech is by far the best I have ever ridden. It butters like a fiend and has just the right amount of flex and pop. It rides way nice, plus I love supporting the smaller, still made in the usa snowboard companies. Best warranty in the business, but it is unlikely you will ever need it. I still have a NS premier from 1999.

2009 Rossignal Jeremy Jones

1 Reply

By Fes

Board Model and Year: Rossignol Jeremy Jones 2008-2009

Board Size: 158

Age: 36

Riding Style: Freerider

Last weekend when I was at Stevens Pass, the backside was filled with fresh pow so I decided to demo some long boards. I am 150 lbs and only 5’4″ so a 158 is essentially a long board for me. My regular ride is a 156 Burton T6 and my board for hitting park jumps is a K2 Anagram.

I was pretty stoked to see that they had the Jones Rossi board in stock.

The Jones board is a very stiff ride meant for backcountry pow riding where the snow is nice and deep. It’s not a light board by any means and as such has a lot of dampening (the Burton Custom 158 I demoed later in the day was a lot lighter). It bombed through the slough and fresh snow. I felt very stable on the slough and the pow going at high speeds on it. On the groomers, it was a lot of work getting to stop it from slipping out. Tapered boards are not meant to be ridden on the groomers and in the icy patches when I was headed back down to the base area, this was an extremely unpredictable and dangerous ride. For this long a board, with the proper speed checking, I was able to get it to pop a bit over jumps and oh yes, stomp the landings like nobody’s business.

Overall, the board was a great ride, stable as all hell, but what sucked was the crappy Rossignol bindings they put on it and that’s the only binding that they had available for that board and they were not mixing bindings at all. This is not for groomer/regular resort riding. It’s for the steeps and the backcountry where the pow is fresh and a plenty. In those conditions, it rules supreme. Why do think Jeremy rides it in those conditions? 😛

Next year’s model for this board has Magnetraction and a rocker for even better pow float. Magne and reverse camber? In a non-Lib Tech board? Whudathunkit?

Never Summer Lotus

Leave a reply

By Sally

Board Model: Lotus

Board Size: 154

Age: 23

Riding Style: Freeride

These guys are a smaller company but if you want a board that will last longer than you will, then you should check them out! They are called Never Summer and I found out about them from an instructor friend. She rides the Infinity and after doing a little homework I decided I would get a board from them too… Best board I have ever been on, bar NONE! If you don’t believe me check out their website www.neversummer.com to see what I’m talking about.

Arbor Abacus

1 Reply

By John Park

Board Model: Abacus

Board Size: 160

Age: 30

Riding Style: Freeride

If you ride east coast ice, hard packed, groomers and never see powder days nor yearn for them. The Abacus will not be your friend, Arbor has many others to fit your needs the Abacus is not it.

However if you are looking to ease out those bad ass pow days with something that will ALWAYS perform on the fresh, be it on the groomers, in the trees, slaying a bowl, dropping into the fresh stashes .. this is your new companion on the mountains no matter how large or small.

Riding Revelstoke during a 30cm snow and accumulating was spectacular. The Abacus slayed the pow, kept me up top and grabbed as much speed as possible. It split the tight trees with ease, sent me off rollers and landed without any nose dive. Carving ?? Who needs that in the pow, just lean back and cruise. However, throw a spin and watch your landing gear ! The Abacus sits you so far back in your stance that rotations soon become corked and off axis. Even BIG AIRS will tend to lean towards the back … grab a mute to correct or else you’ll be rolling down some windows !

Riding the day after and following sessions without fresh snow saw the humidity, cold, groomers, and chop to create a packed surface. And it became clear this board does not like to hold an edge. As well, the edge it does hold is pretty weak. This is not a carving board, if you know you are going to be in more than 4″ of snow this is the board for that day, otherwise leave it at home.

Slay the fresh all day long and love it with this board, keep it at home if there is no snow in sight. There is an old adage of “No friends on pow day”, on pow days the Abacus is your only friend.

Nitro Blacklight 157

2 Replies

By Coog

Board Model: Nitro Blacklight

Board Size: 157

Age: 37

Riding Style: All mountain

Took the Blacklight out to Colorado and the board was an absolute slayer. Rode in pow through the bowls,trees,cruisers, groomers and traverses and the board killed it on all. The pow was a bit deep the first few days so I put it in the back seat and let her rip. The base is super fast as I blew past people they were standing still and came in handy on those dreaded traverses.
The board has a medium flex so it’s real stable on jumps(pops) and hauling ass but you can still play around with it buttering and hitting the park. Board is lightweight but doesn’t chatter oh and did I mention you don’t have to wax it!

2009 Rossignol One-Magna Traction

9 Replies

By Chris

Board Model: Rossignol One-Mag

Board Size: 163

Age: 41

Riding Style: Freestyle/all mtn

I’m a little surprised to see that nobody has reviewed Rossi’s latest Magne-traction boards. This is the latest technology to hit snowboards and I can tell you it gives you awesome control in even the crappiest conditions. I’ve always been a big fan of Burton boards and when I went out to purchase a new board for the 08-09 season I was introduced to Rossi’s magne-traction technology. Living in Idaho we get tons of light fluffy powder here so I was rather hesitant to purchase a board that’s made for riding ice and hard crummy conditions. This board works great in all conditions. I’ve been riding light fluffy powder all season until last weekend. It warmed up enough to melt much of our base and re-freeze that evening. The next day I took my Rossi One-Mag out and absolutely shredded the mtn. The side cut on this board is like a serrated knife and cuts through the crude like nothing I’ve ever ridden. I had so much control I thought I was riding on fresh powder. If you get a chance try one out or you’re in the market for a new board try out Rossi’s Magne-Traction, you won’t be dissapointed!

Nitro Pantera 169

Leave a reply

By Steve

Board Model: Nitro Pantera

Board Size: 169

Age: 39

Riding Style: Freeride

This board is amazing… it is superfast, super-responsive, and carves like a mother. Took a couple runs to get used to, but after that, its awesome. I was used to a more “intermediate” board with more flex and less response, so I found that putting the same amount of “turn/lean” input into this board, was overkill… once that was figured out, it was sweet… seems to be built very well, time will tell I guess… the sticker on it said it was made in Austria… Better than China or Taiwan….

2008 Burton T6 156

Leave a reply

By Fes

Board Model: T6

Board Size: 156

Age: 36

Riding Style: Freeride

I bought a 2007/2008 T6 156 as a beginner-teetering-on-intermediate all-mountain freerider. And I couldn’t have been happier. First things first. This is NOT a freestyle park board. You try to go on a rail or box, you will split your head open like a coconut. The sintered WFO base is blazing fast. I’ve been able to charge down whole runs and even slalom them. When you hunker down and ride it properly, there is no chatter. The pressure distribution edges work great. PDE is Burton’s version of Magne-traction. Great edge to edge responsiveness. I have yet to set my bindings back and take it in to powder (well we really haven’t had much pow days here). I am not a freestyler but I have hit some jumps. T6 has amazing pop.