New Board Time, opinions sought….

My son has finally out grown his Rossignol Imperial 144. Where once the
board towered over him, he now dwarfs it. Yet it has served him well for
four (4) years, since he was 8.

So, new board time. He is 5’6”, 100 lbs. and growing. He likes bombing
down the steeps at extreme velocities. But his favorite activity is
going through tree’s at high speeds (scares me to death). It is not
unusual to spot him jumping out of the tree line, across a trail, and
right back into the trees.

Let’s not forget peer pressure. Most of his friends are park rats who
like to pop jumps and grind rails. He does OK there, but it is not his
passion.

Now my confusion,
Steeps and speed call for a longer stiff board.
Trees call for a snappy mid-flex mid-size board.
The park calls for a shorter soft board.
His growth spurts call for a longer board as well.

He already has Solomon Malamute boots and Burton Mission (Dark) bindings.

Thanks in advance for the group’s input.

Chris

"Christopher Cox" wrote in message
...
My son has finally out grown his Rossignol Imperial 144. Where once the
board towered over him, he now dwarfs it. Yet it has served him well for
four (4) years, since he was 8.

So, new board time. He is 5’6”, 100 lbs. and growing. He likes bombing
down the steeps at extreme velocities. But his favorite activity is
going through tree’s at high speeds (scares me to death). It is not
unusual to spot him jumping out of the tree line, across a trail, and
right back into the trees.

Let’s not forget peer pressure. Most of his friends are park rats who
like to pop jumps and grind rails. He does OK there, but it is not his
passion.

Now my confusion,
Steeps and speed call for a longer stiff board.
Trees call for a snappy mid-flex mid-size board.
The park calls for a shorter soft board.
His growth spurts call for a longer board as well.

He already has Solomon Malamute boots and Burton Mission (Dark) bindings.

Thanks in advance for the group’s input.

Chris

There are so many options out there for different boards. The three that
I'm considering this year are a Donek and Rome Anthem/Flag. Both are in the
$400 - $450 range.

The Donek is primarily a freeride board, and, from all the glowing reviews
here and elsewhere, their build quality is excellent. Apparently they're
coming out with two softer flex boards for the upcoming season that might be
right up your son's alley.

The Rome Anthem has been reviewed as an everything board. It is primarily a
freestyle board that is light with carbon stringers running 45 degrees
across the board. It supposedly increases the torsional stiffness for quick
snappy turns and yet doesn't hinder stomp ability. The difference between
the Anthem and the Flag, as far as I can tell, is the softer flex pattern on
the Flag and added width for big feet. I'm leaning towards the flag (size
12 boot) in a 163 or 168 cm length myself.

Anywho, that's my 2 cents anyways...
Rick

So, new board time. He is 5’6”, 100 lbs. and growing. He likes bombing
down the steeps at extreme velocities. But his favorite activity is
going through tree’s at high speeds (scares me to death). It is not
unusual to spot him jumping out of the tree line, across a trail, and
right back into the trees.

Let’s not forget peer pressure. Most of his friends are park rats who
like to pop jumps and grind rails. He does OK there, but it is not his
passion.

Sounds like his next board should be something that is build for the speeds
he rides at. He can hang out with his park buddies on any freeride board,
he doesn't need a freestyle specific board to do that. Now all you need to
do is find something nimble enough for the trees but stable enough for his
high-speed bombing.

Rick suggested Donek and Rome - I don't know much about Rome, regarding
Donek I would say check out the upcoming new models... the Incline 150
(which my wife rides) would probably be OK stiffness wise and great in the
trees but he might want something with a little bigger sidecut / more edge
length if he likes to bomb. The 155 might be a bit much for a 100 pounder
to handle in the trees though?

Have a look at Salomon's stuff. They'll probably have something in his
size.

One thing for both of you to keep in mind... when he gets on a bigger board
he's going to need some time to get used to it. He'll pick up speed
faster. He'll also be more stable. But he won't be able to turn as fast
in the trees. Make sure he's got a few days on his new board before he goes
into the trees, please!

Mike T

He's going to outgrow it quickly, so you might want to consider a used
board. Prior Snowboards makes excellent boards and has a great selection of
slightly used boards that come with 1 year warranties and fully tuned and
hot waxed. Check their website. From your description, I think their All
Mountain Freestyle (AMF) board might be the ticket. Looks like they have a
few used AMF 153 cm for sale.

Brian.


"Christopher Cox" wrote in message
...
My son has finally out grown his Rossignol Imperial 144. Where once the
board towered over him, he now dwarfs it. Yet it has served him well for
four (4) years, since he was 8.

So, new board time. He is 5’6”, 100 lbs. and growing. He likes bombing
down the steeps at extreme velocities. But his favorite activity is
going through tree’s at high speeds (scares me to death). It is not
unusual to spot him jumping out of the tree line, across a trail, and
right back into the trees.

Let’s not forget peer pressure. Most of his friends are park rats who
like to pop jumps and grind rails. He does OK there, but it is not his
passion.

Now my confusion,
Steeps and speed call for a longer stiff board.
Trees call for a snappy mid-flex mid-size board.
The park calls for a shorter soft board.
His growth spurts call for a longer board as well.

He already has Solomon Malamute boots and Burton Mission (Dark) bindings.

Thanks in advance for the group’s input.

Chris

Looks like Donek is a great stiff single purpose board.

But,
No torsion box(es).
No Carbon Stringers.
No Kevlar Stringers.
No tail/tip honeycomb.
No board press to push out excess resin.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but this tells me that at this time,
they cannot build a multi-faceted, multi-purpose board. Sort of a must
for my son.

So far Solomon, Ride (Prophet), Rossignol (Avalon, Maybe), and Burton
(Custom X) have some interesting offerings.

Thanks for everyone's input so far.

Chris

Christopher Cox wrote:

Looks like Donek is a great stiff single purpose board.

But,
No torsion box(es).
No Carbon Stringers.
No Kevlar Stringers.
No tail/tip honeycomb.
No board press to push out excess resin.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but this tells me that at this time,
they cannot build a multi-faceted, multi-purpose board. Sort of a must
for my son.

What makes you sure they need all that particular stuff in order to
build what your son needs? Plus I'm pretty sure Sean has a press,
otherwise he wouldn't be building anything.

At any rate, the boards everyone talks about here are the Inclines.
Sean has two more models coming out this year, one for freestyle, one
for freeriding which is more general-purpose than the Incline. They're
not on the website yet, just drop Sean an email and ask. I'm sure he'll
be happy to tell you about them.

Neil

Looks like Donek is a great stiff single purpose board.

But,
No torsion box(es).
No Carbon Stringers.
No Kevlar Stringers.
No tail/tip honeycomb.
No board press to push out excess resin.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but this tells me that at this time,
they cannot build a multi-faceted, multi-purpose board. Sort of a must
for my son.

Looks like Donek is a great stiff single purpose board.

But,
No torsion box(es).
No Carbon Stringers.
No Kevlar Stringers.
No tail/tip honeycomb.
No board press to push out excess resin.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but this tells me that at this time,
they cannot build a multi-faceted, multi-purpose board. Sort of a must
for my son.


whoops, hit "send" prematurely on that last one....


Christopher, don't believe everything you read in snowboard companies'
marketing literature


Torsion boxes and stringers and honeycomb inserts aren't necessary to build
a multi-faceted board although the companies that use those methods would
certainly have you think so. (Neither are quadratic sidecuts for that
matter )

IMHO, many of the boards with torsion boxes have a "metallic" feel to them.
Your son would feel that more acutely than I gievn that he's only a little
over half my weight.

Bottom line... any board is going to be better at some things than others.
The Donek Incline is better at carving and bombing than rails and butters.
It doesn't mean you can't do any freesrtle trick you want on it. You see
kids bombing on their Forums all the time, don't you? Same thing in
reverse.



-Mike T

P.S. Note suere where you got the one of about not having a press either -
they've got one.

But,
No torsion box(es).
No Carbon Stringers.
No Kevlar Stringers.
No tail/tip honeycomb.
No board press to push out excess resin.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but this tells me that at this time,
they cannot build a multi-faceted, multi-purpose board. Sort of a must
for my son.

So far Solomon, Ride (Prophet), Rossignol (Avalon, Maybe), and Burton
(Custom X) have some interesting offerings.

Don't sweat the marketing speak. First up, I *know* donek uses a
press, and prettymuch everyone must use some arrangement of press or
vacuum bagging. It's just a must if you want to build a board that
won't fall apart.

Also, prettymuch everyone uses fiberglass in boards. Carbon and Kevlar
fabrics offer some different characteristics, but they're not entirely
good. I know from the speaker design world that kevlar offers a lot of
dampening and very high strength. Great for subwoofers and bullet
resistant vests. But it could make for a very dead feeling board. I
suspect companies that scream "we have kevlar" probibly don't put
enough in the board to impact performance: the stuff is a little
expensive.

Carbon is monsterously stiff. Again, that has pluses and minuses.

The bottom line is, you can only take spec info so far. Things like
sidecut size and stiffness comparisons (ie, "it's like the burton
supermodel only a touch softer") are about as far as you can go.
Beyond that, I'd say you just gotta ride it. After all, even Yugo
could say "we use a specialized composit mono-body construction" all
day long. It'll still drive like crap.

Honestly, I think the best thing you could for your son is have him do
a demo day at the resort. Usually for the price of a demo you get to
swap boards several times. That way he can try some usual suspects and
tell you exactly what sort of stiffness and length he wants.

J

Honestly, I think the best thing you could for your son is have him do
a demo day at the resort. Usually for the price of a demo you get to
swap boards several times. That way he can try some usual suspects and
tell you exactly what sort of stiffness and length he wants.

Hi Jason,

Great advice! Unfortunately, he REALLY outgrew his board, so we need one
before the season starts......drag.....

Thanks,

Chris