Thoughts: Last Day of Riding at A-Basin
Today, I slept through my alarm clock, and had to hurry to get out to the door to meet Travis. We decided to hit up A-Basin today as our last resort riding day for this season. We headed up to A-bay and got there around 9:30 a.m. We both decided due to some meetings etc in the afternoon we'd just take a few runs. Today was particularly fun because Travis was taking out the '10-'11 Heritage X from Never Summer, and I was out riding the '10-'11 Revolver again. This was also Travis's first day on Union Force bindings.
Thoughts: The “NEW” Never Summer Flat Spot
Anytime something is marked as NEW we humans tend to get excited. The whole concept of something we've not seen or used before peaks our interests. While at times things may appear new, we find they aren't necessarily new, but are marketed as such. For example "New Stain Fighting Power!" While stain fighting power has been around for quite some time in soaps, people still love to see the NEW technology, or innovation happening. In the snowboard world relating to "NEW" there has been ongoing debate on other snowboard review sites regarding the "new" flat spot tech Never Summer is showing in their 2010/2011 catalog. I've seen feedback that the new tech is "hooky", or "catchy", and makes riding the 2010/2011 boards "less fun." Having spent a considerable amount of time on the 2010 Never Summer Revolver, I knew that the 2011 rode quite similar. I decided to actually research the flat spot tech, because I recall my 2010 Revolver having the same flat spot, advertised on the 2011 boards.
Review: 10-11 Never Summer Raptor X
I recently had the pleasure of getting my hands on the new 10-11 Never Summer Raptor X. The Raptor X replaces the Titan TX (or Titan) this year with a few changes in place. I took this board out multiple times, with both Union Force bindings, and the Flow NXT FSE bindings, and size 12 Flow "The One" boots. I know a lot of people are curious about this board, so let's dig into it.
Quick Update:
Playing with the formatting and general site design. Just ignore any odd looking, or random formatting issues for now. Appreciate it!
Review Format Changes..
Hey everyone, sorry I've been slacking on posts lately, I've been traveling quite a bit. I've decided to make a few changes in the formatting of reviews, specifically the board reviews. I'll still continue to write-up my thoughts on the board, but also will be adding the stats, and summary thoughts at the bottom of the reviews from here on out. This will include flex pattern thoughts, stiffness thoughts, edge hold etc, as well as sizing, stance setup etc. Hopefully this will help provide more information on the boards for those of you out there looking at wider boards. On that note, stay tuned, I have in my hands the 10-11 Never Summer Raptor X, and will be taking it out for a spin here in a day or so. Super stoked to get on this board!
Local: The Colorado Season Continues..
While most of the major resorts are closed or closing soon here in Colorado, we always have a riding season deep into the summer. Whether it's at A-Basin which stays open until at least June, or finding snow on any of the numerous ranges we have here in Colorado, there's always a place to ride.
Sunday Shredding
Today, once again, I ventured up to Winter Park to make some turns with Dave and Paul. The weather ended up being pretty much perfect, and as much Bluebird as it could get. I decided to take out the Titan TX and the Flow NXT-FRX bindings today. I wanted to get more riding time in on the Titan, even though Never Summer discontinued it (more over morphed it into the Raptor X) I wanted to do a follow-up on the review I did earlier last year.
Winter Park
I spent yesterday out at Winter Park with a mixed group of friends. We had several skiiers and several boarders between us. Conditions were pretty interesting. As we drove, up we went from bluebird skies to dense cloudy, windy and snowy conditions. in fact when we got to Mary Jane they informed us that the super gauge lift to the bowl was closed due to winds reaching 75mph up there. I'm not sure how fast the winds were but the gusts we experienced on the lifts that were open were insane at times.
Local: Venture Snowboards Web Store
If you're from Colorado, or even perhaps not from Colorado, you might have heard of Venture Snowboards. Venture is a local Colorado company who prides themselves on making incredibly great snowboards, striving for perfection and staying as green as possible. If you're like me, even in Colorado, it can be hard to find a shop locally that carries Venture Snowboards, and sometimes even online things got a bit crazy.
2011 Round-Up
Rocker, Rocker, Rocker.. that's a huge theme this year. I'm seeing rocker boards from just about every snowboard company putting out products in 2011. Never Summer has gone so far as to completely eliminate single camber board designs and implementing their Rocker & Camber tech through-out their new line. Burton continues to offer both choices, as do many other companies. Only time will really tell if straight camber is truly dead? The outerwear line-up for next year is looking pretty solid. 686 has added some new additions to the Snaggletooth Line, as well as more sizes to the New Balance boot line-up coming out.