Legendary shredders DCP, Romain De Marchi, and JP Solberg are starting up a new snowboard brand. As we reported earlier they are all dropped by Burton. So far we have no details about this brand. But since there are not too many European snowboard factories these board will be quite like some other big names in Europe. Still you never know.

Besides it´s really great to see that the snowboard scene still is alive and that there still is place for smaller companies (we hope…).

So far the company has no name, but as you can see Yes we can is printed on teh test boards. So thight might give us a hint about what´s coming.

From Transworld Snowboarding.

Now I´ve done some serious riding on this years version of the skate banana. So here´s the verdict. It´s as smooth and snappy as my older Gnu Riders Choice. Much lighter and a bit snappier.

Snowboard: Lib Tech Skate Banana 156
Setup: Flux Super Titan bindings & 32 Leashed boots
Conditions: Some pow, some trees and lots of snow. Not too hard packed groomers.

The first thing that struck me is how the board looks kind of small but it really rides more like a longer snowboard(158 or even 160). So it was kind of hard at first to adjust to the stability and feel of the board while seeing how short it was.

Super grippy edges
This board, or maybe it´s just the banana technology, really loves the pow and all sort of fluffy snow. Maybe it´s because of the new and sharp edges but I hard some problems with getting “of the edges” on hardpacked groomers. It felt as if the board always wanted to make a turn. The magnetraction sort of forced me into turning. Saying so it had no problems whatsoever holding an edge. The grip is marvellous. But still I´m going to have to detune the edges. A funny thing is that I had no problems at all with “to grippy edges” on my old Gnu.

Beside the fact that the board always wants to stay on the edges it feels really stable. Even at higher speeds. I´ve read some reviews that are talking about the skate banana as a freestyle board. For me this board is perfect as a all mountain board. It´s hard to not compare it with my Gnu, and in that way the skate banana is lighter, more flexy and overall more fun.

What really makes this board stick out is how easy it handles pow and softer snow. A great board I would recommend to anyone any day.

This weekend I was at a Swedish resort called Tandådalen. They had a bunch of manufacturers exhibiting their skis and snowboards. The kind folks let you try everything free of charge.

My usual kind of riding is when you get to go fast and make long nice turns. Beeing in control and surfing down the mountain that’s what I like. From that point of view I chose the boards I did. The runs that were open was really hard and somewhat icy and there was no park to speak of.

DC
The guys in the DC tent told me that their entire line this year is basically pretty much freestyle and park oriented. For my style of riding they recommended me the HKD 158, it’s an directional lightweight all mountain snowboard. It suited me pretty well, very responsive and it allowed me to go fast. I thought it would be fun to try another kind of board aswell. Therefore I tried the XFB Pro Lauri, which is Lauri Heiskari’s pro model. It’s pretty much a board designed for the park. It did work pretty well outside the park even though it was a bit too soft for my taste.

Bataleon
I’ve never ridden a board from Bataleon before and didn’t know too much about them. I started out with The Jam 161, and it felt very different, different but good. It allowed me to go really fast and yet feel total control. It was like the base wouldn’t let go of the piste. Bataleon themselves calls it magical and I think I have to agree. I also tried Fun.Kink 157, it’s about having fun as the name claims. It’s much softer than The Jam and is meant to be used in the park. It almost had the same feeling as The Jam, being stuck to the piste, but not quite the same. It didn’t have the same feeling of control and it felt a bit weird. I think the feeling of the based being stuck to the piste is because of the “Triple Base Technology”, which basically means that the base isn’t flat, but divided in three sections. Extra plus for the best looking graphics.

Burton
I used to ride Burton snowboard but I have done it for a while. The first one I tried was the T6 159. It’s supposed to be a high speed rocket and you’re supposed to slay the mountain with it or something. It didn’t do too much for me, it could be because of the icy condition and the stiffness of the board. It didn’t feel that smooth, it gave me a bumpy ride and it lacked that feeling of control I want. I also tried Burton Hero 155, the first rockered board from Burton. I’ve never ridden a rocker before and I really liked it. This board was voted “Top Ten Snowboard for 2009” (or something like that) by Transworld Snowboarding. It’s supposed the be a true all mountain board. It handled itself really nice at fast speeds and long turns. The rocker design felt like it helped you when you turned. It’s hard too explain but it kicked back and straightend itself after turning.

Extrem
Extrem is a swedish company based in Åre. I owned one of their boards some years ago and I didn’t like that one at all. This time I tried their Justice 157, a model that have been around for some years now. It’s an allround board, I didn’t hate it or love it. It felt like an average snowboard and it just didn’t do anything extra for me. I really hoped it would be good, being swedish and all.

So to sum up, the boards I liked and probably could buy was Bataleon “The Jam” 161, after that one I really liked the Burton Hero 155.

I would have wanted to try boards from Lib Tech or GNU but those bastards wasn’t there. Hopefully next year!

So this is the latest invention from the Mervin Factory – this time it´s from Gnu Snowboards. A asymmetric snowboard (sort of). Of course it has got all the ordinary hi tech such as Banana Magnetraction. But also the board is design to make heelside turns easier. Sounds kind of wird, but so did Magnetraction at first.

It´s good to see that Mervin keeps up the good work. But what we still miss are the Gnu/Lib tech board with steel edges all around the board. That would really improve the life time of these boards.

Touch Grind is a nice little skateboarding or fingerboarding game for your iPhone. Looks pretty cool and it’s probably a nice time killer when you’re travelling to the powder this winter.

Some time ago we did report about the Burton Love snowboards and debate around the graphics. Now Jake Burton and his wife Donna speaks out on the matter. But they don´t have too much to say.

Sure you might listen to Jake Burton when he says the graphics are not pornographic. But if you saw the exact same images in a porno mag you would call it porn. Yes, it´s all about how you read the signs and in what context they are shown. But you don´t need to be a semiotics expert or a rigid feminist to see that the graphics – and hence Burton – represents women commercial in a way I thought was more or less impossible 2008. The problem is as always with this sort of pictures: the image reduces the woman to her body only and that body is there only for sex and for the male gaze. And this seems to be a discussion that the owners of Burton refuses to take.

Yes, you can say that the Love graphics are in a tradition of controversail design that always have been represented within snowboard and skateboard. But again – I don´t think that´s the point. Buy and support Burton or not? That´s your own decision. For myself – I´m not going to buy Burton for a long while.

The Snowboard Realms 2-3 from tj schneider SNOWBOARD REALMS VI on Vimeo.

TJ Schneider latest video – now with full Airblaster gear. It´s season 2 and episode 3.