Tag Archives: Lib Tech

Top 12 Snowboards for 2010

With so many snowboards out there to choose from, the addition of all the new technology made available the past two seasons just makes life a whole lot more complicated. Cambers, reverse cambers, dead-flats, rockers, cambered-end rockers… It’s a zoo out there. To make your life easier we took a look at twelve of the best boards for this season, researched the crap out of them, and helped breakdown some of the tech that goes along with them. Here they are, in no particular order…

#1. Lib Tech’s “Skate Banana” ($490)

Although many snowboarding companies have been familiar with reverse camber technology for quite some time, you really have to give props to Lib Tech for reviving it with the Skate Banana. Over the past 2-3 seasons, the company has also been tweaking this board with minor adjustments just to make it better and better. I absolutely LOVE riding this board and so does everyone else who tries it.

The board features Lib Tech’s take on the “reverse camber” where the board is kinked upwards between the feet and from there runs flat to either end of the board. The result? A very loose, fun board that will have you jibbing around and pulling tricks like you never thought possible. Critics will say that this thing is unstable at high speeds but they’re wrong with this board cause the length of it from tip to tail will be on the snow when you carve. With eight contact points digging into the ice on a turn, you’ll also be more stable thanks to the Magne Traction tech.

Sizes: 148N, 151N, 152, 156, 156W, 159, 159W


#2. Ride’s DH2 ($500)

There’s been a lot of talk about the Ride DH2 among the snowboarding community for 2010.  The board features a different kind of reverse camber technology with the board running flat underneath your feet and then kicking up outside the bindings. This allows for a fun, relaxed feel that makes it ideal for the pipe, jumps, and pressing rails.

Haven’t tried this board myself but fellow boarders out there have told me that apart from being incredible in the park, the board can be used with no problems for aggressive riding as well. Ride adds what it likes to call “Carbon Pop Rods” in each tip that give a lot of character to the feel of this board. Apart from being lightweight, it also has thicker steel edges to help with the wear and tear that happens from park riding over time.

Sizes: 151, 153, 155, 156W, 157, 159, 159W


#3. Burton’s Joystick ($530)

With a name like “Joystick” you know fun is just around the corner with this board. Had the chance to try out this board from a Burton demo tent early into the season and was thoroughly impressed with it. Featuring Burton’s “rocker” reverse camber design, this board is similar to the Skate Banana in it’s between-the-feet kinkness. The board’s got a slightly wider feel with tips that scoop up (technology similar to Morrow’s spoon).

The Joystick is very fun to ride, whether it be for jibs, jumps, or pipe attacks. The nice thing about it is that it is insanely forgiving, so you can go big trying new tricks on it. The scooped tips maintain the boards very free feel even when you lean hard on it. With a very balanced stiffness and quick edge-to-edge movement, the board can do pretty much whatever you want.

Sizes: 150, 154, 156W, 157, 159W, 161, 163

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Review: 2010 Lib Tech Banana Magic

0910Lib_BananaMagicI got a chance to try this board out for a couple days on the East Coast this past weekend. I’ll spare you the details and jump right into the juicy review stuff.

Where: Mt. Tremblant, Quebec
Snow Conditions: groomed / packed powder
Size: 158 cm.

Notable Technologies/features: Banana/reverse camber design, Magne-traction, made from green-friendly material, and art by Matt French.

First Impression: It’s stiffer than other Banana boards I’ve ridden which makes it more of a freeride board than a freestyle one. It’s official Lib Tech flex rating is 7/10, but it felt less stiff than that (a good thing in my books). The board didn’t feel too heavy or too light, so I was a little concerned with taking jumps with it, but it felt as balanced in the air as it did on the snow.

Feel: So depending on what type of board you’re used to riding, the Banana Magic is on the stiffer end compared to a typical park board and on the more flexible end compared to a typical all-mountain board. In other words, the board is neither overly stiff or flexible and is ideal for a freerider who wants some some extra flex compared to what you get from an all-mountain/freeride board.

Response: To put things in perspective, I ride a T6 (here’s my Burton T6 2010 Review) and I’m an aggressive rider. Given my experience with the T6, responsiveness of other boards is usually weak in comparison. However, I was pleasantly surprised with Lib Tech’s Banana Magic’s responsiveness. It’s deeper sidecut made turning fast and easy and going from edge to edge was a breeze. Overall, there were no issues with sharp turns or wider turns.

Magne-traction & Stability: The MTX technology definitely comes into play with this board, allowing you to be more aggressive with the turns compared to a same-flex board with no MTX. To my surprise, the board was also pretty stable bombing down  the mountain.

Pop & Switching: The Lib Tech Banana Magic isn’t as playful and easy to press as park boards, but it certainly had more pop than typical freeride boards and was fun to butter with. As for switching, the board is designed as a true twin board and it rode that way. My buddy didn’t completely agree with me at first, but after a few runs, he got used to it and felt it did ride like a true twin board.

Overall Impression: Lib Tech is selling this as a stiffer Skata Banana for freeriding, and I think they hit the spot with that. The Banana Magic will be ideal for freeriders who like to get a little rough with their boards, but also enjoy hitting up the park every now and then. I just don’t recommend getting too comfortable in the park. The Banana Magic is definitely one of Lib Tech’s more aggressive boards that’s easy on the legs.

Lib Tech Travis Rice C2 Bananarama Rider Review

Lib Tech Travis Rice BTX: Bananarama

Lib Tech Travis Rice BTX: Bananarama

A rider review by Hoon, a rider, surfer, biker, and all-round family man: hoonhwang.blogspot.com

The doods at Sierra were able to help me secure a Lib Tech Travis Rice BTX with MTX and XYZTX. I reviewed last year’s Trice on my own blog. If you’re too lazy to read it, the Clifnotes are: good board, stable, too slow base, not sold by MTX. Thankfully the 09 version has some significant updates and changes. As a disclaimer, I rode the 08 157 which has a waist width of 258. This year I am older, wiser and digging short boards so am on a 153 with a sensible weight watchers waist of 252.

The art work is by Mike Parillo this year versus last year’s which were by Mr Aaron Draplin. It’s not my cup of tea, but Parillo does some sick sick stuff.

Conditions: Cold like a witch’s teet, Stowe, hard pack with ice and snow guns, drifts of natural snow, wind, lots of packs of ski school kids doing s-turns across the whole hill, firm but fun park.

Pros:

  • Travis Rice rides it. Seriously. I usually don’t buy into the hype, but he is pretty insane. Have you watched That’s It Thats All? The things he did on that slow-ass 08 Trice are death-defying.
  • The 09 board is solid. The banana is not as pronounced as I thought it would be compared to some other rockers out there. All bananas are rockered between the bindings and flat towards tip and tail. This board carved well, was well balanced and had (gasp) decent ollie pop. The blunt tip and tail matched well with the banana and the short length of this board for park, trick applications. The board’s pretty lively and promotes catching air.
  • Carving overall was fun. With the combo of the banana and probably the MTX, i was able to make some surfy (not ski racerie) backside carves. I wasn’t really sure if I liked this or not as my hands were out to my sides for some stability, total longboard in the curl style… Surf’s up duuuude. I tend to like carving looking like an enlarged ape. Anyway, it held an edge well and I was able to motor over some death cookie and other crap.
  • Off the park jumps it was stable, solid, bomber. Landings were easy steezy. I didn’t hit any rails because it was cold, and I felt like a pussy.

Cons:

  • I’m not into MTX. I think the whole ice to powder thing is crap. If you are a good enough rider, it really doesn’t matter when holding an edge. May be in pow or something it creates a “floatier” experience, but on the Ice Coast I think it’s purely marketing and/or psychological. I didn’t detune this board, but the MTX would catch in the most random places: off a spin on a kicker, in the middle of a long backside, high-speed carve, in the lift line skating. My plan is to detune the hell outta this board and ride it again. As I said above, the high speed arcing was fun with the BTX and MTX. The banana wasn’t as pronounced as I expected it to be, which isn’t really a pro or a con, just an FYI. I think an advanced rider would really be able to milk this board to its fullest capabilities, but an intermediate would probably be just fine as well.

Tech: Kudos for Lib for introducing the Bio-plastic beans topsheet on their high-end boards. With the combination of beans and their work in trying to be an enviro-friendly factory including: low VOC resin, soy-based sidewalls, basalt fiberglass, biodiesel and recycling a ton, It’s definitely a step in the right direction! The sidewalls are meaty. I can’t wait to stomp some cliffs in UT, bonk a rock or land on something weird to see what happens. For more Lib Tech tech info click here.

Overall: This board has a lot of hype and has won a lot of awards, which means it’s probably already sold out. The addition of banana and a fast base really up the ante on this board from my POV. The combination of being stiffer board and a slightly less pronounced rocker allows you to ollie better than some of the other rockers (which has been an issue for me with rocker boards) and stomp some landings off-kelter easier. The downside is that it means you have to do a bit more work when buttering and playing around on flatland. I think if someone is looking for an all-rounder to take from Right to Left Coast with some stops in the middle, and the specs work for you, this would be a solid addition to the quiver or a great one-board stable.

Specs (from Lib, yah for exclamation points!):

  • CORRECT SANDWICH:Low spin weight!
  • AXIS INVERSION FIBERGLASS SYSTEM:Mysto tech, more pop!
  • H-POP CORE:Performance!
  • POWER TRANSFER INTERNALSIDEWALLS:More pop!
  • DOUBLE SINTERED UHMW SIDEWALLS: Tough!
  • SINTERED UHMW BASE:Fast!
  • MAGNA-TRACTION/BANANA TECHNOLOGY

Size Waist Stance (Min-Max) Set Back

  • 153 BTX blunt [25.3 cm] 19” – 24” .75”
  • 157 BTX blunt [25.8 cm] 19” – 24” .75”
  • 161.5 BTX pointy [26.0 cm] 19” – 24” .75”
  • 164.5 BTX pointy [26.2 cm] 19” – 24” .75”

What’s your experience with the board? Let us know in the comments below. You can also ask us questions about the board and we’ll answer.