14 Rome SDS 2013 • Board Personalities
Boards that line up an hour early for first chair. Boards that save up their scratch for a trip to Baldface. Boards that skin up because they know they will have bottomless untracked all to themselves. Cambers and geometries keep these boards floating in the light stuff, while pop-enhancing technologies give them tail power to slash, ollie and land larger drops.
DOUBLE AGENT
Boards that are just as happy dropping a cornice into a steep chute as they are lapping the park. They’ll bonk a tree, arc a carve and white wall a skier. They look for every natural hit in between slashes. They’ve got enough backbone for speed, but are defined by a flex that looks for take-offs followed by smooth landings.
Boards that prefer to spend 90% of their time in the park or dodging security at the local college campus. With soft flex profiles and geometries geared towards playfulness, the main course for these boards are rails, ledges, boxes and wall rides. That lineup for the fun box with a ton of riders waiting for their turn? You’ll see a bunch of these press-happy, get-loose decks in that crew.
MINISHRED ROCKER
ARTIFACT ROCKER
DETAIL ROCKER
Boards that believe that the essence of snowboarding is the carve and the feeling of a clean, powerful turn. Geometries, cambers and technologies combine to create boards that love to etch S-shaped lines in corduroy or powder. Throw in a roller ollie or method? Sure, but these decks care much more about what comes between all the hits.
BUTTERKNIFE SHANK
TOUR
Flat in the middle with rocker in the nose and tail. The flat mid-section ends 1-2 cm inside of the inserts, and transitions to rocker. While the flat section gives balance on rails and a little pop on edge, the extended rocker sections make for locked-in presses, smooth flat-ground tricks, and catch-free spins.
MOD ROCKER
POSTERMANIA
GARAGE ROCKER
LO-FI ROCKER
VINYL ROCKER
LABEL ROCKER
HAMMERHEAD
ROMP
3D camber profiling in the nose and tail, with a flat NoHang-Ups Diamond that end 20 mm before the end of the running length. These boards blend the playfulness of the 3D rocker with more pop in the nose and tail and more anti-revert control when landing spins.
A longer flat section than in the JibPop, with shorter zones of rocker in the nose and tail. With the flat section extending 5 cm outside the inserts, these boards have a park-topeak amount of pop and edge control. At the same time, the rocker in the nose and tail give float in pow, smooth style on rails, and stylish finesse off jumps.