Board: Nidecker Ultralight
Size: 160
Camber Option: Freeride Camrock. Positive camber between the feet with rocker zones starting just outside the inserts packs through the tips. A little more rocker in the nose than tail.
Bindings: K2 Lien AT
Stance: Goofy, 21in wide, 15/-3
Boots: Ride Fuse size 8
My Weight: 155lbs
Resort: A-Basin
Conditions: Firm, with a mix of overcast and sun. Snow was very fast and still pretty damn grippable. Some sunbaked soft stuff here and there as well.
Flex: Stiff. Soft in the very end of the nose that quickly stiffened up through the inserts, stiff between the feet with a slightly softer torsional flex, then just a touch softer through the tail. Overall a more serious stiffness built to handle freeride demands.
Stability: All the stability. Even with the copious amounts of carbon in this board it has nose flap. But if you aren’t looking down at your nose, you’d have no idea it was happening. It does not resonate back to your foot and it doesn’t affect your ability to stay on line at all. Between the feet is exceptionally quiet and the 3D core shape is a big benefit here. It allows Nidecker to create a stiff spine though the center of the board but maintain a torsional flex that you can actually use. Blasting though chunder fields and across groomers at mach 16 is no problem as this board doesn’t really feel like it has a speed limit.
Ollies/Pop: Not the most energetic snap, but you get what you need. It’s the type of pop where you get back what you put in. Nothing more, nothing less. It is pretty necessary to load the camber between your feet, but you can still get some boost out of a quick snap out of the tail. It’ll get the job done
Butterability: I mean, Freeride World Tour Champion for 2013 and 2014 is literally printed on it. If your in soft snow and you throw your whole body weight into the tips it’ll do it, and the nose ain’t bad, but come on. It’s a stiff purpose built freeride board. Not it’s forte.
Carving: The sidecut on this is phenomenal. The stability and grip out of this board is crazy. Point it down a face and just hang on as you accelerate and then throw it on edge and let it do the work. The stiffer flex made short quick snappy turns take some effort and I really had to throw my body into them, but medium radius to long turns were amazing. I was literally in the air transitioning between edges in medium turns because of how much energy this board gives back through a turn.
Rider in Mind: Premium freeride, maybe even competing in the tour.
Personal Thoughts: This is by far one of the best freeride boards I’ve ever been on. The reaction to input is instant but very controlled and it is wickedly stable at speeds with a speed limit that I’m not sure exists. Very powerful on edge and it just wants to go fast. If you’re in the market for a board to pin it out of couloir with, this should be high on you list, if not at the top.
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