Board: Rome Ravine
Size: 158
Camber Option: Free the Ride 3D. Basically back foot camber with a little early rise in the nose and a micro spoon shape in the nose.
Bindings: Rome Katana, K2 Lien AT
Stance: Goofy, 21in wide, 15/-3
Boots: Ride Fuse, DC Tucknee
My Weight: 155
Resort: Red Mountain BC, Copper, Breck
Conditions: Fresh soft on top of gnar and death cookies at Red, early season low-tide pow at Breck, and mid season no new fresh at copper. Basically the whole gamut of conditions.
Flex: Right around middle of the road or just below for an all mountain deck. It’s got some give that that matches up the torsional flex as well. Think of your favorite mid flex park deck that you can send a jump with, make it directional, and taper it.
Stability: The camber helps a lot here as the flex is more on the playful and lively side rather than the stable and damp side. Going mach 9 into chunder death cookies will buck ya, believe me, but in most of the conditions you put this thing in it will hold its own. You’ll feel what’s under your feet, but it’s still not a harsh ride. The bamboo sticks in the back help as you can kind of lean into the tail to get through gnar snow.
Ollies/Pop: The positive camber and bamboo Hotrods do a pretty dang good job. It’s not a boost to the moon pop, but I have yet to be let down by what it offers, and it’s very easy to get into. It is still camber, so you do have to load it, but you don’t have to muscle the load.
Butterability: Oh yes. Freestyle flex with a big spoon nose equals all time pow nose butters. Even the tail, with the blunted shape and using the bamboo rods instead of the carbon ones is super good in the butters. Wheelies are super fun to. It breaks loose when you want it to and you can really lay into it. Butter it up.
Carving: Camber with back foot bias, taper, and a micro spoon nose work very well together. The micro spoon in the nose keeps the initiation nice and smooth and the taper through the tail keeps the exit hook free. The sidecut is a nice middle ground that works really well in short quick snappy carves, long drawn out ones, and full run-width back up hill surfy carves. The sidecut, camber, and flex all work really well together to give you whatever kind of turn your heart desires.
Rider in Mind: All Mountain pow freestyle killer.
Personal Thoughts: I like this board. So much so that it was my number one 2018/2019 rad dad pick. And I have one. There are a lot of boards out there aimed at the sorta new market of tapered all mountain decks that are still really good on groomers and aren’t just pow boards. The Ravine is a little more unique in that realm as it has more of a park board flex instead of a freeride or charger all mountain flex like most of them out there. It makes this board super approachable and super fun. If I didn’t love how well this thing carved and didn’t care as much about the edges, I could ride this every day including park (in the 55 probably as the 58 is a little more than I need on rails). But other than rails, I do ride this everywhere. It’s a top choice for me for a board that rides everything when there isn’t snow, and rides deep snow as good as any pow deck out there.
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