Board: Arbor Cosa Nostra
Size: 156
Camber Option: System Rocker. Parabolic full rocker with extra contact points in the sidecut at your feet.
Bindings: K2 Lien AT Medium
Stance: Goofy, 21 in wide, 18/0, 21/+3
Boots: DC Tucknee size 8
My Weight: 155lbs
Resort: Keystone
Conditions: Cold, mid season decent storm on top of crud. Deep enough not to be bothered by the under layer unless you find a thin spot or push too hard through the soft. Plenty of stuff to mine at Keystone.
Flex: Directional with a softer nose stiffening up through the mid section and through the tail. Average to matching torsional flex. Enough to be able to foot steer as needed.
Stability: Average for a full rocker all mountain flex. Through rough terrain it doesn’t plow through stuff but is easily kept in control and has no issues bombing a groomer. The big nose will flap around a little bit, but nothing that affects the board.
Ollies/Pop: Solid snap consistent with Arbors. Skate style boost or you can load it up a bit to get that little bit of extra amplitude. It always gave me enough and was fun to snap off rollers and side hits.
Butterability: Full rocker and an undemanding flex. The nose is softer than the tail and laying into it in deep snow is great. The tail takes a little more muscle and effort but very doable.
Carving: Just average. Nothing really to complain about at all and wasn’t ever a factor I had to think about either. It rolls up on edge quick and easy, short quick setup turns are a breeze, longer drawn out higher speed turns are fine. There just wasn’t any sort of wow factor with it. It turned how you needed it to or asked it to, it just didn’t have anything outstanding in the snap or return department. It isn’t not fun to turn, just not as good as the old version. Griptech does it’s job and it holds onto its turns well, there were a few wind scoured and bad-skier scraped zones where I could get it on some hard icier snow and it holds it’s own.
Rider in Mind: Powder board for someone looking for something that’s also capable as a daily driver.
Personal Thoughts: It definitely has better float than the previous version. But that’s about the only thing I feel like got better. The snap, stability, all that stuff is about the same, but the carveability on the new one just left me wishing for the old one. The old Cosa Nostra was something I would have considered in a bank slalom, this new version just doesn’t turn the same. This is by no means a bad board and if you’re looking for a floaty capably pow deck this is a good option and honestly this revision makes way more sense from a consumer standpoint as a pow deck. The old version was a harder shape for the average consumer to get behind, didn’t have any noticeable taper to really help with float, and overall as purpose built pow deck the new edition fits that definition way better. This new shape makes more sense in the Arbor line, I guess I’m just bitter I didn’t get the old shape before it disappeared.
Check out the past reviews of the 2017 and 2018 Cosa Nostra
