Board: Bataleon Whatever

Size: 154

Camber Option: Medium Camber with 3BT.

Bindings: K2 Indy

Stance: 21.5 Wide 15 Negative 12 Goofy

Boots: K2 Thraxis Size 10

My Weight: 195lbs

Resort: Arapahoe Basin

Conditions: Sunny blue skies with some clouds rolling in later in the day, moderate winds, warm temperatures, snow that was either lumpy and mashed potatoes or soft and creamy.

Flex: This board comes in at just past a middle of the road flex. You have tips that have some play to them but still remain stiffer than most boards in this category. Then you have that predictable middle of the road flex through the center of the board which also has a little torsional flex to it.

Stability: This board is fairly stable. There wasn’t a lot of chatter in the tips and even in the mashed potato rutted out snow this board never got bucked around. It’s a board you can safely charge with and feel fine.

Ollies: Here’s the thing with the 3BT on this board. If you don’t snap perfectly flat off the board it loses some of its power. I had this happen to me more than a dozen times. But when perfectly flat that tail would act like a springboard and snap amazingly. You do have a mellow traditional camber that is easy to load up, but you do have to load it to engage.

Pop On Jumps: I didn’t hit anything too big with it but what I did hit got the job done. This board definitely leans more to being jump friend vs jib friendly.

Butterability: Fuck it took a lot of work to get this board to press. There just isn’t a sweet spot in the tips that acts as a flex point. You have to get your weight way out over the nose or tail to get it to engage and even then you’re just man handling it the whole time.

Jibbing: Speed is your friend with jibbing on this board. You want to go a little faster and press a little harder to get it to engage. When you do it’ll give you some mellow ass presses. Getting sideways this board does slightly hug the feature but it’s never anything exciting or makes you feel like it’s a jib deck.

Carving: Keep it mellow with this board. Tight quick set up turns or more long drawn out mellow carves are where it’s at. This board does not like being driven hard into a carve, the tail washes out. A lot of this is due to the abundance of 3Bt coupled with just how it’s designed. More than once on a heelside carve this board would wash out. I will say that it’s quick edge to edge and you notice that 3BT helping the board initiate a turn, but it loses that contact and seems to be a little washy.

Rider in Mind: All mountain rider that likes 3BT.

Personal Thoughts: I could go either way with this board. It’s not bad, it’s not good, it’s just whatever. It’s a little too stiff for consistent jibbing and buttering which makes it more oriented for hitting jumps. The 3BT made the tips super loose and as a result you get a slight saucer sled effect. What was nice about the 3BT is how it planed on the creamy slushy snow, it never felt slow, and just funneled the snow out from under it giving it more speed and ease of skidding turns.

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