Board: Libtech Retro Ripper
Size: 166
Camber Option: C3 Camber. Camber 2.0 with a hinge point in the middle and a mellow drop down to a flat section before the upkick in the tip and tail.
Bindings: Rome Black Label
Stance: 21.5 Wide 15 Negative 12 Goofy
Boots: K2 Thraxis Size 10
My Weight: 200lbs
Resort: Copper Mountain
Conditions: Sunny bluebird skies, zero wind, cold temps, fresh corduroy, chunder corduroy, ice, push mounds, and fat skiers all over.
Flex: Stiff. With a fully directional flex you have a floppy nose that right before the front insert pack gets supper stiff through the middle to the tail. There’s a little torsional flex to this deck which gives it just enough to allow you to center flex the board when on edge.
Stability: The nose has an immense amount of flap at high speed but it stops right before the insert pack and you barely feel anything after that in terms of the chatter it causes. When riding through rutted out terrain this board just plows through everything and keeps going. Over all under foot its a very stable ride.
Ollies/Pop: You load the camber profile a bit more off the back foot as it’s set back. The snap is there and with the flex of this board it takes a bit more to engage it. For being a super directional swallow tail you get about what you would expect in terms of pop from this.
Butterability: Don’t even bother, between the size and the flex under foot you’re going to be man handling this board to get on the nose. Just go charge.
Carving: The edge to edge transmission is more precise and takes more effort. This makes you more calculated with how you pick your line and where you make your carve. On edge this board locks in and rips hard but you need space to make the turn even if driving aggressively off the back foot and flexing this board. It’s designed for deep hard aggressively long carves and it lets you know that. Sure you can do tight quick carves or mellow ones but that isn’t where it shines.
Rider in Mind: Freeride hard charging pow guy.
Personal Thoughts: This board is powerful and I mean powerful. It takes a lot of effort to drive this thing and you feel the workout at the end of the day. But it’s also very damp underfoot and that keeps the fatigue from chatter down. If you can get it in wide open terrain and let it rip you will see how much this board shines.
Comparable Boards: Moss Swallow 62, Snofisk Puckerfisk, Ride Mountain Pig
