Board: Kemper Rampage
Size: 158
Camber Option: Park Camber. Rocker in the tips, camber under foot, a very mellow reverse camber between the feet.
Bindings: Rome Black Label
Stance: 21.5 Wide 15 Negative 12 Goofy
Boots: K2 Thraxis
My Weight: 200lbs
Resort: Arapahoe Basin
Conditions: Mostly bluebird skies with some haze, warmer temps, zero wind, and soft forgiving slushy snow with patches that were icy or firm.
Flex: With an overall flex that’s just below a middle of the road you get what you can expect from a board of this nature. Softer nose through to the inserts, then slightly stiffer, and softer again between the feet with a lot of torsional flex.
Stability: This board is moderately stable but you do get a lot of tip flap and chatter. This means that you’re going to be feeling the more aggressive vibrations under foot. In chunder this board bends with the ruts but you do get knocked around a bit.
Ollies: The snap is there but not anything special. It’s easy to engage and you get an average response from this board. At the end of the day it’ll get the job done.
Pop On Jumps: It’s there, the lip really does all the work. So just be prepared to suck your knees up and go a bit faster.
Butterability: Here’s where this thing shines. The tips are super loose and forgiving. That means you can do any butter variation you want with it. Get out over the tips and just swivel and sizzle. It locks in with ease and doesn’t fight you but when you want to pop out of it there’s just a little rebound to let you get out of it.
Jibbing: It locks into presses with ease and holds them. That rocker in the nose coupled with the rest of the sweet spot just lets you flamboyantly press. Going sideways the board just hugs the feature and locks in around it.
Carving: Here’s where this board was a bit lacking. If you drive hard off the tail you can get the board to wash out if you don’t know where the limitations are. If you do then it’s fine for mellow to moderate carves as well as tight quick set up turns. It’s when you lay this thing over as hard as you can you’ll find that at some point it’s going to kick out of the carve. That’s not to say you can’t lay a trench, but you have to be a big calculated with it and know where to draw the line.
Rider in Mind: Park guy that wants a throwback brand under their feet with camber 2.0 profile.
Personal Thoughts: With it being part of their Night Series it’s supposed to be stiffer. Frankly I didn’t find it all that stiff, it was more loose and playful. The looseness can really be felt in the tips when you’re engaging and disengaging carves on firmer snow, it just doesn’t lock in. Overall the boards playful and forgiving which is what they claim it does so you can’t fault them for that.
Comparable Boards: Gnu Finest, Telos Chillum, Rossignol Jibsaw.
