Board: Korua Otto Plus
Size: 157
Camber Option: Float Camber. Rocker in the nose camber throughout.
Bindings: Rome Black Label
Stance: 21.5 Wide 15 Negative 12 Goofy
Boots: K2 Thraxis Size 20
My Weight: 200lbs
Resort: Copper Mountain
Conditions: Sunny bluebird skies, colder temps, a couple inches of light blower snow on top of perfect corduroy, and just typical mid season conditions.
Flex: As this is the Plus line it is stiffer. You notice right away that the flex compared to the regular Otto is amplified. It’s definitely on the high end of that all mountain freestyle category. There’s a little more flex in the nose where the rocker is and then it just stiffens up back to the tail. The torsional flex is minimal but has just enough to count when you need to ankle steer.
Stability: The big thing to note about this board is that it is more lively than the regular version and a little less damp, but it’s not so much so that you feel everything you ride over or through. This means that while yes it’s reactive and lively you can still charge with it and it does a decent job of absorbing chatter. I never got bucked around in really rutted out terrain.
Ollies: You have camber underfoot so you will be loading it up to get it to engage and may want to be a bit calculated with how you pop. This take an average amount of effort to load up the rebound gives you more back than what you put in. This allows you to pop off everything in your path and get into the air. If you like popping over fat skier kids then this is a board to do it on.
Pop On Jumps: Here’s where this board shines. Every lip, hip, bank, berm in the park becomes a giant launch ramp. This board will get you in the air if you know how to ride camber and pop off the lip. The one downside as it’s more light weight the direct impact of coming down hard if felt a bit more.
Butterability: This will take more effort than it’s regular counterpart as you would expect with the amount of carbon in it. So if you want loose and buttery, not the board, but if you want it calculated and powerful then there you go. Yes it can butter but you’ll be manhandling it the whole time so don’t skip leg day and understand where the flex points are in the nose/tail. The nose is slightly easier to engage only because you do have rocker.
Jibbing: It’s an expensive board to jib on and the flex isn’t the most conducive. This means being more calculated and understanding when and how to hit a feature. Presses take more effort and when you go sideways it more or less just slides across the feature while balancing.
Carving: Do you like to lay a trench and then pop a 180 out? Perfect here’s the freestyle carving board for you. This thing is quick to engage off the front foot and steers from inside the back foot. When you try to transition the carve from driving inside the back foot to outside you may notice a slightly delayed reaction or a hooky feeling. What this is actually telling you is to drive it harder and faster because you’re going too slow. On edge this thing slices through the snow and just wants to leave trenches. Short quick carves or big long drawn out ones, it has you covered.
Rider in Mind: The jump loving carving freestyle guy.
Personal Thoughts: I liked this more than the regular Otto. It was just so highly reactive and wanted to slay a turn but pop over everything in its path. It wasn’t as lively as the Transition Finder Plus I rode which was nice as my knees didn’t take as much of a hammering.
Comparable Boards: Capita Mega Merc, Jones Ultra Mountain Twin, Nitro Suprateam
Binding Recommendations: Rome Cleaver, Ride A-9, Bent Metal Cor-Pro
