Flux used to be one of the most hated on companies. You know that sort of hate you only find on internet forums. There has been rumours and talk about Flux not being legit because it´s japanese and is owned by a company that makes spare parts for cars. But still – the followers have stayed with the bindings. And last year it seems as if Flux finally made the big break trough. With a brand new team the future looks bright!
The New York Times has a big article and interview with Torah Bright. It´s quite a good article with some good questions being answered. Read the article at NY Times
A really nice snowboarding movie from Volcom. Some good riding in the Backcountry. It´s good to see that Volcom are doing good thing again. For the last 2 – 3 years Volcom have turned more or les in to…No Fear?
Now I´ve done some serious riding on this years version of the skate banana. So here´s the verdict. It´s as smooth and snappy as my older Gnu Riders Choice. Much lighter and a bit snappier.
Snowboard: Lib Tech Skate Banana 156 Setup:Flux Super Titan bindings, Burton Cartel bindings & 32 Leashed boots Conditions: Everything from deep pow, trees and lots of snow to smaller mountains, streetstyle and flat ground. Hard packed groomers, icy groomers and even perfect groomers.
Now we´ve ridden the Skate Banana for a whole year. Here are som toughts about the Skate Banana. The first thing that struck me is how the board looks kind of small but it really rides more like a longer snowboard(158 or even 160). So it was kind of hard at first to adjust to the stability and feel of the board while seeing how short it was.
This board, or maybe it´s just the banana technology, really loves the pow and all sort of fluffy snow. Maybe it´s because of the new and sharp edges but I hard some problems with getting “of the edges” on hardpacked groomers. It felt as if the board always wanted to make a turn. The magnetraction sort of forced me into turning. Saying so it had no problems whatsoever holding an edge. The grip is marvellous. But still I´m going to have to detune the edges. A funny thing is that I had no problems at all with “to grippy edges” on my old Gnu Riders Choice.
Beside the fact that the board always wants to stay on the edges it feels really stable. Even at higher speeds. I´ve read some reviews that are talking about the skate banana as a freestyle board. For me this board is perfect as a allmountain board. It´s hard to not compare it with my Gnu, and in that way the skate banana is lighter, more flexy and overall more fun. Since the Skate Banana is quite soft I think it helps having stable bindings. Especially when riding more all mountain focused. I usually go for the Super Titan from Flux. When riding more freestyle based I sometime put on the Burton Cartel. The Cartels makes the Banana a bit more flexible and even more easy to handle. But in my opinion it also makes the whole set a bit to soft.
What really makes this board stick out is how easy it handles pow and softer snow. A great board I would recommend to anyone any day.
Just like we have been suspected for a long time the Omni is a really fun and versatile snowboard. It´s still on the soft side even tough it´s a lot more freeride focused than for example Skate Banana and definitly Park Rocker. We´ve been over hyped on the Omni for some time. Unfortunatly we still havn´t got the chance tor try one. But we´re sure it´s really good.
So if you get the chance – get your Omni. In Sweden (and Europe) you can get Signal Snowboards from Stuntwood and web shop Boardlife.se. Boardlife also has good prices on the Park Rocker from last season.
