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Snowboards for kids who rip: Never Summer Bantam

This post is part of a series on Snowboards for kids who rip. See the original post for the full list of boards.

Never Summer Bantam

This is another new board for 2017, and it replaces the Evo Mini which got consistently good reviews on the “dads overthinking their kid’s board” forums that I frequent 🙂 From the spec list, they seem very similar: rocker-camber-rocker-camber-rocker (banana!), their form of magnetraction, damping underfoot, and a sintered base.

In fact, this is the only little kids’ board out there that I could find with a sintered base – the rest all went for extruded. Why is that? As far as I can tell, extruded bases are slower, and they require waxing all the freaking time!!

So: fast, good profile, magnetraction. “Super soft flex” is the only question mark for me. Available sizes: 119, 125, 130, 136, 142.

All sizes currently available on Amazon for 279.99.

Continue reading “Snowboards for kids who rip: Never Summer Bantam”

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Snowboards for kids who rip: Jones Prodigy

This post is part of a series on Snowboards for kids who rip. See the original post for the full list of boards.

Jones Prodigy

Now here’s a board I’m really stoked on! It’s a brand new board from Jones, and it sounds like they’ve put a lot of effort into making a killer board for kids. It’s a directional twin with the new spoon nose technology for easier turn initiation (I’m just going on what they’re telling me here – sounds like the Yes 20/20’s powder hull design that everyone loved last year). Super sweet graphics, magnetraction, and a medium flex. It’s a rocker-camber-rocker shape.

I’d be all over this like butter on toast except for the directional twin shape. As an all-mountain ripper I have no doubt that this thing is incredible. But my kid’ll be doing a lot of park riding as well as all-mountain ripping this year, so I’m thinking he’ll be better off on a true twin. If I could afford two boards for the kid? TAKE MY MONEY.

(From poring over specs, it looks like it’s a 20mm setback that makes it directional; no mention of different flex front and back.)

Plus Jeremy Jones himself said that this is just the beginning of their kids line, so I’m super stoked to see what comes next!!

Buy the Jones Prodigy snowboard from Backcountry.com.

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Snowboards for kids who rip

It’s really hard to find a good snowboard for a little kid who rips. There’s plenty of boards for little kids who are just getting started – super soft, raised edges, flat camber, perhaps cheaper materials. But if your 8 year old is hitting boxes and rails in the park, shredding deep powder, and riding the double-blacks on the mountain, you’re likely looking for a board that can keep up with him – or at least give him the edge he needs to keep progressing.

Here are the boards that I’ve sifted out of the stack as being “non-beginner” boards. On many of these, it’s damn hard to tell – their websites give a marketing-y overview, with some catchwords, but don’t really explain who the board is designed for. If you have direct experience with any of these boards (or boards I haven’t covered) feel free to contact me!

I’ll be adding to the list below as I finish each new page.

Boards for kids who rip:

Jones Prodigy

Never Summer Bantam

In the pipeline:

  • Lib Tech Banana Blaster
  • and more…

 

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Video break: Spring Break snowboards

Spring Break snowboards make some super cool, far out, hand built boards. Check out their website – these things are, in Spring Break’s words, “functional pieces of art” and would look good hanging on your wall… when you’re not surfing the backcountry.

wabisab2-600x900

blockhead-600x900

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TransWorld Snowboarding featured them a year or so ago in their Snow Craft Pioneers series, and it’s definitely worth a watch. About halfway through the video veers off and you’ll be treated to some sweet 80s footage of Tom Sims and crew… as far as I can see it’s completely unrelated to the Spring Break stuff, but it’s still fun to watch 🙂

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The search for the funnest, surfiest, slashiest snowboard

I’m on the hunt for the funnest, surfiest, slashiest snowboard there is!

I’ve always enjoyed playing around at the side of the trails, and finding pockets of strange snow (who doesn’t?), and this year I’m on a mission to perfect “the slash.” That got me thinking: what is the funnest, surfiest snowboard out there? Which one would be an absolute blast in all conditions, skating and surfing down the hill?

This list is probably similar to a list I’d put together for powder boards, except I’m leaving out those boards that are too powder-specific. There are plenty of amazing powder boards, with all sorts of shapes… and maybe next year I’ll get the chance to go shopping for one 🙂

Below are some of the candidates. I’m nowhere close to being able to decide – can you help me?! If so, please post up in the comments.

K2 Cool Bean

This may have been the board that fueled my current obsession with finding the ultimate surfy/slashy snowboard. While stuck on a chairlift at Stevens Pass, I saw a guy coming down on this board, and was blown away by how little board there was behind his back foot! I figured it would either be terrible to ride, or awesome-super-surfy, and went looking for short, swallowtail boards when I got home.

Most of the reviews say that the board excels in deep powder, but is totally fun and surfy in all conditions. And I was super stoked on it, until I saw this video from the Good Ride:

These guys are saying that it suffers horribly outside of clean, untracked goodness, which knocks down the claims of it being an awesome all-rounder. Whom to believe? I’m not sure. Maybe I need to track down that guy at Stevens Pass and see what he thinks. Ridden one yourself? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments!!

Price: $500

Lengths: only available in 144cm

Available from: Evo, Amazon, lots of other places (though it looks to be sold out in many of them)

Capita Slush Slasher

If I was going purely by name, this would be the one! Sounds pretty slashy and non-pow-specific to me!

CAPiTA Spring Break Slush Slasher

I’m not a huge fan of the look of the board, but its design sounds like it might be a winner. The philosophy was to create a board that’s just fun and surfy, with no other pretensions. From CAPiTA’s website:

No snowboard in the history of snowboarding was designed to make party like these bad boys. From mid-winter to the spring or summer, if the sun is shining and there’s something to slash, these babies want to do the slashin’.

Check out what whitelines.com has to say:

Laybacks and slashes on the piste edges are the order of the day, thanks to a heavily set-back stance that grants this board a loose, surfy feel – in fact I’d be tempted to re-christen it the ‘Soup Surfer’: a quiver stick for those porridgey April afternoons.

This actually sounds like the winner. And at under $400 ($370 to be precise) it’s well within budget (with money left for fluoro shades and Pina Coladas). Anyone ridden one?

(Only problem: it’s out of stock everywhere!! I’m not the only one who thought it sounded awesome.)

CAPiTA Spring Break Slush Slasher

Next up…

There are a bunch more boards on my short-list! Still to come:

  • Flow Darwin
  • Burton Fish
  • Salomon Derby
  • Yes 420
  • LibTech Round Nose Fish

And a few honorable mentions:

  • Korua Puzzle
  • Jones Hovercraft
  • Jones Stormchaser
  • K2 CarveAir
  • Yes 20/20