Burton Custom Smalls Snowboard Review (and Some More)

The Custom has been marketed as "the snowboard that does everything and some more". The Custom gets so many good reviews, it sounds like a legend and Burton keep bringing out new versions with improvements every year. After reading about the Custom I was expecting good things!

Gavin and I did quite a bit of research into boards before we picked the Custom Smalls. In fact there were three of us on the case: myself, Gav and Arran (Gavin's brother). I am 5ft 1 and 47kg so I am on the petite side and need a board suitable for my size and build. After a bit of investigation we realised that there is not a great deal of choice for petite women; well, it's not easy to get hold of all the boards available. See the post on snowboards for petite women.

Arran then suggested that I consider a kids board, great idea. A kids board means that you can get a nice short length and as long as the weight range is ok I don't think it matters that it is labelled kids.

Background
I have purchased two boards since learning to snowboard and hired one. My favourite board by far has been the Youngblood, which strangely, was the hire board. I got the YB when my luggage went missing and I had to get a hire board for a few days. They say everything happens for a reason. Well, I was pretty disappointed to hear that all my snowboard gear was in the UK and I was in Laax, but ridding the youngblood made me realise what I was missing. I found the Forum board really fun to ride, it was a new lease of life. When my luggage finally arrived I reluctantly took it back...

When I took my Destiny out (my first board) it felt like I had bricks attached to my feet. I hadn't realised until then that I don't like heavy boards, they sap your energy. It's not always easy to know when you start out what you want and what you need. I think it was at this point that I started to get a feel for what I liked.

My destiny is very stiff, great for blasting around, but way too stiff and tiring for me to jib on. My Second purchase the Santa Cruz, is the complete opposite. The SC is good for jibbing around and in the park but horribly unstable at high speed; it really chatters. It's also the slowest board that I have ever been on, it makes shallow trails a nightmare. So after riding the youngblood I decided to look for a new board, one that was stable at high speed and fun to jib on. And so I bought my Custom Smalls, well actually Gavin bought me a Custom ;-).

What was it like?
The custom feels really light and poppy. It's got a nice flex and is easy to ride. I found it really fast and stable at speed, it didn't chatter like some boards that I have ridden. My destiny was a fast board but I think I've probably progressed more with the Custom. I could tear around and not get tired. I found the destiny hard to ride all day as you have to be quite aggressive; the custom is easier to ride and feels more responsive. I was always nervous going fast on my SC and felt like I was going to bale spontaniously. With the custom I just went for it! I don't know, maybe I was just in a good mood ;-) or maybe its natural progression. It felt good and gave me the confidence to relax aand have lots of fun.

The custom smalls is twin tip and has the option for a wide stance. Actually it has a super wide stance. I normally use the widest stance possible but when I measured that setting compared to my two other boards it was about two inches wider! I decided on the second widest setting. I haven't ridden the adult's custom so I can't really compare them, but from what I have read they sound pretty similar. There are a few top pros who ride it, Mads Jonsson, Heikki Sorsa, Mason Aguirre, so it can't be bad!

Powder
Despite that fact that it's short and light I managed fine in powder, in fact I got some of the best lines I think I have ever had. I felt like I was floating! I used my SC last year in Fernie and combined with my inexperience with the pow I spent most of the time sinking or rag dolling... I was a fully trained gymnast after two weeks. I think the fact that the nose on the smalls has a decent scoop helps slightly. The snow in Avoriaz was slightly different to Canada and probably no deeper than 30cm.

Base
If I had to find fault I would say that the base is not great, it's not the same as the adult's board, which perhaps contributes to the low cost, who knows? The glide of the board has always been an issue for me. I have never had a board that's had a good base, indusive to speeding across the flats. I did hope that my next board would have better tech... But now that I have thought about it, it's not that important. The time I spend on flats/shallows is few and far between. Even If I had a better base I still don't have the weight to glide well. So really it's not that high on my list of priorities.

Graphics
I must admit I am not especially bothered by board graphics, I see them more as a bonus rather than a necessity. I do like the graphics on the custom, they are bright and... I love bright colours... But, had the graphics been horrible I would have still bought the board!

Summary
All in all I am totally pleased with this board, I have ridden it in Powder, on the piste (groomed and choppy), in the park, and it ticks all of those boxes. I didn't think it was possible to get a board that was good to ride around and in the park, but I am pleased to say Burton have proved me wrong. Who said you can't have everything!

It's ideal for me, and at a fraction of the cost of an adult's board it meant that I had some change left over to buy a new jacket, perfect ;-)

Lib Tech Travis Rice Snowboard Review

The T.Rice is an awesome snowboard. I wanted a soft-flexing, freestyle board, that I would ride in the park and around the whole mountain. I was willing to compramise on out-right powder performance. The Lib Tech passed with ease.

My previous board was a Nitro T2 (review), which performed well in the role that I've stated above. However, after the board got banged up riding snowflex, and I suffered in the deep freshies provided by Fernie (trip diary), I decided that I'd opt for a slightly shorter, softer flexing freestyle board, with a view to add a powder stick to my collection.

I bought the 153cm, blunt T.Rice, with Banana Tech and Magne-Traction. After riding this Lib Tech for two weeks on a variety of conditions: park, rails, piste, some ice, soft snow and roughly 30cm pow, this is my review.

Jibbing & The Park.
The T.Rice is great for jibbing around the piste. It's certainly not as stiff as I'd feared; a lot of the magazine gear reviews seem to rate this board as a fairly stiff freestyle board. I don't think that's the case. The bend-the-board-by-hand-in-the-shop test was the first clue. But after riding it, I'd say it has a lovely freestyle flex. It's not as soft as something like a Kink, but it's closer to a DH than it is the T2. It butters well, almost easily but not quite, it's lively, producing nice ollies, and it's easy to move around.

It's got smooth pop. It's not the type of board that you need to put a lot into before you go anywhere, but it doesn't give it up freely either. It's springy. I say smooth because the board seems to respond well no matter how much you put into your ollie.

I ride rails and boxes, but I don't do big gaps/transfers on, so the rail lock that I'm sure is important to some people isn't that much of a factor to me. It doesn't feel much different to the other boards that I've hit rails on, but like I said, I don't really push it that much. No problems here.

Directional Twin & Stance
Before buying the T.Rice I kind of had it my head that I wouldn't compramise on a true twin setup. Obvisouly I did, as the T.Rice is a directional twin. Similar to the Rome Agent, I can't say I ever noticed a difference in riding switch, and I'd say I spend almost as much time riding switch as I do regular. The stance is centered so there are no problems there, and on that note, there are a lot of holes to choose from. Max stance on the 153 is 25", then 23.5", 22" and I guess 20.5" (I didn't bother measuring the narrowest, centered stance). It rides well in both directions and good stance options is a definite plus.

Banana Technology (BTX)
Compared with some of the other boards in the Lib Tech range, the amount of bend to the T.Rice banana is slight. Whilst it looks noticably different from a conventional camber, I can't say I ever noticed the difference when riding it. That statement does come with a few caveats:

• I thought the pressing the board/buttering felt nice. This could have been in part due to the banana tech
• Despite being relatively short I didn't have any problems with the nose diving into fresh stuff. This could have been helped by the reverse camber
• It was the only board I rode for the two week stretch, so there were no immediate/direct comparisons with a regular board

Magne-Traction (MTX)
I had one or two doubts about the serrated edge design; I guess I wasn't sure that I was going to like it. However, similar to the Banana Tech, I can't say that I noticed that much difference. For example, lining up for jumps, gliding in a straight line, and, I'm fairly sure, riding down regular pistes, felt quite normal.

It seems kinda strange to me that such a different design wouldn't feel any different? Well, I didn't notice one difference. Towards the end of the two weeks the slopes started to get a little icy. As I mentioned above, I didn't perform any kind of board comparison, but from memory, I'm confident in saying that the Magne-Traction helped with edge hold in the icy conditions. For example, it felt better than the T2. That was impressive.

On regular pistes, I didn't really feel it. I'd say the T.Rice has good edge hold, but not fantastic. Similar to the T2, but not better.

Powder
Like any 153cm board (for me), the Lib Tech isn't going to excel in freeride conditions. However, in the two weeks that this review is based on, I did have 3 or 4 powder days, so how did it perform?

First up, let's talk about the pow itself. It wasn't especially dry or especially deep. I'd say ranging between 20cm and 40cm. In these conditions the board did well. I was loving every turn and not digging in. Nothing like the problems I had in the deep Fernie snow with the T2. All's good.

Was it because the snow wasn't too deep. Am I a little better riding fresh than I was then? Does the nose profile have a better scoop? Does the slightly wider nose from a directional shape help? The Banana Tech? All of these little things contributed I'm sure. The board did well. I was still riding twin stance, 22.5". I didn't witness a huge dump of snow, but I sirfed the resort pow nicely.

If you're packing a beeper, shovel and probe, and hiking for fresh lines, you're probably not in the market for a short, twin tipped board...

Summary
I love this board. I'm sure I'd have been happy with a DH, which was probably what I would have bought, but I have no regrets. I would say that it's the overall board that impresses me, the flex, the pop, the ride and the feel, and not something specific like the Banana Tech or the Magne-Traction, although those features obviously contribute. I was attracted to the board in the shop because of how it felt in the hand - it seemed to ooze quality. It's exactly the same on the hill.

Snowboards For Petite Women

OK, so I could have said snowboards for short and light women, but I think petite is perhaps a nicer description. Ciara and I are looking for a new snowboard (for her), and it's nowhere close to being as easy as it is for me to pick a new board. But before I talk about why it's difficult, let's look at what she's got already.

144 Volkl Destiny. This is a high-end all mountain freestyle board. The season that we bought it, it didn't have a sintered base like it does now. The problem with this board is that it's quite stiff for freestyle progression (learning new jibs etc.) and it's also a little long for Ciara to be freestyle-oriented. Plus, the base dries out really quickly and it's got very bad glide...

141 Santa Cruz Rebel Series. This is actually a junior snowboard. It's ok for playing around and jibbing, a bit fun, but that's about it. Ciara doesn't rate it at all for all-mountain usage, which is fair enough because it's not designed for that, but no good if you a board that does both. It rattles at speed and the base is horribly slow. I have at times encouraged Ciara to ride faster over flats to not get stuck. The response is, it's not me, it's the board. After a near-argument one day in Avoriaz, we swapped boards at the top of a run through the town, and there goes Ciara gliding past me with a big I-told-you-so smile on her face, whilst I'm coming to a stop. That's me told! The board is slow.

So when I look for a new board, the choice is almost endless, it becomes difficult narrowing the search down. But it's the complete opposite looking for a board for Ciara. She's 5' 1", and weighs around 47kg (yep, I did ask permission before publishing this data). She wants a high quality, all-mountain, freestyle board. Something that's twin, or a directional-twin, has a good base, handles the whole mountain but also has a smooth, freestyle flex.

I've got options like the Rome Agent and the Ride DH to name two - but there are many more. The problem for Ciara is the length of board that she needs. Our thinking is a board around 140cm, maybe 141cm, but definitely not longer than 142cm. Some of the women's boards do go down to these lengths, but shops and websites tend not to get the shorter boards in stock.

So we've also considered kids boards, or youth boards. In fact, as well as the Santa Cruz mentioned above, Ciara has also ridden a Forum Youngblood Mini, at 140cm, and rated it highly, better than both her other boards. But it's hard to find.

We also like the look of the Burton Custom Smalls. It's supposed to be very close to the full-on custom, but given that it's a fraction of the Custom's price tag, there will be some differences, and one of them is the base. I'm not sure that this is a deal breaker, but it would be nice to get a good, sintered base. (The smalls has their light speed vision base... I don't know what that actually means).

Ciara likes the look of the K2 Fling. It might not be promoted as all-mountain freestyle, it's described as a park board, but it sounds close. I hear it's like the women's version of the Darkstar, which is a good thing. It's got a good base and has ok size options, 138 or 142. It's an option, and I have seen both the 138 and the 142 available on the web...

Obviously I spend more time looking at guys' boards - so maybe it's just that I don't know the women's options that well? But getting the right board at the right length isn't easy.

Girls: what board do you have and what's it good for? What length is it? Where did you buy it?

Ride DH vs. Nitro T2: Quick Comparison

I consider the Ride DH and the Nitro T2 to be of similar designs. Both are freestyle boards, both have a twin shape, good in the park, yet offering a wider scope than a pure jib board...

Earlier this year in Laax, I was riding the '05/'06 T2 with MLB bindings, and Martin was riding the '05/'06 DH with Burton Missions. Both 155cm. We decided to switch setups and then compare notes. After one, long run, this is what we thought:

• The T2 is lighter than the DH
• The T2 has a much lower nose and tail, although this may have changed with newer models
• The sidecut on the T2 is more aggressive than the DH. The DH therefore has a wider waist
• The T2 is a little more stable at speeds
• The DH has a smoother feel, a nicer flex
• The DH has more pop, or at least, it's easier to pop with the DH. In just one run I noticed some much nicer ollies...
• Both have good sintered bases

Both really nice boards, I'm not sure which one I prefer more.

Nitro T2 Snowboard Review

The Nitro T2 is a great board. I was looking for a true twin that I could ride both inside and outside of the park. All-mountain freestyle. A single board. The T2 delivered.

I've got the 155 Nitro T2 from the 2005/2006 season. I've ridden it for three complete weeks on a variety of terrain: park boxes and kickers, slushy slopes and icy pistes, fresh corduroy and some powder. It's difficult for a board to excell in every category when used across the whole mountain. Floating effortlessly in powder is pretty much guaranteed to come at the expense of short, twin, flexy rail action. But the T2 ticks a lot of boxes and I'm confident with it being the only board in my bag.

So who is going to benefit from the this review? Well, if you're looking for a pure jib-stick, I don't think the T2 is for you. Likewise if you're mainly interested in freeriding, the T2 is likely to fall short. But if you're in one of the following categories, as I was, read on:

• You like jibbing and riding in the park, but you'd like to try something a little stiffer and slightly longer to be more rounded.
• You're in the market for an all-mountain board, but you'd like it orientated towards freestyle.

Jibbing & The Park
I found the T2 quite nice for jibbing around the piste. Sure it's not as soft and playful as a jib board, but it's definitely light, with a snappy feel, which makes it agile. You've got to put a little more into ollies than with something like a Ride Kink or a Ride DH, but when you get it right, the T2 has great pop. It's not too stiff. It felt nice on kickers.

If you follow the weight ranges, the T2 is also a little longer than a jib board. For me, a jib board is in the range 150cm - 153cm, but the T2 I ride is 155cm. For some, this might feel long, but I didn't really notice it. Maybe the lightness helps here? While the little bit of extra length may make the board feel more cumbersome on rails and boxes, it comes in handy around the rest of the hill.

When it comes to rails and boxes, I'd say you can tell the difference between the T2 and a pure-jib board, but it didn't stop me hitting them. The T2 has a nice twin shape, with good stance options, 23.5" being the widest. It still felt like a good setup on the boxes, no real hang ups. And besides, the T2 is Eero's choice for rails after all...

Although I've hardly ridden any pipe with the T2, I'd say that the little extra lenght and good edge hold will help with the transitions.

Riding the piste
The T2 performs well. Whilst it's not a freeride board, it does have a pretty aggressive sidecut on it compared with something like the Ride DH. And although it's lack of directional-shape may hinder its out-right performance on the piste, to me this is a design benefit. I like to ride switch as much as I do regular, so the twin shape is perfect. The result is good edge hold going in both directions.

I also think the T2 has a pretty fast base, that seemed to maintain wax quite well. It certainly stacked up well against the other riders in our group. The additional length and stiffer flex over a pure jib board adds to the stability, especially at higher speeds. It's a confident and solid ride, encouraging you to rip up the piste.

Powder
Not really the T2's domain, but it did ok. The '05/'06 model has a fairly flat nose and tail which didn't help one bit (I think they changed this with the '06/'07 model). Cruising flat bits at slow speed or traversing at slow speed was a little tricky, with the nose having a tendancy to dig in. This caught me out quite a few times. But once your gliding, or even better, riding some steep stuff, it's fine. The T2 felt nimble in the powder.

A friend in the group was riding around on a Burton Fish, which is a different story altogether. But hey, the T2's a twin tip and I was riding it with an even stance, 23.5" apart, it's not going to float like a Fish. What's important is that I didn't really feel held back by the board, I didn't have the urge to try something longer for a run or two to test the difference. I didn't even bother setting my front foot back. It was still fun riding.

Overall
So is the T2 a compramise or just the right mix for a board?

I'm towards the great mix end, I think this is a really good board. I wanted to try something more versatile than a pure jib board, but not going as far as an all-mountain board. A little bit longer, a little bit stiffer, but still freestyle. Still twin. I know that I could easily enjoy something with a similar design aim but a little softer - like the Agent or the DH - but the T2 has a little more bite, and I like that too.