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2005/2006 Burton boards

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Last week I was fortunate enough to spend a week in Tignes with a friend that owns a boarding shop and who had blagged 6 brand new demo boards from the 2005/2006 Burton range.

These all looked great and Burton have certainly left behind the hideous graphics of a few years ago. Now it is all stylish, understated designs that looked the dogs dangly bits.

So, to give you an update on the boards:

Vapor - totally new for next year, this will be their new top of range board and will retail for £650 (!!!!!). A freeride board, its main selling point is that it is stupidly light. Not sure why this might be a benefit when riding, but it was certainly good when carrying it to the lift first thing in the morning! It has an aluminium honeycomb core (which can be seen through some transparent sections in the base graphics) and only has two binding positions for each binding in order to reduce weight (I mean positions of the holes, not the choice of angles). I only had one day on this board as it was monopolised (understandably) by the guy who owns the shop. The base was fast (esp noticeable when coasting along cat tracks) and it was pretty easy to ride. It certainly gripped well and I was happy throwing smooth turns down the steep bits of Face into Val D'Isere, where there was just a dusting over the rock-hard base. Whether it rides much different from the T6 is doubtful and I suspect that it will just be bought by those that have to have the most gucci kit available. It is good, but whether it is worth up to £250 more than some of the competition is another matter (for instance, I didn't notice any major difference between it and my 3 year old Ride Timeless except that the Vapor felt easier to ride). Base was white and blue, while the topsheet was a deep blue with a wispy smoke/vapour design. Looked v. nice.

T6 - I didn't actually ride these but the guys that did so thought that they were the best boards they had ridden. One commented that his old Salomon was better in powder due to it's wider nose but in all other respects it was as good as a board could possibly be in his view. Good when blasting around on piste, very fast base, and good when riding switch or making transitions between normal and switch. Has a white base and the writing on the base also has transparent sections to show the aluminium core. Dark blue topsheet makes it a very cool looking board.

Custom X - white with simple red text on the top sheet. I didn't ride this one as it was a 156 but the guy that rode it certainly liked it. One of the girls also rode it but felt that the extra length over her old Motion 151 meant that she couldn't make a direct comparison.

Dominant - white leather top-sheet instead of the chocolate brown lizard-skin leather of this year's model. The base has DOMINANT written in lurid pink writing, so your tricks had better be good enough to carry it off! A very flexy board designed for jibbing and the pipe, but it rode pretty well on piste. Didn't have the edge grip of a stiff freeride board but that is only to be expected. I don't have the jibbing skills to properly test it for what it was designed to do. Due to the nose and tail being identical, it was a fun board to ride switch and you could easily bend the board to make buttering transitions between normal and switch. I rode it for 2 days and used it as an opportunity to really get my switch riding nailed. It was then much easier to ride switch smoothly when I got back on my Timeless.

Feelgood ES - the girl's equivalent of the Custom X. The girl that rode this all week usually rides a standard Feelgood and felt that it was stiffer and more responsive than her own board (so Burton have got that right). White with non-girly graphics and the topsheet has some nice transparent sections to show the grain of the wood core. Seemed like a great women-specific top end board.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Cool post Smile
I like the idea of being able to see the core, should make for interesting looking graphics. However, I feel that Burton boards are generally over-priced/under-durable. I would rather have a Never Summer or a Lib-Tech; cheaper, more durable, ride just as well if not better. They are generally heavier though (esp. NS boards), but that only makes a real difference on the lift. Nothing is as smooth riding on a hill as a Never Summer Premier, as far as I know.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
ponder, i agree that they tend to charge a premium for their name but I am not sure that I agree that they are any less durable - some of my friends are still riding Burton boards that are now getting pretty old, and they are still going strong. I've heard good things about Never Summer, but you don't really see them over here in the UK.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
Depends on the board I guess. I've heard of two different custom x's breaking in their first season! But I also know a guy who has been riding a burton for 6 years.
Their mid-high-end boards (custom, maolo, etc.) are supposed to be very good. But their super-high ends (custom x, t6, etc.) are just so overpriced, and their low-end boards are the worst: still quite pricy, but pretty low quality. A shitty burton cruzer costs more than a gnu carbon high beam! That is just not right, especially since burtons are made by virtual slaves in china making pennies per day, while gnu pays full wages and makes their boards in the states.
Still, I would have loved to have gotten the opportunity to ride the boards you did Smile Though reducing binding positions to save weight seems like a bit of overkill to me . . .
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
I have had a Never Summer Premier for 2 seasons now and I can't imagine using a different board. It's a tough as nails. I rode last season with one of my friends. His Salomon was totally destroyed. Over 10 gashes to the core or varying lengths while my NS has none to the core yet. It's scratched a lot but not damaged. The ride is very good. Very stable at high speed (I mean 60kmph+) and quite comfortable off piste. The downside is that it is quite heavy and not very flexible. However as I'm not really into the half pipe it doesnt worry me. I got it in an end of season sale in Prague and I think when I eventually thrash it I'll be buying the same board again.

I would definately recommend the Never Summers if you like freeride/big mountain riding
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 You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
I think you'll only see Never Summer boards in european resorts. I don't think you can get thim in the UK. Don't they come with a 3 year warranty or something?
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 Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Yeah, full 3 year warranty. And supposedly people rarely have to use it.
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