“Freestyle” Equipment Used for “All Mountain” – What Do You Think?

by Fraser
Updated:

I like to jib around, hit jumps, rails and boxes, and when I’m riding the rest of the mountain I like to either bomb it fast or try to make use of natural features.

As you might expect, I love to ride powder. That doesn’t happen as often as the other stuff, so my snowboard setup is skewed towards freestyle for the whole mountain.

I do however have a dedicated “powder board” – that I take with me in case it snows a lot. So, until recently my setup has been as follows:

  • Lib Tech T.Rice Board (2009, so it’s just banana and a little softer than the current T.Rice)
  • Burton Mission Bindings
  • Burton Hail Boots
  • Capita Charlie Slasher Pow – powder day board

The board is good for the whole mountain. Stable enough, good base, good edge hold but short (blunt tips help) with some softness around tips for pressing and jibs.

The bindings are perhaps on the soft side of all-round, but they do the job everywhere.

The boots are soft. No doubt. They’re a replacement for my previous 32 Lashed boots, which were more towards “all-round” than the Hails are…

Recent changes: board and bindings

During my time in Breck, I took a pretty big gouge out of the base of the T.Rice. I used that as an excuse to pick up the K2 WWW Rocker; I’ve been wanting a short, jib-stick for use inside the UK snowdomes, it was available for demo, it was in the sale and I was paying with dollars… it made sense.

k2-www-rocker

I also need to swap my bindings – they’re just too big. Straps are at the shortest and I’m reaching the end of the available notches when I crank them up. The question is, which bindings to get?

Jib/freestyle setup for the whole mountain?

The Burton Hail boots are soft. The K2 Weapon is pure jib/freestyle, plus I’ve got it in a 147; noodle. I could just size down with the same bindings and stay with the Missions. I want to stay with Burton bindings, simply because I know I’ll get a good fit with the boots…

However, I could go with something like the Burton Cobrasharks. I don’t really know much about them – and to be fair they’re not much of a leap from the Missions in terms of flex. But they are moving away from “all-round” and more towards jib.

burton_cobrashark

It’s a jib setup to be sure.

I don’t mind making a compromise. You trade all-mountain performance for flex, fun and agility. But is this setup a step too far?

  • K2 WWW, Burton Cobrasharks & Burton Hails for use in the fridge, the park and all over the whole mountain
  • Powder days: strap the Hails and Cobrasharks onto the Capita Charlie Slasher and ride the fresh…

Alternatively, I could keep the Lib Tech T.Rice around for trips to the mountain, stay with something like the Mission bindings, or maybe even the Union Force – and use the K2 Weapon for the indoor park only?

What do you think?

A lot of people like to ride a mixture of terrain. How do you approach the compromise between all-mountain performance and freestyle performance? What’s your current setup and what will your next change be?

You may also like

Leave a Comment

Subscribe for discounts AND A Chance to win $50!

Sign up to our newsletter for entry into the annual $50 gift card draw.

Subscribe for discounts AND A Chance to win $50!

Sign up to our newsletter for entry into our annual $50 gift card draw.