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Burton Branch Manager


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Actually I'm not sure this is going to be a review as I'm not sure they're any use. It's like reviews of cars - what I like probably isn't what the reviewer likes. That doesn't make her right and me wrong, it just means we're different, and is the reason that there are lots of different types of cars. And car reviews. So this is probably not going to be a review.

I've read lots of reviews of these boards across the net, and they seem to be a confusion of different opinions. One describes how well the board "butters". I think those people are missing the point of a powder board. If you're trying to buy one board to use both "buttering" and in powder then you should not buy a powder board. Conversely, any board which you know is great at park tricks is fairly likely to be garbage in powder. Why? Well you want a nose strong enough to hold a line in crud and big enough to not submarine or require effort to drive, and a tail soft enough to control your speed. You should have taper because it works well, and the board should be directional because you're not going to be riding it backwards much.

The Branch manager is a candidate, then. It's a small 1.55m  board with a sexy looking sidecut. It has a pointy nose with sensible shovel, taper, a stance which is set back out of the box, and a dinky pin tail. All of those things are good and they seem to work. The board is quick and easy in trees, although I don't have any shots of it there yet. In open terrain it's too small to be quick off the mark, but it's stable enough at speed and behaves as you'd expect.

I switched to this after a couple of seasons on the Landlord, which is Burton's best slashy powder board as far as I can tell. I've not ridden this year's Landlord yet to compare the two across adjacent days, but from memory... the Branch Manager feels a little less floaty, and a little more twitchy, so I suspect is fractionally better in trees, and fractionally worse in the open than the Landlord.

One review said this was half way between the Con Artist and the Flight Attendant, both of which I've ridden. I didn't like either of those in powder, so I think that review is either wrong or they're talking about buttering ability again. The Con Artist didn't have enough float even for a little aggressive rider like me. The Flight Attendant... well as Burton say "less Big Mountain than the Landlord". I note that this season there's a wide version of the Flight Attendant which may work better.

Where was I? Oh yeah, the Branch Manager. It works, it's not revolutionary, pretty much a variant on the Landlord. I'd try both of them and use which works best for you. Both this and the Landlord do seem like they would be reasonably practical on piste.

 

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GOPR1211.MP4.10_00_53_07.Still002.jpgOther stuff: Head Stratos Pro - F2 Ti Race - GoPro B4 frame grabs unedited.

Edited by philw
Typo fixes
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This is a minority interest, but as we have a new section for those who carve the powder it seemed like I ought to contribute. Audience is not particularly relevant.

I'm in Blue River, where we just had another 40cms over night. As far as I can tell BC has great snow everywhere at the moment.

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Well, I like the Land Lord in any depth Pow, plus it Carves on the Groom nicely...all the HB Pow hounds here like their Fish with back foot redrilled to go back another three inches...personally I don't like large noses, to much resistance or drag, so the Fish was just to much nose for me...a good friend with mucho Pow under his belt likes his Flight Attendant? the Malolo was a good pow stick, and the favorite for me was the Supermodels for the light and deep a great stick...you could get the nose down in it better than the Wide Nose Pow boards around now...IMO :ph34r:

 

Edited by softbootsailer
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I have an early Fish and I've ridden a few of the various designs, I'm not a "shift it back" person, I like to ride the boards on the reference stance, or centred on it at least. The Fish has almost no tail, so shifting back beyond the available options is radical. My riding style doesn't load up the rear leg, which I think is limited. Just my view.

The Malolo was a lot like the Landlord. I have the old Supermodel which was very popular back then, but I've moved on. I don't much bother with where the nose is, but I'd say that boards like the Branch Manager ride low - they don't have to be on the surface to plane.

Here's a couple more shots of the Branch Manager from today, this time in 50cms of fresh load on a deep base. If you try to stand in this your head may not clear the surface. depending on precisely where you are. You can't see the board quite as well as in the shallower snow shots. This is pretty light but it's not "blower". Breathing discipline required, and if you're going to fall over, then you won't be riding much of this because getting up would be strenuous.

This type of stuff is exceptionally deep, and a bigger board would probably have been an easier ride. The Branch Manager feels skinny in this,and good balance is helpful. That said it hacked it up just fine and didn't cause any difficulties on the descents or the traverses. Overall it did better than I'd expect for a svelte little board in over-the-head conditions.

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Thanks for this discussion. Good to learn about some of the other Burton powder boards available out there. I ride an older Malolo 158 that I ride in powder and for days when I'm gravitating toward off piste. I really like it for powder and crud and its pretty good for getting around on groomers between ungroomed areas. Late in the day, it's tight sidecut does get kind of a bit much - when I'm tired, and just trying to navigate the bumped-up ways out.

Great happiness to have moved to a powder board on days when its the best tool. I used to ride a supermodel with bindings set back, or more typically, an 163 edeck with binding set back on powder or deeper "new snow" days. Those worked well and I thought they were the best tool, but a dedicated powder board is the ticket on powder days.

I would love try a Landlord and other powder boards. Prior's lineup of powder decks all look intriguing - The Powdersticks look neat - like they would be fun in open bowls and good on groomers. Donek Nomad looks awesome too - love the idea of its tight sidecut radius transitioning into a longer sidecut radius. 7 - 11 sounds like a lot of fun for powder and for getting around in general.

Yay steep and deep in hardboots!

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