snowboard review CAPiTA Spring Break

[philw]

With 50cms fresh on the 30cms from the other day on top of a 3m base, there's a lot of snow. The skiers were swapping to 138 width skis, and the biggest board I could find was one of these odd shaped things from CAPiTA: the Spring Break 161. I hate the name (it's not spring, and I'm not trying to break it), and the shape is, well, a bit odd. The nose is blunt like a race board (promising, perhaps), but the tail has a round concave cut out of it. They have other models with different nose/ tail designs, but I suspect these are mostly cosmetic (see below). The board's flattish, with "decambered" or "rockered" or "upturned" tip and tail. The board's tapered, which is always a good sign in a powder board. Unlike some Capita boards from days gone by the stance can be used sensibly with hard boots (the minimum setting is not too wide). It needs to be ridden on the reference stance (which is set back); you don't need to set it back more. It looks like a well finished piece of plywood.

Riding it.... well it floats, and it turns well. It doesn't feel like a rocker board and has none of the instability I've found in some of those before. I think the nose and tail are irrelevant. In this stuff the board was no where near the surface (I picked one image below of a jump, but otherwise it doesn't ride high in powder like this). The tail's a bit stiffer than I think is optimal, so "applying the brakes" in trees tended to result in the tail sinking and the nose rising, but that worked well enough. The flatness felt a lot like a very small amount of camber and wasn't a problem. The board responded ok to being kicked down into powder or skier-pisted runout snow. 

Overall then, it's a powder board and it's pretty good in these conditions. It's bigger than most boards I've ridden recently, but then the snow was deep. Comparing it with old school large powder boards this is stiffer and I'd say more aggressive because of that. I don't know how it'd ride on piste: it's a powder board.

[philw]

Day two with the Spring Break, in slightly less deep and so faster snow.

It's a quick board, but not hard to throw around. I suppose the speed comes from the size & surface area' hard boots make chucking it around easy. 

On balance the thing I don't like about it is the stiffness of the tail. It brakes fine, but it's lacking in feedback and the pleasant "give" you get with most powder board tails, assuming you're riding the right length board. Traditional powder boards had stiff noses and soft tail, and I think that's still not a bad approach.

When I got it home I noticed I'd pranged the bottom on something - there's a small indent in the base, although no other marks around it. Turn the board over... and there's a slight crack in the gloss top sheet corresponding to the base dimple. The board still rides fine, but it's a write off. I was riding deep snow although there's always wood under it. I don't recall hitting anything, but some drops were dropped and it must've been me. Oops.

[alpinegirl]

Spring break is a garage brand snowboard company. I believe Corey Smith started it to experiment with powder shapes and created a bunch of one off boards considered art. The deck you have been on is the result of a collaboration between capita and spring break. Spring break wanted to build higher quality decks and capita fit the bill.

Thank you for sharing your experiences so far with one. 

[lamby]

https://www.capitasnowboarding.com/snowboards/spring-break-powder

Very cool looking boards. Was intrigued when I saw some of these posted for sale earlier this winter, and wondered how they rode. Experimental shapes for powder most interesting. Thanks for descriptions and photos.  More pics plz

[skategoat]

How did it compare with the Fish for tree riding?

[philw]

Compared with the fish... it sort of depends "which fish" , as there are quite a  few now, but broadly..

• More slashy than a fish, so more tail and it feels like it. So a little more skill is required to rip through trees, but it did the job just fine.
• More conventional in feel than the Fish, so possibly a little harder for novices.
• More float, bigger than the standard 156 Fish. So requires a little more technique to turn quickly, and accelerates quicker.
• Feels a bit more plank like (good or bad depending on perspective)

For me, I would ride this in days where "penetration" is an issue, where I need maximum float, Otherwise, my preference would be for something a little more responsive for the trees. So I think this is a good board, depending on what you want to do.

[wesleywarren]

Spring breaks are fun.. Pogo's are where my hearts at.. The Maverick 230 Does it all for me.. I even ride it fakie when I'm teaching.. Just for fun no crazy carves fakie yet. Thanks for the review on the Spring Break.?

[TVR]

the slit tail is camouflaged into the background... nice boards..