F2 Respect 176cm

[Mallard_with_a_Gun]

Ok, as the F2 website mumbles something about bomber being a rep or dealer for F2, perhaps one of all ya'll will know something about this.

I see that F2 makes a 176cm freeride board called the respect. Can anyone tell me more about their freeride/freestyle boards? Are they any good?

[bobdea]

they make solid softboot rides, or at least they did not all that long ago

the last one I was on was from 2000 or so but it was not the model in question

[EndUser]

Any other opinions on this board?

[willywhit]

Dano is raving about his new one.Says the sidecut is just a little tight.I'm sure he'll be happy to give you a full report.His first day on it he was just lovin' it.I might have get one, too. Let us know if you find a deal.

[dano]

Same stiffness as the Speedster, Easy to ride at ludicrous speeds. Light as a feather. Rips medium speed carves and straighter leg surfy carves with silly ease but if you really lean on it it wants to make tiny turns. I don't know what they mean by 8.5/9.5 m "progressive sidecut"... but this thing would be equally at home in the tight trees as down sick steep powder.

Tankers ( what I REALLY want ) are 10m+ sidecut so I suspect they would carve bigger/better than this.

Beware though!! this board could very well turn you into a HAPPY LAZY FREERIDER. This "season" ( 2 days ) I got used to riding it with low binding angles and plates and now my 200/210 mm wide carving boards feel freaking alien to me...:(

My wife even said "Hey, you look like a normal snowboarder now."

HORRORS!! I gotta get back with the program.....

[Jrobb]

Same stiffness as the Speedster, Easy to ride at ludicrous speeds. Light as a feather. Rips medium speed carves and straighter leg surfy carves with silly ease but if you really lean on it it wants to make tiny turns. I don't know what they mean by 8.5/9.5 m "progressive sidecut"... but this thing would be equally at home in the tight trees as down sick steep powder.

HORRORS!! I gotta get back with the program.....

I'm thinking about picking one of these up too...but I'll be riding it in stiff softies though. I believe the 9.5/8.5 sidecut bit refers to the front of the sidecut from nose to rear binding or so is 9.5m then transitions to 8.5 through the tail. Not sure where this transition occurs but it's supposed to help accelerate you out of a turn with a little extra whip while the more gradual cut at the tip allows you to easily initiate turns.

J

[EndUser]

Do they list 9.5 / 8.5 sidecut because its for the left/right side of the board? An asymetrical sidecut? would that mean the board should not be used goofy?

[EndUser]

ah yea, that makes sense. thanks!

[Rob Stevens]

I need something to replace my 174 Salomon Fastback.

This shred looks like it could be the winner.

[dano]

it is a progressive sidecut... should mean it starts with one radius and finishes with the other. I think

.

Now I know why if I really push hard thru a turn, it wants to turn smaller and smaller...

I don't know that I LIKE this feature...( albeit a great tree/ride anywhere feature ) but to know how it's cut should help me ride it better..

So for steep controlled carves I should push hard on the 1st 1/2 of the arc then let off a bit in the second 1/2 of the turn and try not to lose speed.

wierd, but it IS an all mountain board first and foremost....

[EndUser]

Is the board a cap construction or does it have sidewalls?

[dano]

I thought cap construction was out of vougue for boards, but maybe the titanals have caps now? I usually forget to look.

[EndUser]

Ok, I'll bite. I ordered it -- $219 shipped.

I did some research and it turns out F2 has their boards made at Elan in Austria -- they make boards for several companies... claim 20% of all snowboards.

[skategoat]

Make sure you write up a review. After dragging three boards to Park City and always having the "wrong" board with me on the mountain, I'm looking for the all-around ride - equally at home in powder, trees and groom.

[big canuck]

are these things? Anybody?

[dano]

Got stickers?

Here's a link to the old 0506 f2 site.

http://www.f2snow.com/2005_6/boards.php?choice=RESPECT

I can't comment on the groom performance as I have none yet. I'm sure it won't be as good as a tanker or axxis due to the sidecut.

If there is groom, I'll use my freecarve or race board, when it's all gone or there's powder, take this. f I don't know or space is limited, I'll just take this.

[www.oldsnowboards.com]

Heads Up! Here we go again!

What have we learned?

Call directly , placing orders on line are not certain.

Flood the market, be lucky to get your money back.

PDX Dan tried to get 4 of us together for a 140$ each price

and didn't get enough guys together in Portland?

[dano]

on a second chance offer after I was outbid from the "two lettters" boardshop. ( I'm sure they are linked to the house somehow... F2 Rep)

I also got my wife a new F2 Bloom '05 150 for $130 from them that she absolutely loves ( combined shipping ) It has a little male angel ( Boardios) on the topsheet that she appreciates very much as her father recently passed away quite unexpectedly...

Excellent construction and quality on both boards.

I think F2 the now biggest company that supports alpine.

BTW, I've gotten dribs and drabs of windsurfing gear from The House for over 15 years. Never had a problem, always called them up though.

I wouldn't order straight from their website from what I've heard here.

[EndUser]

Uh Oh, I ordered from the website -- what's that mean? I haven't heard about the problems -- fill me in.

[RDY_2_Carve]

Some people have had problems with stuff they ordered through the website becoming out of stock. That's what I remember anyways. I believe most said just to place your order over the phone.

Just call them to follow up with your order and you'll be fine...

[Jrobb]

Info I managed to find also:

J

[EndUser]

Despite the warnings, the-house delivered! I got my board today and mounted some Catek FR2's. I'm looking forward to giving it a try.

As far as the construction, I would say this is a combination cap & sidewall construction board. It's cap near the ends, and sandwitch in the middle. The F2's sidewall profiles are a lot more vertical than the highly sculpted sidewalls of my Johan. Is this reson for concern?

The base isn't as smooth as my Burton, it's got some odd divot pattern ingrained. I doubt I will feel it on the slope, but maybe it will slow me down -- what's the deal with the tiny divots?

Anyone here know what the sidecut of a Burton Johan 164 is? I am curious how the F2 Respect will compare.

[Jrobb]

Despite the warnings, the-house delivered! I got my board today and mounted some Catek FR2's. I'm looking forward to giving it a try.

As far as the construction, I would say this is a combination cap & sidewall construction board. It's cap near the ends, and sandwitch in the middle. The F2's sidewall profiles are a lot more vertical than the highly sculpted sidewalls of my Johan. Is this reson for concern?

The base isn't as smooth as my Burton, it's got some odd divot pattern ingrained. I doubt I will feel it on the slope, but maybe it will slow me down -- what's the deal with the tiny divots?

Anyone here know what the sidecut of a Burton Johan 164 is? I am curious how the F2 Respect will compare.

That dimple pattern is called Structurn. It does the same thing that structure does or base grinding. It's a fn fast design. My Arbor has it and it flys. It will last about 3 grindings. Only real issue with it is when waxing the board. It takes more effort to get the wax outta the dimples. The board will also turn on a dime...great feature imho.

The edge profiles you're concerned with...is that the angle of the sidewall you're not sure of? I'v enot been able to compare two side by side with different angles (have to be the same board to really tell the diff) but the angle put on the sidewall is supposed to provide better edge grip. Since when you carve you are riding on part of teh sidewall too, this bevel allows the edge to sink deeper into the snow and grip more than an edge more vertical. Similar concept to why a 1deg base, 3deg sidewall grips more than a 0deg base 1deg sidewall (angles)...pointy. SHouldn't be that much of an issue.

J

[EndUser]

I got to ride my brand new 176 Respect today, with great hero snow (but no pow) at Hoodoo near Sisters, Oregon. Here is my review!

I did no tuning or waxing. I could see the edges were detuned a few cm past the tips.

My previous ride was a Burton Johan 163 --- from what I can find it has a sidecut of ~7.9m. In contrast this F2 176cm board has an 8,5-9,5m (progressive) sidecut. Wow, this difference of ~1M feels huge. I need a lot more space and speed to carve with it.

I'm using Catek FR2's (also first time on these -- I'll give my review of the bindings in a seperate thread).

Soft boots (a size 10) Burton Driver X (with factory plastic add-on bits for extra stiffness)

One thing is that the stance is a few cm wider than my Johan, but otherwise I setup the binding angles the same ... Front: 36 , Rear: 12. I found the stance a bit wide and uncomfrtable on my knees, so, while I initially had configured the F/R bias completely centered, I decided to move the front binding back one set of inserts (the last set of 4x4), and centered in the disc. BAD IDEA! [read on] This provided an asymetric setup where my stance was a bit rearward on the front. I thought it would be nice for powder.. but...

Carving felt like I was on rails -- (well duh, I was), but I felt like I was leaned over really quickly, and my hand was on the snow and closer than before with the same effort. I was on ~40 degree wide groomed slope, pretty fast too. The edge held really well.... until the angle of slope decreased a bit. I was pulling some serious Gs and closing my angle with the slope, the tail started to break away -- at the same time pelting me in the face with snow/ice as the stiff board cambered off the snow. After a few runs this became a pattern, tail breaking away and me spiinning out. I couldn't trust the edge to hold me at low angles. So, at lunch I re-adjusted the front binding forward to the center inserts to have a more forward (neutral with the board inserts) bias. Also, having the Catek FR2's I decided to use the cant/lift features to my advantage to relieve the knee pressure of the now wider stance. I canted inward on front and back, and lifted the rear heel and front toe. Bingo! Huge difference. The tail was much more stable, and the "feel" of the carve was right-on.

Transition between edges was very quick (felt quicker than my Johan actually), and there were times I felt airborne (perhaps caught by surprise) with the tail snapping me up on transitions.

Much more stable at speed than my Johan, and on edge really felt damp compared to it. On my Johan I learned that certian speeds were just too much and would eventually cause chatter/washout. I was easily supassing this speed on the F2, and it scared the hell out of me because I was used to the Johan's limits. The F2 was stabe at any speeds I took it to, but I'm just learning what it can really do.

I still think I was getting some boot-out causing some washouts.. so I am uping my angles to 40/20 for next time.

By the way, the StrucTurn base felt nice and fast on the flats.. and it was about 26-32 degrees throughout the day (again, no wax).

Overall, a pretty sweet ride.. seems like a good carver, but I'm still getting used to the larger sidecut radius... might become an issue on narrower trails. I can't wait to try it in pow! At $220 shipped (plus a pair of free sunglasses at $70 value! wohoo!), that means I got this ride for $150! hah! (Ok, the sunglasses might not actually be worth that much.)

I've been thinking of getting a Tanker, but with a 10+M sidecut, holy crap, where would I carve that thing?! This might be all I can handle for the local resorts.

[big canuck]

How come?