Furi Posted January 16, 2008 Report Share Posted January 16, 2008 I recently bought an 05/06 Rad-Air Tanker 172 and figured I would post a ride report and share my experience with the board. Working on another post with my impressions of the Coiler 173 with plates and my first experiences with carving :) But first the Tanker! *** some board porn! What more can I say about this wonderful board that hasn't already been written? What a great ride...everything I've read about the tankers only scratched the surface of what it feels like to cruise down a hill with this thing strapped to your feet. This board just matches my ride style so well. It’s a very surf-like style and a great cruiser. It really inspires confidence at high speeds and loves it when you throw it on a high edge. I can leave some really deep trenches and lines down a run without having to fight with the board. The dampness of the board and the softer flex means I can ride it all day and not be worn out. I've also been impressed with how it handles different snow conditions - although I will admit it loves pow-pow (naturally) and harder snow much more then the slushy junk we have in my home turf of the sierras. It’s nice to have a board that I can cruise with and still charge a fall line when I want. I do wish the tail had more spring in it so I could pop it into the next turn, but I knew that when I bought the board. Its fine though since I will be riding my coiler when it’s nice and cold and the snow is firm. One thing I loved was the reaction everybody had when I unpacked the 172 tanker. They couldn't believe I was actually going to ride that long of a board (longest board my friends ride are 162's) and wondered if I would even be able to turn it. Asking them to pick it up brought a huge grin to my face - the tanker is easily lighter than most of the mid 150 sized board they run with. :) ************** Dec 15th - 27th - Aspen, CO I put in 6 days with the tanker on softies and 5 with the coiler on plates and 1 much needed rest day :) It took me about a solid day of doing medium blues to get the bindings setup. Finally settled in on +33/+20 angles. The new nidecker carbon 900's are really great. The have a ton of control and the straps are comfy for my boots. We had an amazing amount of snow during those 12 days. It just kept snowing and snowing. The tanker was amazing in the powder runs, with my 160lbs frame the float was always there. The nose never got buried and it was a great feeling to glide through the pow-pow. *** My hmm understated and subtle jacket choice for the season On the snow filled groomers the board was excellent as well, great surf-like ride and the longer length helped out in the flatter sections to keep my speed nice and high. On the days when it didn't snow and the slopes got packed down a bit from the traffic I took the coiler out so didn't really get any corduroy runs with the tanker. Jan 9th - Alpine Meadows, Lake Tahoe CA This was a last minute day-trip after a huge dump in the sierras (6+ feet) that weekend and monday. Unfortunately the snow had a very hard crust top layer from the 50+ MPH winds the storm had. The bowls were full of moguls and the hard crust to soft transitions in each turn really made it a bumpy ride. *** here is my buddy in one of the mogul hard-crust bowls The tanker's dampness really helped out in that day's conditions. It would bust right through the hard pack then sink a bit into the fluff, then you would start your turn and the nose would plow into the hard crust then sink again. Rinse and repeat for the whole day. By the afternoon the warm temps started to really affect the snow and turn everything into a semi-hard crust to pure mush. We ended up hiking the back bowls most of the afternoon. My buddy on his burton custom-x 162 was having a rough day. That board is a noodle and the nose would buckle in the hard stuff always throw him forward - he had a crappy day. Jan 12th - 13th - Heavenly, Lake Tahoe CA Another good weekend with the Tanker. Saturday was fog and close to white out conditions but sunday was an amazing blue bird day. The high temps (+40F) on Sun made the snow really soft and mushy. Got in a solid 2 days of carving, but it was all on medium to low pitch blues since we had a few newer snowboarders in our 5 person group. *** Blue bird conditions on sunday: I think the softer flex pattern of the tanker helped out alot today. It didn't fight me in the carves and soaked up all the little bumps and piled up snow from the pizza parade. The biggest complaint was that after 2-3 runs my whole group wanted to try a run on the big red gun :) I left huge deep trenches in the slopes, it was a great feeling. My group tried to throw a curve ball at me: "ah ha! let's do trees Mr. 172!". Ok no problem and off we went. The board has no problem with quick edge changes and is very nimble. Granted the trees were really spread out compared to what I was doing in Aspen CO. ***Excuse the quality of the pic – it was still taken from a helmet cam video :rolleyes: Back on the groomers it was a cat and mouse game with the pizza parade and jibber crew to make it down the hill without getting rammed in the back. "Skier responsibility code? Blah, I have a skull and crossbones bandana I don't need to pay attention to anything downhill I just go man!" *sigh* Those quick edge transitions saved me from a few wreaks :) ************** I look forward to riding my tanker alot more this season and next weekend I'll be throwing plates on her - I really want to put some more power into my turns and from what I’ve read plates with a tanker is a great combo. Thanks to everybody for the recommendations and suggests which lead me to buying the tanker. And thanks very much to RJ from Exotic Boards for all the help and excellent service. > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullwings Posted January 16, 2008 Report Share Posted January 16, 2008 I have three questions... 1) Did you try it out on plates and HBs? If so, how was it? 2) What's your weight and height? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Furi Posted January 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2008 Bullwings - Haven't tried the tanker with plates yet. I just mounted some TD2's with yellow on the tanker and plan on riding 1/26 - 1/27 with plates. Height is 5.9 Weight is 160lbs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDY_2_Carve Posted January 16, 2008 Report Share Posted January 16, 2008 Looking forward to your review on the PR173... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Furi Posted January 16, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2008 its coming RDY! :) want to take the camera and helmet cam setup up one weekend to get some action shots to go along with ride report :) thanks so much again for the Coiler board, I had an amazing time on it in CO! She loves to fly....definitely a steeper learning curve then I expected but after some work things started snapping into place. I love how hard the tail snaps out of a turn, it was like a rubber band shooting me out of the carve - what a great feeling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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