PGS Board Reviews by Jack

[Jack M]

The Doneks were both softer lengthwise. This made the Rec ride shorter than the Coiler and Kessler, even though it had a longer measured sidecut. The WC rode about the same size turns as the Coiler and Kessler, and it had a much larger sidecut. This can only be attributed to the softer lengthwise flex. Also the feeling of being able to manipulate the board with your feet was more pronounced on the Doneks.

[Ronin42]

Jack,

Excellent posting and Review! Please make sure it finds its place to be accessible over time to the community, it would be a crime for this to get lost or buried.

The article helped me to pick Sean as my go to guy. I am never going to race but from a business stand point I want folks to know that he nailed it, being able to suss out what was/is desired and use his expertise to turn that real every day usable products.

I just think he nailed it.

Kevin

[Jack M]

Thanks Kevin, glad you found it useful. It will be in the Bomber archives soon. Fin wanted to include it in Friday's newsletter, so we went with the unformatted draft on my site.

[Buell]

How do you know it was lengthwise flex and not torsional flex differences or a myriad of other things? You have your riding dialed so well you can say "yep, it was [insert specific board characteristic] here that made that turn work"? I thought it was a kind of alchemy of things that made Kesslers, well, Kesslers.

The potential is always there to be off a bit, but I can quickly tell different characteristics on different boards and i get better at it all the time. Longitudinal and torsional flex are pretty easy to feel. I would certainly assume Jack can recognize them with a fair bit of accuracy given his years of experience.

Nice work on the review Jack.

I recently got to ride a 162 Kessler SL (thanks Hardbooter) back to back with my 165 Coiler SL (built to my 145 pounds). Almost the same specs, but the Kessler was too stiff overall for my weight. I had the exact impression you wrote below. I also found the Kessler more torsionally stiff overall and with more rebound off the tail. Some of that could have been because the Kessler was built for a heavier rider or because Bruce made some design mods for me based on feedback on previous Coilers I have owned and ridden.

The picture changed though, as soon as I started doing back-to-back swaps with the Kessler. The Coiler seems to incorporate thinner or less rubber, as it transmitted more snow-feel to the boots, and had a slightly less quiet feel. As such, the NSR gives up a short-hair of edge hold to the Kessler

[dano]

It's so much easier to wrap my head around the decambered nose/tail and multi-radius sidecut when explained humbly and logically with "pitchers". I actually "get" it now.

Much easier than digging through the arguments of others.

Nice touch working in the carving history/evolution.

A+

[Miltie]

Hey Jack, Nice review! Thanks for taking the time and effort to do this. Lots of good info. Will be trying my new Donek Freecarve Metal 171 with Sidewinders tomorrow at June in CAL so will keep a mental note of your review. I also have a new custom Donek Metal GS 182 that Sean built for me sitting at home in Japan that has yet to be ridden so looking forward to compare the feel of the boards. Thanks again for your hard work on this and your stoke for alpine. Best regards, Tom

[Jack M]

Thanks Miltie, Dano, Buell. :)

I do feel this is a racing machine- and certain compromises are made with racing machines which are not always in favor for the recreational freecarver.

I dunno, I thought it was a beautiful freecarver. Provided I had the trail width. If your definition of freecarving is riding all over the mountain, then there are better choices.

This machine has gobs of edge hold.. but realistically..personally I do not need edge hold that allows me to carve through Icy deeply rutted out courses with a Plate system. If the hill was that rutted...I'd wait for another day to ride. I live in Aspen after all.

I mostly agree about ruts, which is why I don't feel a need to weigh this board down with a plate system. But the board's abilities to deal with ruts and imperfections also give it superb edge hold on clean groom, and I'll take that any day.

-----

I saw a comment on another site wondering why I wrote about a page on the Kessler and only about 15 lines on each of the other boards. The deal here is that the other boards come close or very close to being the Kessler, so I only detailed the ways in which they were not.

[John Gilmour]

the Kessler is certainly a great freecarver.... perfect for instance in the Outback at Mt. Bachelor... I certainly would not leave that deck behind. I also feel the Kesslers have something special about them...that I would also expect in the shorter lengths- as I felt it a bit on the 163bx and 168bx.

But I do think there is a difference between racing machines and recreational machines. For instance.. a souped up 2010 Ford Mustang with 800HP would kill my 16 year old 322hp Mercedes E500- but I feel safer and more in control in my Mercedes and consequently have more fun in it.

Perhaps a V-10 Hennesy Viper vs a Mercedes SLR might be a more apt comparison.

In a closed course.. brakes are not as important as they are in public. So having a larger deck when you might not need all that edge hold.. and would prefer to have better braking might be a wiser choice.

but hey...I knew that. I knew that I didn't need all the edge hold, that it would be harder to slow down, heavier swing weight, and be like a freight train.. and that the extra running length would just result in a time down the hill a few 1/10ths more faster at a cost where I would rather have maneuverability .

BUT... I wanted to feel it.. So, like you, I bought the Kessler 185 PGS. I like the board a lot..But I think I might be happier on a 180 or 176cm deck. I won't know until I ride one. For now----the Kessler 185 PGS is hella fast.

I just don't feel the extra length contributes more to performance of freecarving as it does to racing....basically I am in agreement with you over the ubiquitous 171cm lengths for freecarving.

I can ride the 185 PGS on any trail... but as the trails get steeper and narrower I do feel I have fewer turn options... So at Aspen Mt. I ride Ruthies and Copper , and back of Bell 2 with it. I find other Aspen trails take some time to gather speed to make the sidecut work... At Snowmass I loooove the board on Sneaky's and a few other runs. But at Buttermilk.... there aren't really a lot of fast runs for that deck......and Highlands runs a bit narrow up top and a bit too flat (thought wide) on the bottom.

for instance... at Wachusett.... I would think the Kessler 185 PGS is too much board for the Mountain.... you could freecarve there... but you might take a few people out too. I don't feel that way with a 180cm Donek for instance.

[Jack M]

The review has been published on BomberOnline here:

http://www.bomberonline.com/articles/newhotness.cfm