Donek nomad

[James Ong]

I was able to demo this board at last years SES , i ended up ordering a slightly wider ( 26 ) version of the 169 and Sean was very accommodating

After the megastorm this weekend i got up to the hill and was greeted with 2+ feet of medium weight powder , not quite sierra cement but not blow up in your face powder either.

The huge setback in the inserts freaked me out at first but i figured i'd trust the builder and set my bindings up accordingly . Turning in powder was very effortless without needing to lean back at all ( setback again) when the snow got choppy the board handled great and was easy to throw around.

The biggest surprise was that the board carved shockingly well !!

This is an A+ board , count me as a very satisfied customer :o

[bigwavedave]

Think I may have the Nomad demo you rode, 164 length and 24 waist. Picked it up in the Donek summer demo sale.


I finally got to ride it in some fluffy snow on the first day of SES in 4-8 inches of powder over groom with hard boots. The soft, decambered nose softened the bumps that developed later in the day and made the Nomad a fun carver on the soft and inconsistent snow. Seems stiffer in the tail and rides like a slalom board with a long floaty nose.

I also went off in the trees several times where there was a few feet of untracked powder, which is what I primarily got the board for. The stance set-back and amount of taper give this board similar stats to a Burton Landlord except with a narrower waist, and of course 4 hole mounts instead of a slot. Out of curiosity, I brought my Nomad into a shop to compare side-by-side with a Landlord and found them very similar in flex/stiffness, camber pattern, and shape/dimensions.  It would be interesting to compare how they ride.

 

I'm a beginner in trees and powder and appreciated that this board was turny and easily maneuverable and kept it's nose up. It rides balanced--weight the back foot to slow down, front foot (or equal wt) to accelerate. I've had a few different "all-mt" boards for the occasional powder encounter, this is the best so far.

I demoed another "all mt" board at SES and got stuck when I tried to cross over to another run through some trees. Had to swim out. The photos above are at Spirit Mt in Duluth in wet spring snow.

Edited January 24, 2015 by bigwavedave

[Waboarder]

I was able to demo this board at last years SES , i ended up ordering a slightly wider ( 26 ) version of the 169 and Sean was very accommodating

After the megastorm this weekend i got up to the hill and was greeted with 2+ feet of medium weight powder , not quite sierra cement but not blow up in your face powder either.

The huge setback in the inserts freaked me out at first but i figured i'd trust the builder and set my bindings up accordingly . Turning in powder was very effortless without needing to lean back at all ( setback again) when the snow got choppy the board handled great and was easy to throw around.

The biggest surprise was that the board carved shockingly well !!

This is an A+ board , count me as a very satisfied customer :o

[ATTACH]31977[/ATTACH]

Finally the Pacific NW is getting enough snow to bring out some of my new boards, The first is the Nomad 169. Rode it the past 2 days at Timberline in lots of heavy new snow. Performed flawlessly, turns on a dime and no way to stuff the nose. Much to my surprise,

carves a lot better than I would have imagined. Did not ride it with hardboots, Solomon Malamutes and Now bindings. 169 with a 26 waist and 8-13 sidecut. Another gem from Sean. Also rode a my new Kessler 176 Ride with Burton Diodes and Bomber power plates. Once the new snow was tracked this thing was unstoppable, plowed through the chop in the rain like a hot knife through butter. Can't wait to get both these in more favorable conditions. Can't say enough good things about the power plates for soft boot carving. I have several pairs of Catek free rides and much prefer the Diodes with the Power plates. Just awesome. Next up will be the new Donek free carve 176 with td3 step ins and the ( new to me ) Tinkler 185 with TD3. I'll stay with the soft boots until it stops snowing!

[svr]

Finally the Pacific NW is getting enough snow to bring out some of my new boards, The first is the Nomad 169. Rode it the past 2 days at Timberline in lots of heavy new snow. Performed flawlessly, turns on a dime and no way to stuff the nose. Much to my surprise,

carves a lot better than I would have imagined. Did not ride it with hardboots, Solomon Malamutes and Now bindings. 169 with a 26 waist and 8-13 sidecut. Another gem from Sean. Also rode a my new Kessler 176 Ride with Burton Diodes and Bomber power plates. Once the new snow was tracked this thing was unstoppable, plowed through the chop in the rain like a hot knife through butter. Can't wait to get both these in more favorable conditions. Can't say enough good things about the power plates for soft boot carving. I have several pairs of Catek free rides and much prefer the Diodes with the Power plates. Just awesome. Next up will be the new Donek free carve 176 with td3 step ins and the ( new to me ) Tinkler 185 with TD3. I'll stay with the soft boots until it stops snowing!

Interested to hear more of your thoughts on the Kessler Ride 176...seems like a great board from specs, but for the price I am not sure if I would go there or have Donek make me a Hazelwood.

cheers,

sandy

p.s. for comparison, I normally ride Rad-Air Tanker 200's, but am looking for a shorter multi-purpose board for softboots. I am also a fan of the diode and power plate set-up as the Catek Freerides were a bit too heavy and unforgiving.

[Waboarder]

Sandy,

I rode the "Ride" 176 Wed in pretty good quality PNW powder at Steven Pass and today 1st thing on soft groomers.

The board rips the pow and handles the cut up stuff really well . Really smooth ride. To long for the steep trees at Stevens but other than that i am very impressed. It was great on the groomers as well, carves like a champ and has a super fast base. I'm looking forward to trying it out on some firm groomed. I was lucky enough to score mine from a fellow BOL

member for about 1/2 price! ( thanks Teach ! ) You cant go wrong with Sean building you a Hazlewood, I have 7 Doneks,

both for soft boots and hardboots and they all rip. I'm thinking a Hazlewood is in my future. The one thing I do notice about the Kesslers is that, while carving, when you load the nose

[workshop7]

I bought a custom Nomad this summer, 170cm long, 27cm at the waist and 8-12 SCR.  I took this board to Steamboat Springs for two weeks and spent 10 days on it.  I was able to ride it in many different conditions.  I always ride soft boots in Steamboat because it's the only place I spend a lot of time in the trees.

The Nomad is a great all around board.  It's not as powder specific as I originally thought it would be. Yes, it is great in powder and trees.  It floats and turns effortlessly in powder without leaning back and burning the quad of the back leg.

What I was most impressed with was how well the board carved.  I found that I could commit to some really aggressive turns on steep runs, dragging several body parts on toe and heelside.  I intended to move both bindings forward one set of holes but I never got the chance.  I found the tail to be much more stiff than expected, so I wanted to see how it would carve with my stance being closer to the nose.  If I make this happen before the end of the season I will report back.

I did not find the 8-12 variable scr to be as usable as I do with my Donek Flux.  Every time I tried to climb up on the front it just pushed out of the turn rather than tightening the radius.  I think this was because I was getting too far up on the nose.  All the more reason to try moving the stance forward just to see...

Really fun ride that I highly recommend to anyone looking for one board that can handle a lot of different snow conditions.

[workshop7]

Update to my March 12th review.

I did end up moving the bindings forward.  There was a slight improvement in the carving response, as well as an improvement in the ability to vary the turn shape.  However, the board's great "all around" feel was gone.  

I decided to sell it.  Not because I didn't like it, i did.  I just didn't love it.  In going through the process of selling the board, I received questions from potential buyers asking about weight range.  It was only when I contacted Sean from Donek that I found out that my weight was at the very bottom of this boards weight range.  It's no wonder I found the tail to be so stiff and had a hard time with the variable SCR.  

It is a great board and I expect the new owner to enjoy it.  I see a custom Nomad in my future, one that is made for my weight.

Edited May 5, 2017 by workshop7

[Lurch]

Nice close out - easy to disappear down a rabbit hole when shopping for a new board, but accurate reviews like this add some 'how it feels under foot' realism to specs and shape. Thanks for taking the time.

[moose]

I own @workshop7's Nomad now - 170 with a 27 waist - and my thoughts are very similar. All around a great board, effortless in powder (as expected) and carves unbelievably well. VSR seemed very responsive to me, but I don't own a Flux. As stated, the tail is surprisingly stiff, which makes it my go to 'charger,' but which also means it is not a playful board. What I mean is that if I'm going to be charging down powder or chop in one of A Basin's East Wall Chutes, I love this board. However, I don't like doing trees or bumps on it, or riding it while tired - it's one of those boards that if I'm below a certain speed, there's not as much room for 'playing around' or making quick, slashy turns - it's all business and I better be paying attention. Even more so than my 28 Waist Incline. So right now I'm really glad I got it, but I also choose what I'm doing for the day before going out (steep runs, or trees/bumps?). Related to the flex, the recommended weight range is 180-240 and I weigh 210.

Part of the reason I bought this one used is because ultimately I'd love to design my perfect board with Donek, but I wanted to get to know a board truly meant for my weight class before figuring out exactly what I wanted. I think a Nomad could truly be my perfect all-arounder at some point, and if I were to customize one I would ask for a softer flex than my weight range, therefore sacrificing some of the 'charger/freeride' and carving performance for some more trees/playfulness performance. If possible, I would try to ask for a softer flex specifically in the tail while stiffening up the nose a bit. I think this would allow me to enjoy it for more of the things I do on a daily basis in Colorado - a mix of steeper stuff and mellow trees on powder days, as well as some carving the next day's groomed. The extreme taper on the tail combined with making it a tad softer would (seems to me) give it that more surfy, playful feel. Of course, this is all just conjecture, but perhaps it will help someone customizing a Nomad? If all I ever did was steep powder bowls and carve up the groomers, this would be my one and only board. But I like bumps and trees, too. 

For reference, I've been riding it in stiff softboots, +30/+15, 21.5" stance using the centermost 4-holes front and back feet. Only been able to test in powder in softboots so far, but plan to test in hardboots with the same low angles in the future. Will report if it's radically different! I also ride an Incline 164, a Proteus 170, and have demoed a Flux, but not in a wide enough size to ride my softboot angles (so it wasn't a true comparison to this). 

Edited January 10, 2018 by moose

[Lurch]

Great info Moose. Like you, I've thought long and hard about using the Nomad as the basis for a custom 'quiver killer' that can do hardboots on grom and softies in pow (the Promad looked very close). Whats your thought on it with a little narrower waist (say 26) and with smaller vsr (7-10.5) ?

[workshop7]

If I were to get another Nomad I would get one with the exact same specs as Moose's.  the only change I would make is to have Sean build it for my weight.  I loved the length, waist width and the turning radius.  I just didn't like the stiffness.

[Lurch]

Thanks @workshop7. I think moose makes a really good point re a softer tail - would you stick to the std flex (for your weight)?

[workshop7]

4 hours ago, Lurch said:

Thanks @workshop7. I think moose makes a really good point re a softer tail - would you stick to the std flex (for your weight)?

I probably would, yes.

 

[moose]

Same as @workshop7, I love the length and width. For me, the width is essential for softboot angles because I find that if I do any lay-down carves with less than 27, my boots start to scrape. Sometimes they even scrape on my Incline with a 28 waist (mondo 28 boots). The 27 seems perfect because it's a nice sweet spot where it feels like I can carve very deep, but it's not so wide that it feels like an oil tanker in bumps.

[Lurch]

Thanks @moose. Thoughts on a slightly tighter scr?

[moose]

My guess is that the 170 nomad, being so long, has the 8m scr up front by necessity, whereas the stock models all have 7. However, I like the 8-12 just fine - it feels right in the sweet spot.

Workshop mentioned this, and it's not totally related, but if I go too front foot heavy trying to actuate the smaller scr, I lose the tail and skid, so for me it was placing the bindings in the right spot (a bit more forward) and learning a very subtle weight shift. At first, transitioning back and forth between my Proteus w/ 60/55 angles to this board was a challenge because I wasn't re-adjusting that subtle weight shift, but it just took a little time and I don't have that problem anymore. Point is that I wonder if one went too small on the front SCR if it would feel like an abrupt transition to that tighter turn and be more likely to skid? Total conjecture. Could be the opposite effect, the shift of weight forward to a tighter radius turn would rocket you into the turn and cause you to shift your weight back as you finish the turn, making it longer for the transition? No idea. I'll go back to sticking with my original answer: I like the 8-12. Ha! 

[Pusbag]

My custom Nomad 154. Wanted a powder board that works great in tight trees and bumped out run outs. Works great for this. It also carves well too. I put some cateks I had on it. I'm in love with it.

Edited April 4, 2018 by Pusbag

[moose]

Sweet topsheet! 

Crazy narrow stance - is that your typical or specific for this one? 

I imagine the length alone makes it do well in bumps and trees, but I'll ask anyway - normal flex for your weight and it is soft enough to change direction quickly but stiff enough to carve well? I'm still thinking a Nomad may be my custom choice if I can get the flex right. 

[Pusbag]

Yes my normal stance, I'm the one that's not normal. I have polio in my left leg so narrower the stance the stronger I am. This thing floats great but with the stiffer tail and sidecut shape carves pretty good. Its no alpine carver but it's not unfun on the groom either.

[moose]

Oh, dude, I saw Knapton's video with you - freaking awesome! Great turns!