kipstar Posted January 10, 2013 Report Share Posted January 10, 2013 After 7 years of not riding at all, and having done maybe 20 days in the last 15 years total, I was lucky enough to receive a SG new snowboard for Xmas, and went riding in Japan for 6 days on it; set up with TD3s, indys using the BTS system as well. The first day didn't start so well, as I was filming some kids riding and tore a great chunk out of my shin due to extreme lack of fitness and soft shins....not the best start.... also riding in knee deep wet chopped up powder at Sahoro and flat light didn't help. Anyhow, once I had my first real day at Furano ski resort, riding in -25.5 temperature, very quickly the benefits of riding a properly set up new board came out. The board is unbelievably damp and simple to ride; unlike the older generation of boards where they like a nice fwd drive into the turn, mid weight and then weight back coming out of the turn, it seems like the SG prefered to have a much more centered way of riding; also you could ride with less rotation and just let the board do a lot more of the work. Riding through bumps, chop, fresh knee deep powder, epic grooming, the board was effortless to keep on edge and get good edge hold. The only times it was struggling was on narrow cattracks and big bumps or when I didn't have the guts to ride it properly. One surprise to me was how easy it is to adjust the line by disengaging the edge the reengaging it mid or late carve. I had also expected the board to not like certain styles of turn but it seemed to be really good for a wide variety of turn types; even tried a few EC style turns on both sides and it was pretty simple to make the board work. Even riding on one day in fresh snow over a firm base and very flat afternoon light, you could just let the board run, and be confident it would always hold; the times I got into trouble was when I just didn't have the confidence to ride and push on narrow tracks and steep runs. Being a 180, it needed a little speed to get it going at first, but once I started to get the feel for the turns, not any more than a shorter board. The TD3s seemed a good match, although in -25.5 celcius, started to get some boot shrinkage so the bindings ended up pretty loose fitting and the lugs were starting to freeze. Also the chrome finish on the toe clips was coming off as well, no problem I guess. The BTS system is better than the RAB, and I ended up restoring the fwd lean to the original; because the board seemed to ride so easily, I found I could ride longer and harder each day than my previous boards, and with a little more fwd lean. I rode it without a plate, and it seemed very happy; I am pleased I didn't go for a 185, as that would have been a bit more of a step up length wise; the 180 size has a decent waist width (unlike the 175) and although the side cut isn't massive, it seemed to be happy to crank reasonably tight turns. Highly recommend it as a great riding board. While in Japan saw some Ogasaka, Yonex and Grey snowboards; all similar low nose new school shapes with various plate systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kieran Posted January 10, 2013 Report Share Posted January 10, 2013 (edited) not a lot of info around about the yonex boards. carbon construction, rubber damping and a new 'high-strength low modulus' titanium alloy.. interesting. google translate may be off but it suggests that they put a rubber compound in the bonding resin also. http://www.carve.jp/2012/pdf/063.pdf Edited January 10, 2013 by kieran Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kipstar Posted January 11, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2013 (edited) In the marine industry, we use a variety of epoxy resins which are rubberised, including plexus, Sparbond, HPR, Kenetix etc all of which have holding power something like 30+ times the rate of standard epoxy; in addition some have a slight amount of flex as well, enabling bonding on bending items such as masts, foils, joints etc where the joint has to flex slightly but you don't want it to let go. Since bonding of metal to other materials can be a bit of a headache and having things flexing back and forth may also be a headache too, I am sure having a bond that can handle flex is a good thing. Example of a product we use below (marine industry): http://www.atlcomposites.com.au/atl_composites2/epoxy_products/adhesives Yonex is building composite things like tennis raquets and so on, I would imagine they know a lot about handling adhesives. Speaking to some skiers, apparently the Ogasaka skis are AWESOME, so I would imagine their boards might be pretty decent as well; certainly was nice to see a decent number of modern new school race boards; the Japanese boards had even lower noses than the SG, F2 and Kesslers that I saw; could have been that they were slalom boards but the concept was similar (decambered nose) just shorter and lower...the dudes I saw riding them were ripping up everything from knee deep powder, to chop to groomed, so it didn't seem to affect them much. One thing to add; riding this board was a lot less tiring than older generation boards; it just was so easy to make it do what I wanted and so I think I was able to do an extra hour every day without getting worn out. Edited January 11, 2013 by kipstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iLikeSnow Posted February 6, 2013 Report Share Posted February 6, 2013 Yonex make snowboards, including alpine? Sounds fun, love my yonex golf clubs at least. Guess theres not a chance we'll ever have those boards for sale in europe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kipstar Posted February 21, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 21, 2013 yep,Yonex I think is the factory also making some of the other brands as well. It was quite cool seeing so many carving boards and some funky plate systems as well that don't exist in the west. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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