2015 World Championships gear on PSL and PGS

[snowmatic]

What we saw on 2015 Januray races in Lachtal / Kreischberg:

boards on podium:

4x SigiGrabner snowboards (3x Worldchampion)

4x Kessler snowboards

3x Black Pearl snowboards (1x Worldchampion)

1x Oxess snowboards

plates on podium:

5x Vist plates (3x Worldchampion)

5x AllFlex plates (1x Worldchampion)

1x Kessler K-plate

1x home brew plate

bindings on podium:

10x F2 Titanium

1x ACT Gear

1x home brew, using Ibex lever and Ibex bails.

boots on podium:

6x Northwave Point .950

5x UPZ RC10

1x Deeluxe Track 69

- On boards we can see one more time a battle between Schoch bros. and Sigi Grabner. While Kessler had been once developed in strong contribution with Schoch bros. Sigi Grabner had to go his own way. Sigi Grabner didn't get any Kessler snowboards because of an embargo by Kessler/Schoch bros.. So Sigi Grabner had to develop his own boards/brand. Since Schoch leaves Kessler research for better boards stagnate a bit on Kessler. BlackPearl from Schoch bros. seems to be on a good way to success. Even Kessler, like many other brands too (F2/Donek), did copy ideas of Black-Pearl snowboards.

Other brands like Apex (Austria), Nobil (Poland) and Rabanser are far away from to be on top. (Georg Rabanser was racing that weekend a FIS-PSL, he get rank 7 beside some riders which do sometimes also FIS-Worldcup races.)

- On plates we can see a revival of Vist plates. Floating plates by less hinge-mountings seem to be no more the way for to be fast. While 2-axle floating plates takes too much time for riders to find the sweet spot of the gear (board-plate-binding-boots), damping plates are easyer to manage.

Apex plates from Canada seems to be no more competitiv enough. I think I saw only one Apex plate on the finals of PGS.

That's why maybe apex-insider became a bit nervous on Apex Gecko thread here on BOL forum.

- F2 Titanium bindings are used very often. They are all non-CNC bindings on podium.

Edited January 26, 2015 by snowmatic