Nitro Squash

[bumpyride]

Bumps, trees, steeps, powder, and even firm groomers.  Not the kind of board one would even think about using hardboots with, but it is remarkable in it's versatility.

[bigwavedave]

Just picked one of these up after seeing some the reviews. Hoping to have a good, yet versatile powder board for my upcoming trip to BC and Turner, that will also be fun carving the groomers, since one is often doing both on a pow day at a resort. I'd kind of given up on finding a board that could do both well--always seemed to be a compromise one way or the other.

Since there isn't any powder within 1000 mi of where I am, I thought I'd see if it could at least carve some lines in some Minnesota firm. I was surprised at how well this thing carves!  It was actually really fun! There's enough in that swallowtail to finish the carve. The longish decambered shovel isn't flopping around in the turns like some powder/carvers. 

I'm using "soft" hardboots Raichle 423's (MP28) on Blax type step-in bindings at approx 50°front/30°rear. It's a 163, 26cm waist. Since I am 185lbs and using hardboots, I decided to be safe and get the larger board, particularly since these are designed to be used with softboots. The sidecut is approx 9m in front and 8m in the tail but seems to ride larger and likes some speed. Makes  surprisingly smooth carves and has a very nice finish to those turns with a bit of snap off the swallow tail to send you into the next turn!

The volume in the nose combined with the setback and swallowtail should make this pretty nice in deep powder as other reviews have reported. 

Thanks @bumpyride for your review of the Squash. Might never have noticed this board otherwise.

Update: Blackjack, U.P., Going from a few inches of pow over the groomed center of the runs to about 1 foot (no groom) on the sides, this board was really fun!  ...and yes, it did well in waist deep pow and trees at Turner, especially after I moved my back foot a couple of inches farther back so I could sink the tail to do tighter turns in the trees (Thanks LCI crew for the tip).

[bumpyride]

Wait till you have the opportunity to hit some deep powder.  Where to board really shines--is in powder, whether you want to lay out some long arcs,  in tight trees , and of course my favorite--bumps.  Waist deep is not too deep for this board.

I will say it does not do well on hard surfaces. 

Powder it's an almost unknown dream in Minnesota, but  Redman tells  me that Libby is going to be fabulous.  If you have the time to hit Big Sky on the way to or fro let me know.