Riding my Monkey

[Guest thomas_m]

I rode my new Happy Monkey for the first time Sat & Sun 12/17-18 at Snoqualmie West. Due to lack of snow, other than one short (and rocky) session last year on my Prior 4WD 169, this was my first time on an alpine board since the 2003/2004 season and only my 21st day on an alpine board, period. So, take my following review with that in mind.

Maker: Happy Monkey Snowboards

Specs:

Poplar core w/ ash stringers, stitched triaxial glass, strategically placed rubber foil, carbon fiber and kevlar. ISOHIGHSPEED 2112 base. Topsheet design by yours truly.

Length - 169cm

Effective Edge - 141

Sidecut Radius - 11M

Waist - 23.5cm

Thinking about the specs during the 2004/2005 season when I couldn't ride due to lack of snow in the PacNW, I was considering something similar to my Prior 4WD but wider so it would be easier to ride all the time, even when farting around with the family or on late season chopped Cascade Concrete, riding switch, etc, etc. I had previously bought a Steepwater Steep 170 with an 11M sidecut that rode really well so I thought a hybrid of the two boards might be perfect. I had heard about Happy Monkey Snowboards from the local snowboarding forum SeattleSnowboard.com. The prices were cheaper than Donek or Prior but more importantly I figured it would be really cool to work closely with a local builder getting into the alpine scene for my new board.

Shortly thereafter, I contacted the Head Monkey at Happy Monkey Snowboards and over the course of a bunch of emails worked out all the specs on the board. HM also sent me a template to use in designing a custom topsheet for my board. A few weeks later, when everything was ready, I stopped by HM's shop and watched him lay up the board. HM was kind enough to let me bring a couple cameras so once I get off my ass and develop the film shots, I'll have a 'making my monkey' photogallery to go with the board...

I set up the Monkey with Bomber TD2's, yellow (soft) E-Rings as well as the new suspension kit. I was looking for a very damp, comfortable ride that was still carvable and stable at speed. Given the wide(for an alpine board) 23.5cm waist, I was able to run 40/42.5 angles with the standard rear boot inside the edge. On the first run, the board felt so solid under me, I actually pushed beyond my limited abilities and after a washed out heelside carve, ended up doing my best impression of a turtle sliding down a slope on his back... The rest of the day went fine, solid on the toeside, still skidding a bit on the back. However, the board felt great. Probably a combination of the damp board and the yellow E-Rings and suspension kit but the ride was so comfy, I was much more confident at high speed than normal, even though I hadn't been on an alpine board in waay too long.

On Sunday, same story... First run, heelside washout, turtleslide... I then made a few mental/mechanical adjustments and started nailing my heelside carves, best ever for me. Of course, then I couldn't do anything but skid on the toeside... Anyway, I tried a couple runs mostly pointing the board on our little local hill, just doing shallow edge to edge stuff and caught a little air over a roller which is rare for me as I'm basically risk averse (read chickenschitt). The board was very stable at speed, didn't feel squirrelly at all and was generally confidence inspiring. The board was very easy to skid when needed and due to the width and all-mountain shape was easy to ride slow too. Riding switch backwards down the hill while trying to teach my 8yr old son to link turns was no problem at all. The relaxed angles were a relief from the looking back over your shoulder routine with the skinny boards.

Conclusion - after two days of riding, the board performs just as I wanted. A solid, damp, easy to ride groomer cruiser at reasonable (non-race) speeds. Head Monkey was great to work with, very patient with my fumbling efforts at graphic design for the topsheet and lack of knowledge about board design. Plus, Mrs Head Monkey made some brilliant peanut butter and chocolate cookies while the board was being put together. Bet you don't get cookies when you order a Virus... ;)

My wife's photographic attempts to catch the board in action failed but here's one of me/son/daughter with our toys and another of the nose of the board showing the topsheet:

http://www.crowmountain.net/Snowboard/happymonkey/12.18.05.1.jpg

http://www.crowmountain.net/Snowboard/happymonkey/12.18.05.2.jpg

T.

[Art]

Glad to see the conditions at the pass are improving. Good looking board. Great to see a local board maker dipping a toe into the alpine market. Sounds like a sweet ride. Mark your calendar for March 25-26 for the NORAM (I think) races at Crystal Mountain. More will be posted later but it would be great to have a strong showing of northwest riders and boardmakers(?)

[Guest toddflyingdog]

Just visited the Happy Monkey site.

Looks great! If I was in WA I'd be checking them out in person...

[D-Sub]

Thomas

is that a full cap construction?

many will moan about that...I admit I dont even know why or what the diff is, but...

ANYONE who will make an alpine or non-park/pipe board is a good person in my book!

[Guest thomas_m]

Yes, it's made with cap construction. More and more, as long as it rides well and performs the way it's designed, I don't sweat the construction details. That's for the QuiverBaiters to worry about...

T.

[D-Sub]

yup...I dont even know what the argument is, but people make it.

if it rides well, ride it!

[bobdea]

but still tend to blow apart, this is why in recent years the softbooters have started to shun caps

they usually don't hold a edge as well and provid a different feel but this is debatable

[bobdea]

but I guess now I am a quiverbaiter, it seems I get worse at riding every year too.

[terekhov]

they usually don't hold a edge as well and provid a different feel but this is debatable

my two caps - santa cruz tbx 167 '00 and f2 eliminator ltd 167 '02 - holds an edge like hell and proves that smokes over donek incline like it's nothing matters.

and cant compare steel-cap edge-holders from volant with anything else on sheer ice.

all I can say that cap or sandwitch is a matter of production and preference when we talk about modern top-level boards.

[Allee]

Brilliant. I've met a couple of those and I'm trying really hard not to be one.

Any construction is good construction as long as it holds together!

I'd like to have stoke. Maybe this season. :)

[Neil Gendzwill]

I'm just surprised a small shop is using cap construction - I always thought that was only economical for large runs. Has the necessary equipment come down in price, or have they figured out how to do it a different, cheaper way?

[NateW]

Neil: I don't know how the big manufacturers build capped boards in high volumes, but from what I've seen at the Monkey factory, the capped approach probably costs a bit less than the sidewall approach (in terms of both materials and time). With sidewalls there's two additional components going into the layup, for starters. :) Sidewall boards are coming though. (I don't know if all boards will be sidewalled in the future or if it will just be an option.) While I can't really speak for the Monkey team, I suspect it will not have much effect on the price. The equipment and process are pretty similar, it could have been a coin toss that made them build capped boards first and sidewalls next.

I don't think I've ever seen the 'capped boards blow up' generalization until now, but it sounds suspicious to me...

I've blown up four boards (none of them Monkeys!) and in all cases the problem was not the design. One was an admitted manufacturing defect (bad epoxy - other boards in the same production run also failed, and the replacement board (capped, incidentally) has held together just fine). The other three were from a company that didn't/couldn't/wouldn't admit that they had a manufacturing problem, but with three delams in one season, they pretty clearly had a problem. Two of those boards were sidewall and one was cap. In short, I have no doubt that that there ARE factors that can drastically affect a board's longevity, but I've not seen evidence that cap vs sidewall is one of those factors.

Bob, do you have any theories on why capped boards would be more prone to fail than sidewall boards? Is there a specific brand that you've seen having a lot of failures? (And is that brand Volant, or Aggression? :) )

[bobdea]

see plenty of mervin stuff come back, solomon skis were total junk for a couple years and yes volant was crap too

this is not to say that gear with sidewalls don't break just that they are much less prone to it, in particular when you have impact on the edge.

lots of gear would come back where the edge was separating from the board or ski, once this happens water gets in side and everything goes to hell from there.

The Libs and Gnus from the mid 90s sometimes the edges would fall out after the cap had split away from the edge.

I hate to sound like a dick about this stuff but after working around gear constantly and quite a bit of experience with my personal gear over the last ten years or so I am quite opinionated on this subject.

With the above statement you might be thinking that I won't touch a cap, not the case I just avoid them if I can but there are some great boards out there that are built with this construction such as the ride timeless and yukon, I Liked the Yukon allot.