So this year marks the second year that Mr. Rice has been on a board featuring C2 Power Banana. This wonderful concoction of camberness and reverse camberness has been unleashed onto the snowboarding populous and has been doing some major damage. It always seems like Mervin MFG (Lib-Tech, GNU, and ROXY) invent it, and then it winds up on everyone else's sales radars. But in all honesty this thing is ridiculous. Allow me to explain.
First: The board is handmade in the USA! Billy Joel and The Boss hand press every one of these things, and then Clint Eastwood sharpens the edges with his teeth. But seriously, the fact that everything that goes into the board is put there in Sequim, Washington means something special.
Second: The board not only has C2 Power Banana (if you don't know what this is read the article below), it also has Magne-traction! Mag is the technology that helps you grip, and is easy to see. Just look at most Mervin MFG boards and you'll notice that the edge is "wavy". There are seven different waves on each side. On a traditional "straight" snowboard you flex the board and it makes an arc into the snow. This only gives you two contact points at the base of that arc. With Mag, the "wavy" edge turns to a straight edge when flexed. So, that not only gives you a full edge contact from tip to tail, but then it also gives you a pressure point underneath each one of those little waves. The result is a board that grips (even when you tune down your edges) amazingly well and You Will Never Slide Out Again...
Third: This board has soooo much technology in the core. Three layers of wood, at least 6 carbon stringers that run tip to tail, and a cool newer material called Golden Fleece. Golden fleece is basalt (yup 8th grade Earth Science all over again) that is heated into a liquid and then cooled into a thread like shape. They then take the basalt strings and weave them into a sheet. That sheet becomes impregnated with epoxy and is then used under the top sheet of the board instead of fiberglass. This not only makes the board perform way better in and out of turns, but it makes it lighter and sounds really cool when your talking to your earth conscious buds because your doing something for the environment.
Fourth and Lastly: The last bit about this board is that it rides amazingly well. I will admit that I was a little scared to ride this board in the past, I mean the guy uses it to do double corks on 100ft, gapped, backcountry jumps in powder. But it's actually really forgiving, and super fast. It only took me a couple of turns before you understand how the board wants you to react. Once C2 and Mag are under your feet the board literally does most of the work for you. At Snowshoe this year this board was easily the fastest and most stable board I have ever ridden, and it could handle all of the really stupid things I usually do to a snowboard. Its just really nimble and fun with a big scoop of speed and durability.
Andrew
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