Every year the Boardroom hosts their Future of Snowboarding demo day at Cypress Mountain.
And I am there every year, of course! (at least the last few years).
This year it was held on March 3rd, 2018, between 10am and 6pm and featured heaps of awesome brands to demo (and some fun games and prizes too) and a variety of gear including boards, bindings, boots & goggles.
The Brands
The brands featured this year were:
- Never Summer
- Capita
- Lib Tech
- DWD
- Union Binding Co
- Flux Bindings
- Slash
- Stepchild
- NOW
- YES
- Smith
- Oakley
- Niche
- GNU
- Lobster
- Switchback Bindings
- Sessions
- DC
- Dakine
- Vans
And more… – sorry if I left any out.
The Conditions
Conditions were ideal for demoing – some recent fresh snow, some firmer spots and 100% visibility and sunshine.
Off-groomer was good, not amazing but still good and there were still some fresh patches of powder to test the boards on.
That also made it a very popular day, which meant long lift lines…. But I managed to find a lift without lines, or at least very small lines, and used that part of the mountain to compare the boards I demoed.
The Testing Process
As I do with all my testing, I chose a selection of routes that I would repeat for every board. And included everything in those runs, that I needed to test (e.g. riding switch, carving, jumps, jibs, spins, side-hits, trees, powder, speed etc).
And, as always, I did it all on my board first to get a feel for the conditions and to use as a comparison for my ratings.
Also, as always, I rode every board with my own boots and bindings.
The Boards I tested
This was an all-mountain-freestyle day for me and I tested the following boards.
- Never Summer Ripsaw
- Never Summer Warlock
- Niche Aether
- GNU Rider’s Choice
- Lib Tech Box Knife
- Never Summer Proto Type 2
- Lib Tech TRS
I will publish my reviews of each of these boards throughout the year (once I’ve sorted through my plethora of notes!)
Board I Enjoyed most on the Day
Every board I rode on the day had its own charm and this is a list of some seriously nice boards, but the board I enjoyed the most on the day was the GNU Rider’s Choice. Still an awesome deck. Followed closely by the Lib Tech TRS and Never Summer Proto Type 2.
Cypress and Boardroom
A big thanks to the Boardroom and Cypress for hosting this event every year. It never fails to disappoint. Awesome to get the chance to demo some 2019 boards.
Brand Reps
Another big thanks to all the brand reps that I spoke with. As per usual everyone was very friendly and very eager to chat snowboards.
Until Next Year
Already looking forward to next year’s events and trying out what 2020 has to offer!
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