Lib Tech Rasman Snowboard Review

Who is the Rasman Most Suited To?

The Rasman is best suited to someone looking for a board they can throw their weight into but want it more freestyle oriented than freeride. It's not the most aggressive camber profile, but it's got some extra stiffness in it that makes it feel best when riding it aggressively. 

Also a good option for those who experience hard/icy conditions a lot. 

Definitely not for the beginner, but not even a low-end intermediate rider in my opinion. 

Bindings angles: +15/-15

Stance width: 570mm (22.4″)

Stance Setback: Centered

Width at Inserts: 265mm (10.43") at front insert and 266mm (10.47") at back insert 

Rider Height: 6'0"

Rider Weight: 175lbs

Rider Boot Size: US10 Salomon Lo-Fi

Bindings Used: Burton Malavita M

Damp or Chattery? 

Definitely more damp than chattery. 

Smooth or Snappy? 

Definitely more smooth than snappy.

Powder

Didn't have much to test it in, but felt OK in what I had. 

Specs suggest it wouldn't be amazing, but wouldn't be terrible either. The nose is longer than the tail and there's a good amount of rocker in the profile. 

Carving & Turning

Carving: Good smooth carves. Something that definitely prefers being on edge than any kind of skidding. But definitely more smooth than lively. 

Maneuverability at slow speeds: Found it really quite an effort to move from edge to edge at slow speeds. One of the least nimble boards I've ridden in a while. Didn't like it in trees at all. 

Skidded Turns: Not good for skidding turns, better to be right up on those edges on this thing, IMO. 

Speed

Nice and stable at speed, and this is the best feature of this board for me. 

Uneven Terrain

Wasn't a fan of riding this board in uneven terrain. With bumps it wasn't very nimble in terms of trying to weave between and not that forgiving going over. 

And in crud it didn't crush through, like some boards can - negating the need to be able to correct errors easily - but it wasn't easy to correct when you got thrown off your line either. 

Jumps

Pretty good without being exceptional. 

Pop: Some pop there, but it takes quite a bit to access it. 

Approach: Good and solid for bigger jumps and setting up for straight air, but when you wanted to setup for spins or a trickier approach I didn't like it that much. 

Landing: Good and solid on landings. A little unforgiving when you were off, but not too unforgiving. 

Side-hits: Not nimble enough for me for side hits and not enough easy pop. 

Small jumps/Big jumps: Best for medium to large jumps, straight air and with a nice landing area. 

Switch

Good for riding switch. There's a bit of a longer nose than tail going on, but it's a centered stance and no taper or anything.

Spins

Felt pretty slow to get it around, felt like it took too much effort to get the spin around. Almost as good for setting up switch as it was for setting up natural, but I didn't really like setting up for spins on it, even in my natural stance. 

Jibbing

Surprised me a little on jibs to be fair. Usually something that doesn't have easy pop and isn't that nimble I don't like on jibs - and whilst I still didn't find it exciting or super easy for jibs, it was better than expected it would be, when not doing anything too fancy (not that I ever really do on jibs anyway!)

Butters

It butters better than I would have expected for how it otherwise feels riding, but still not super easy to butter or anything. 

Overall, the Rasman is a board I felt I had to muscle a bit to get it to respond. When you do muscle it, it feels pretty good in open terrain, with a bit of speed on and when you're really railing your turns. 

But for slowing it down, in uneven terrain and tight spaces, I found it was a bit of chore to ride.