With the World Ski and Snowboard Festival reduced to just 5 days the demo days were shortened to just the one weekend from the two that it has been in recent years.
Hopefully they’ll return to 2 weekends for next year but will have to wait and see.
The one weekend that there was, was great though. Lots of fresh snow (which is awesome to have mid-April!) Great visibility both days too.
Saturday April 14th
With 27cm of fresh snow in the 24 hours prior it was the perfect day for testing freeride boards (which is what I mostly rode on the Saturday). Visibility (at least the part of the mountain where I was riding) was great. There was a bit of wind (which was surprisingly cold for April) but only noticed it on the chair lift. It was around -8 degrees with wind chill.
Sunday April 15th
There was more fresh snow in the morning but just a few centimeters.
About as cold as Saturday in the morning but warmed up in the afternoon as the sun came out.
Visibility was variable in the morning for the first couple of laps but cleared out pretty quickly with the sun coming out late morning.
Brands Present
The following snowboard brands attended this year.
- Rossignol
- Flux
- Never Summer
- Jones
- Now
- YES
- Burton
- GNU
- Lib Tech
- Ride
- K2
- Nitro
- Prior
- DC
Apologies if I’ve missed any brands from this list.
Gear I Demoed
I had the privilege to try the following over the two days.
Snowboards
- Never Summer Chairman
- Gnu Mullair
- Lib Tech E-Jack Knife
- Burton Flight Attendant
- Ride Berzerker
- Rossignol Saw Tooth
- Jones Mountain Twin
- K2 Cool Bean
- Burton Kilroy Process
- Nitro Team
Bindings
- Flux XV bindings
- Flux XF bindings
- Ride LTD bindings
- Burton Genesis EST
- Burton Malavita EST
I will be publishing my reviews for all of the above (in addition to all the other gear I’ve demoed over the season) throughout the rest of the year.
Big Thank You
Again, a big thanks to the World Ski & Snowboard Festival organizers, the brands and the brand reps that attended, and to Whistler Blackcomb for another awesome event this year.
And for the Ski and Snowboard Festival as a whole, with some great events – I especially enjoyed the Big Air.
Looking forward to next year!
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