Snow and ski - Bataleon snowboard

Tai-Pan wrote:
hello my name is lorenzo, from italy. i would ask u if someone know
something or tried any Bataleon snowboard.
As i can understand, most of u are from USA, but not often u talk about
Burton, that is, for what i know, the leader of snowboard market.
i would ask u about a freestile binding; i have Burton c60, too hard for
freestile, and i would buy the Mission. what do u think about it? can u tell
me some other models?
thanks!

Hi Lorenzo. I have heard of Bataleon snowboards and their triple bases,
but have not been able to try them out and I've only read a few reviews
on them. Their website
(http://www.bataleon.com/site/technol...ase_technology) is
very nice and very clearly explains the motivations and principles
behind their designs (I wish all snowboard website were this nice). So
I don't think they are pure hype, I think they honestly tried to
engineer a new board design that automatically solves what they see as
the most common problems people have when riding snowboards (where
other companies have to do a lot of testing, experimentation, and
finally trial and error to find a flex/sidecut shape that works). I
think their design has some advantages (definitely less likely to catch
your edge) and disadvantages (it is automatically going to be slower
edge to edge, what they call "smoother") but it isn't going to replace
normal snowboard design. One concern is maintenance of the board, you
cannot stone-grind these boards without modifying the machine, which I
think very few shops will be willing to do for a single board. Of
course, most people never get their boards bases stone ground. Just be
careful because I have the feeling that if it's done wrong it will
destroy your Bataleon board. If you are mostly doing butters, rails,
and spins all day, then the Bataleon board sounds like the thing to
get. If you are doing freeriding, it would definitely not be my first
choice. Since you are in Europe, I would recommend checking out
(http://www.rad-air.com/) as well. They are a well-known Swiss brand
that's really hard to get out in the US as well and if I was in Europe,
that would be the brand I want to try out the most myself.

The C60 binding is a very stiff binding to be sure, although I have a
hard time believing that Burton would ever make a binding that's bad
for freestyle. I've ridden the Missions and they are a solid,
affordable binding that are good for freestyle and good for the park.
Not super-stiff (like Burton C16 - an ancestor of the C60), not
super-soft (Burton P1MD) which I've both ridden. I also really like the
Nidecker 800 Pros (http://www.nidecker.com/home.php?lg=en&cy=italia)
they have a really big snug straps that look you in, a firm, but not
super stiff highback, and a really cool eva foam shock absorber built
into the base of the binding.

Hope this helps...