Option Northshore 159 review

hey folks,
i don't have a ton of time, but i'll pipe in w another bit of info on the
new board i'm riding this season.

i'm 5' 9" 174lb freerider. i've got 05 burton mission sz L w capstrap and
burton ion boot sz 28.5. no park/pipe. i ride utah's classic terrain
primarily at snowbird and solitude- steep and deep powder, wide open bowls,
some tight trees and i enjoy up to 20ft cliff drops. i like to go FAST.

here are some tidbits:

- pintail design seems to float nicely when going fast in the pow, but dives
when starting out and moving slowly.
- the soft flex of the northshore is not the best for me. i definitely seem
to get thrown around a bunch in the heavier snow (which we're getting now)
and the chop. i'm used to riding a much larger board though- 64, 68, 70.
i'd like to try the 62northshore
- i like the pintail design for allowing me to make longer GS style turns
and not dictating my turns
- launching - the board takes off nice, but i tend to sink the tail deep
on some landings. causes me to ride the tail and sometimes wash out. to be
successful getting air on this board i need to not ride the tail so much on
the landings..
- the board is extremely easy to turn. scares me for getting on the big
timeless tomorrow.

- i'm interested in riding the burton fish. stiffer flex, and the big nose
for float. that might be a better design for heavier, more aggressive
rider.

cheers~
--


jmed

Jason Medeiros wrote:
hey folks,
i don't have a ton of time, but i'll pipe in w another bit of info on
the
new board i'm riding this season.

Hey Jason I'll give you my comparisons for my Burton Fish 156MD with
Burton P1MD bindings.

i'm 5' 9" 174lb freerider. i've got 05 burton mission sz L w
capstrap and
burton ion boot sz 28.5. no park/pipe. i ride utah's classic
terrain
primarily at snowbird and solitude- steep and deep powder, wide open
bowls,
some tight trees and i enjoy up to 20ft cliff drops. i like to go
FAST.


Hopefully the above passage was quoted properly. I'm 5'8" 150 lbs
riding in Lake Tahoe. I usually do big wide cruiser runs that I can
carve deep on. However when it dumps snow... I usually do a little bit
of bowl riding and then more over to the trees onces the open runs get
tracked out.

here are some tidbits:
- pintail design seems to float nicely when going fast in the pow,
but dives
when starting out and moving slowly.

My Fish seems to float very well even when going very slowly. This is
probably because of the huge nose on the board in combination with the
pintail. I've never had a board that literally "floats" itself to the
top layer of the powder like this... and this way key considering the
18 feet of snow that has been dumped on Tahoe in the last two weeks. I
should point out that Tahoe snow tends to be much heavier than Utah
snow in general and so this will add to the buoyancy effect.

- the soft flex of the northshore is not the best for me. i
definitely seem
to get thrown around a bunch in the heavier snow (which we're getting
now)
and the chop. i'm used to riding a much larger board though- 64, 68,
70.
i'd like to try the 62northshore

I have had similar experiences with the Fish - I get severely thrown
around in deep tracked powder and firmer choppy snow. The big snow and
the soft flex makes the board always want to slide *over* the snow.
This si fine for little bumps and slush that get push out of the way...
but for big stuff you want to push "through" the crud and not bounce on
top, I think it is a side effect of the flotation effect. I kind of
wanted to try the OSin 4807 168 in comparison.

- i like the pintail design for allowing me to make longer GS style
turns
and not dictating my turns

I like how the pintail does allow me to exit my turns when I want to...
but the short sidecut (7.5m) and soft flex make it only capable of
doing short slalomy turns (less than 10 feet radius). I end up running
out of edge in the middle/end of my carve if I try to do a aggressive
deep carve and shift to weight toward the tail (which is only 10 inches
on this board).

- launching - the board takes off nice, but i tend to sink the
tail deep
on some landings. causes me to ride the tail and sometimes wash out.
to be
successful getting air on this board i need to not ride the tail so
much on
the landings.

The board with it's 3" (7.6cm) setback really throws you back on you
tail and you have to bias your weight towards you front foot heavily to
compensate. I haven't taken it in the pipe though.

- the board is extremely easy to turn. scares me for getting on the
big
timeless tomorrow.

Board is way to easy to turn. It's great in the trees becase you can
make turns with only a hint of hip pressure... but if you try to turn
as hard as possible at speed you will likely overwhelm the flex of the
board. Also with you front foot almost behind the center point of the
board, the big nose with deep in and flap around (it's hard to
describe)

- i'm interested in riding the burton fish. stiffer flex, and the
big nose
for float. that might be a better design for heavier, more
aggressive
rider.

I was borderline between the 156MD and 156HD, but I choose the Fish for
tree-riding and the MD is great for that, but a little soft for
anything else. The HD or 160 is probably more all-around.

Hey Jason I'll give you my comparisons for my Burton Fish 156MD with
Burton P1MD bindings.



cool thanks. nice review.

--


jmed

i took the timeless 67 out today in 12" of heavy untracked/semi tracked pow
conditions. wow, MUCH MUCH faster than the option. i like bigger boards
better. the ride is way stiffer and much more stable, though, as expected,
it was more difficult to turn.

g'day

--


jmed