Board Reviews

Well, I was looking at the forum and noticed that the two most popular
threads were "How to tell what time it is" and "How do you tell if you
are regular or goofy" and figured I should chip in with some board
reviews on all the stuff that I've tried during demos this season (the
snow being only decent, I had plenty of time). A quick overview, I'm
5'8" 145 lbs, an expert freerider, intermediate freestyler - I like
stiff boots (currently riding Salomon Malamute) and boards.

2007 Rome Agent 152 - this board just fun to ride, forget what I said
about loving stiff board, this board is medium to medium soft, but has
a ton of pop and is really playful. It is super easy to spin off of
jumps, forgiving to land, and really fun on rails. The flex is nice
that it soft enough for rails, but not completely unstable at
freeriding speed. It can handle steep hardpack adequately, but you
won't be laying down steep carves as the ~8m sidecut is too tight for
that, it is more for lineup a natural kicker/cliff/cornice and then
bombing at it. If you like to ride park for most of the day, this is a
great board for you.

2007 Rome Anthem 155 - stiffer and more all-mountain oriented than the
Agent, the Anthem surprisingly has a shorter sidecut and so isn't
great for deep carves. It spun alright, but didn't have as much pop as
the Agent. A nice board, but I had just ridden the Agent and overall I
didn't have as much fun with this board. I would recommend the above
or below board instead.

2007 LibTech Phoenix 157 - this is a great all-mountain board, it's
got a 8.75m sidecut with a medium stiff flex which really lets you put
down an edge and carve the steeps. Not sure if it's the golden fleece
basalt they use, but this board has a really nice flex and pop out of
the tail - making it great for all-mountain freestyle, where instead
of riding urban McJib setups, the whole mountain is your terrain park.
If you love to bomb/carve steeps, drop cornices and cliffs, and then
hit the park for a run or two on the way to the lift, this board is
for you. Board is longest out of the ones I demo'd, but was still easy
to spin.

2007 LibTech Rice Rocket 151 - didn't like this park board at all.
Soft - terrible at freeriding, no pop to it. Would not recommend it.

2007 LibTech Magnetraction 156 - interesting board, medium stiffness,
this board definitely gives you a ton of edgehold. I grew up in the
East Coast and for super icy stuff it could be nice, but if you don't
live in the North East where rain can coat the slopes with a shiny,
clear, slippery boilerplate, there is no need for a board with this
much grip in my opinion. The tradeoff is the board doesn't quite carve
cleanlythrough the snow (feels like the scalloped points all dig in
slightly separate places along of the carve arc). Board has mediocre
pop and was a bit tricky on spins... was fine on rails though (this is
the freeride MTX, maybe the freestyle one is better).

2007 Nitro T2 152 - on a suggestion I went and tried this board, it is
a great park board. A little stiffer than most park boards (6 out of
10) it has a slightly longer sidecut (8.0/8.4/7.3) that makes it fun
to ride on medium pitch slopes. It has good pop, light and really easy
to spin. It is pretty tough as I took it out on the rails, boxes, and
even rode a bunch of fallen logs and tree stumps. A great park board
that is still quite good all over the mountain - somewhere in between
the Agent and the Phoenix.