Donek Incline 160

I've been shopping boards, and I am not happy with prices.
Boards of interest:
Ride Timeless
Burton Custom X

All of these boards are close to $500.

Donek Incline is $360, and has good customer reviews.

I'm wondering about a couple of things:

1. Is the Donek soft enough between the feet to ride half-pipe, rails,
moguls.
My old Burton Johann 163 is waaay stiff between the feet. Holds an
edge at speed, stable at aggressive speed... but sucks in the park,
and is a little slow rail-to-rail.

2. Does the Donek have good snap at the ends.
I also ride a 3 yr old Sims Search 157 that is soft between the feet,
but has no snap, and is HEAVY. I ride it on features, pipe, and
moguls. Feels a little soft and freaky at high speed.

Thats it. Everything else I hear about the Donek sounds good. If you
have a Donek Incline, please chime in.

BTW, I'm 180 lbs, 5'9'', size 9.5 feet.

Jason

(Jason M.) wrote in message . com...

Donek Incline is $360, and has good customer reviews.

It's $385 with shipping. You do know that they are based near Denver
(Watkins), right?

I'm wondering about a couple of things:

1. Is the Donek soft enough between the feet to ride half-pipe, rails,
moguls.

My old Burton Johann 163 is waaay stiff between the feet. Holds an
edge at speed, stable at aggressive speed... but sucks in the park,
and is a little slow rail-to-rail.

Unfortunately, I'm avoiding pipe, rails and moguls to let me knee heal
so I can't tell you about this yet. I suspect you will find the board
superior in freeriding to the Johan in terms of edge hold and faster
edge to edge speed (what you call rail to rail) because of its narrow
profile. However, you should be careful about the narrowness of the
board (in the waist and very little flair to the tips), while it gives
it great responsiveness edge to edge... it also will lead to
boot-drag. I have size 8.0 (mondo 26) feet and I had to switch to
30/24 degrees to avoid booting out (which will feel like you just
washout and lose your edge). With size 9.5 feet you might need to go
Wide or even Sasquatch.

Back to flex, I believe the Incline to be rather stiff between that
feet, like most freeride boards... making it a little less capable in
the park than a dedicated freestyle board. I happen to like a stiff
board in the halfpipe (you need the stability and speed to air out)
however it might be a little awkward on rails (not sure...) on the
otherhand, the Donek website has a couple of photos of people doing
rails so obvious it is possible, maybe not optimal. I suspect the
narrow profile and quick responsiveness will help lining up for the
rail... not sure about on the rail (haven't tried it yet).

2. Does the Donek have good snap at the ends.
I also ride a 3 yr old Sims Search 157 that is soft between the feet,
but has no snap, and is HEAVY. I ride it on features, pipe, and
moguls. Feels a little soft and freaky at high speed.

Mmmhh.. The Donek is a directional, so I believe the nose is a bit
softer than the tail, this helps dampen you run at high speeds. But
might give you less spring doing a nollie or a switch ollie. I have
tried olling the board a little and find it has mediocre snap -
somewhere in between my super-stiff super heavy/solid Salomon Incline
and my park/pipe only Neversummer Evo (although again trying to "take
it easy" by banning myself from the rails, jumps and superpipe). I
have a feeling it's not a horrible board to take in the park, but at
the same time... that's definitely not the main purpose of the board.
That's just my early opinion... maybe some other owners can tell you
more.


Thats it. Everything else I hear about the Donek sounds good. If you
have a Donek Incline, please chime in.

BTW, I'm 180 lbs, 5'9'', size 9.5 feet.

Jason

I will keep you posted on my Incline... as I've only ridden it for 3
days so far. BTW I'm 5'8", 145 lbs, size 8 feet.

--Arvin

Donek Incline

I used to have an Incline 160 and now have a Wide 161. The boards have
the same sidecut and very similar characteristics, so Wide 161 owners
can chime in too!

I'll add to Arvin's comments...

1. Is the Donek soft enough between the feet to ride half-pipe,
rails,
moguls.

My old Burton Johann 163 is waaay stiff between the feet. Holds an
edge at speed, stable at aggressive speed... but sucks in the park,
and is a little slow rail-to-rail.

Unfortunately, I'm avoiding pipe, rails and moguls to let me knee heal
so I can't tell you about this yet. I suspect you will find the board
superior in freeriding to the Johan in terms of edge hold and faster
edge to edge speed (what you call rail to rail) because of its narrow
profile.

There are other factors making these boards very quick edge-to-edge -
read Donek's website for more details, but the things that make the most
difference to me is the torsional (crosswise) stiffness and the
super-solid edge construction (not the edges themselves, but the edge
areas of the board)

My Wide is faster edge to edge than for example a narrower Burton
Custom. There's very little "give" - it just does it - even under my
USM 8/ Mondo 26 boots. It makes for an incredibly stable ride too.

However, you should be careful about the narrowness of the
board (in the waist and very little flair to the tips), while it gives
it great responsiveness edge to edge... it also will lead to
boot-drag. I have size 8.0 (mondo 26) feet and I had to switch to
30/24 degrees to avoid booting out (which will feel like you just
washout and lose your edge). With size 9.5 feet you might need to go
Wide or even Sasquatch.

I have size 8 and anywhere from 15/6 to 24/15 angles and I definitley
prefer the Wide. I get about 3/8" overhang on all four corners (hees
and toes of both boots) which leads to no chance of boot drag except in
deep slush where you carve submarine. (See this old thread for an
extended conversation on board width choice -
http://www.google.com/groups?hl=en&l...d4ab74&rnum=25)

I have a solid carving technique so the extra width doesn't get in my
way, but overhang does, so I went wider. Depending on your technique
and needs, your mileage may vary. The extra width also helps me
immensely in powder - the Incline 160 sank, the Wide 161 floats me. I
have a really old Incline 168 (from circa 1997, specs are slightly
different and it's a lot softer than the current one) and that floats
me... it seems to be a quetsion of getting enough surface area for my
190 pounds.

Back to flex, I believe the Incline to be rather stiff between that
feet, like most freeride boards... making it a little less capable in
the park than a dedicated freestyle board.

Doneks are *definitely* stiff between the feet. As you discussed
w.r.t. the Buton Johan, that's where part of the stability comes from.

I happen to prefer the stability in the park, because I do straight airs
with simple grabs, and the occasional small 180, and if it's the right
conditions, I'll try a 360. (My partk abilities are clearly less than
the board's). The stability helps me rescue bad landings, better than
any other board I've ridden.

If you're a true freestyler, tweaking, boning, etc, the flex might get
in your way.

I happen to like a stiff
board in the halfpipe (you need the stability and speed to air out)
however it might be a little awkward on rails (not sure...) on the
otherhand, the Donek website has a couple of photos of people doing
rails so obvious it is possible, maybe not optimal. I suspect the
narrow profile and quick responsiveness will help lining up for the
rail... not sure about on the rail (haven't tried it yet).

I never take mine on rails, mostly to preserve the edges and base....
I'm fanatical about the condition of my boards, and compressed edges
upset me greatly

In terms of halfpipe, like Arvin says, stability and speed are a
necessry component. However, if you don't have a solid and aggressive
carving technique, you might not get as many hits in the pipe as you
would with a softer, tighter turning board.

2. Does the Donek have good snap at the ends.
I also ride a 3 yr old Sims Search 157 that is soft between the
feet,
but has no snap, and is HEAVY. I ride it on features, pipe, and
moguls. Feels a little soft and freaky at high speed.

Mmmhh.. The Donek is a directional, so I believe the nose is a bit
softer than the tail, this helps dampen you run at high speeds.

Definitley true.

But
might give you less spring doing a nollie or a switch ollie. I have
tried olling the board a little and find it has mediocre snap -
somewhere in between my super-stiff super heavy/solid Salomon Incline
and my park/pipe only Neversummer Evo

The tail snap is certainly more geared to helping you changes edges
faster during a carve. I can Ollie mine fine... just as well as my old
Burton Custom, I demoed a LibTech JoeyMcGuire several years ago that was
noticably better at Ollies.

Sean from Donek was mentioning a new model, "coming soon", with a
lighter core and deeper sidecut... I just checked their website and
nothing there about it yet, but maybe Sean will spill the beans enough
for you to know if it would suit you.

-Mike T

Jason,

The new phoenix line may be better suited to your needs. We are also working
on a twin line. Both models have a softer flex between the feet. We're
trying to balance that with stability in a carve. We're getting really
close on both these models. I don't want to release them before I'm 100%
satisfied. I had hoped this would happen sooner, but we've been very busy
filling orders and I haven't had as much time to work on them as I would
have liked. I expect we'll have some available by the end of February.
I'll be testing another prototype this wednesday. I think it may be the
one, but you never know.

Sean Martin
Donek Snowboards Inc.

http://www.donek.com/
phone:877-53-DONEK

"Jason M." wrote in message
om...
I've been shopping boards, and I am not happy with prices.
Boards of interest:
Ride Timeless
Burton Custom X

All of these boards are close to $500.

Donek Incline is $360, and has good customer reviews.

I'm wondering about a couple of things:

1. Is the Donek soft enough between the feet to ride half-pipe, rails,
moguls.
My old Burton Johann 163 is waaay stiff between the feet. Holds an
edge at speed, stable at aggressive speed... but sucks in the park,
and is a little slow rail-to-rail.

2. Does the Donek have good snap at the ends.
I also ride a 3 yr old Sims Search 157 that is soft between the feet,
but has no snap, and is HEAVY. I ride it on features, pipe, and
moguls. Feels a little soft and freaky at high speed.

Thats it. Everything else I hear about the Donek sounds good. If you
have a Donek Incline, please chime in.

BTW, I'm 180 lbs, 5'9'', size 9.5 feet.

Jason

(Arvin Chang) wrote in message om...
(Jason M.) wrote in message . com...

Donek Incline is $360, and has good customer reviews.

It's $385 with shipping. You do know that they are based near Denver
(Watkins), right?

I'm wondering about a couple of things:

1. Is the Donek soft enough between the feet to ride half-pipe, rails,
moguls.

My old Burton Johann 163 is waaay stiff between the feet. Holds an
edge at speed, stable at aggressive speed... but sucks in the park,
and is a little slow rail-to-rail.

Unfortunately, I'm avoiding pipe, rails and moguls to let me knee heal
so I can't tell you about this yet. I suspect you will find the board

Ok, so I kind of got talked into going into the park/pipe today. My
knee is a little tweaky (made a popping sound while I was doing a
method grab) and I might regret it a day or two from now... but
thought I'd tell you about the performance.

Doing jumps is quite fun with this board. The narrow waist gives you a
decent amount of responsiveness on lining up for jumps. The stiff tail
gives you a decent ollie into the air and it's swing weight is
noticeable low so you can manuever it in the air easily (for grab, no
spins yet - it just felt like the board was magnetized to my hand
sometimes). Landings are very stable due to the stiffness of the
board.

The board was pretty good in the pipe... stable are faster speeds and
stiff enough to ride up the wall with chatter. The narrow waist made
it kind of edge happy which is a little distracting, but with better
form I should be able to avoid that. This was my first day in the park
and pipe and I felt like I hadn't forgotten a thing over the summer
(although many of my bad habits were still present)... I could air 2-3
feet out of the superpipe wall (12-15 feet in the air).

--arvin

Thanks everyont for the feedback. Sounds like I need a wide. Phoenix
sounds interesting!


Interesting observations on width:
Ride Timeless length~ 161 waist: 25.5 cm
Donek Incline length~ 160 waist: 24.2 cm
Donek Wide length~ 160 waist: 26.? cm
Burton Custom length~ 160 waist: 24.5 cm

These numbers are approximate, as I didn't write down the numbers. I
observed these dimensions while checking out boards recently.
Anything narrower than 24.5 is pretty narrow (size 9.5 or smaller
feet). Notice that Ride is making the timeless in a 25.5cm waist width
and not even calling it "wide". I think their park board (name
escapes me) has a similar width at that length.
Also note that running edge length on this group of boards can differ
by 3 or 4 cm !! You can buy a 161 of some brand, and end up with a
short running edge. I was pretty surprised by this.


"Sean Martin" wrote in message .net...
Jason,

The new phoenix line may be better suited to your needs. We are also working
on a twin line. Both models have a softer flex between the feet. We're
trying to balance that with stability in a carve. We're getting really
close on both these models. I don't want to release them before I'm 100%
satisfied. I had hoped this would happen sooner, but we've been very busy
filling orders and I haven't had as much time to work on them as I would
have liked. I expect we'll have some available by the end of February.
I'll be testing another prototype this wednesday. I think it may be the
one, but you never know.

Sean Martin
Donek Snowboards Inc.

http://www.donek.com/
phone:877-53-DONEK

(Jason M.) wrote in message . com...
Thanks everyont for the feedback. Sounds like I need a wide. Phoenix
sounds interesting!

Interesting observations on width:
Ride Timeless length~ 161 waist: 25.5 cm
Donek Incline length~ 160 waist: 24.2 cm
Donek Wide length~ 160 waist: 26.? cm
Burton Custom length~ 160 waist: 24.5 cm


These numbers are approximate, as I didn't write down the numbers. I
observed these dimensions while checking out boards recently.
Anything narrower than 24.5 is pretty narrow (size 9.5 or smaller
feet). Notice that Ride is making the timeless in a 25.5cm waist width
and not even calling it "wide". I think their park board (name
escapes me) has a similar width at that length.

I don't think you looked at enough boards to compare properly. Here
are some Neversummer and Nitro specs

www.neversummer.com
Neversummer SL length:158,161 waist:25.3, 25.5
Neversummer Legacy (wide) length:159,163 waist:26.5, 26.6

www.nitro.de
Nitro Shogun length: 160 waist 25.2
Nitro Atlas (wide) length : 160 waist 27.1

Donek might be skewing your perspective, they design boards a little
differently than others. Both Burton has narrow boards, Donek does
too, but they boards flair even less so the width at the binding
locations is even more narrow than any other board. I would say
anything narrower than 25cm is pretty narrow (requiring less than size
8 feet, or over 15 degree of angle).

Doneks are *really* narrow, so narrow that even their wide isn't very
"wide," it's kind of between a regular board and a wide board. They
have a sasquatch line that is a true wide board (waist seems thick,
but realize on most boards the width at the foot is like 3 cm widers,
where was it's only 1-2 on a Donek).

Also note that running edge length on this group of boards can differ
by 3 or 4 cm !! You can buy a 161 of some brand, and end up with a
short running edge. I was pretty surprised by this.

Yea, in addition to sidecut radius you have to think of how "deep" the
sidecut is as well. Anyways, you get the idea... you really only can
tell by trying the boards out.

--Arvin