When i think of Ride Snowboards, back-country, all-mountain boards isn’t what comes to mind. I think of parks, rails, urban style riding. And Austin Hironaka.
I first saw the Ride Slackcountry down at SIA. The graphics are rad. Ride teamed up with Schmidt Beer and laid some of the old beer can graphics on the Slackcountry topsheets. Just looking at the board takes me back to 6th grade–fishing, drinking stolen beer. Ahh… 2009 is Ride Snowboard’s entry into the reverse camber market. The Slackcountry doesn’t have a huge amount of reverse camber so much so that it rides like shit on hardpack. It’s got just enough to ride great in non-pow and in pow…well, it’s on. You’ll look at little pillows of snow with contempt and want to blow them into smitherines.
I got a chance to ride the 164cm for a few days. Here’s what went down:
Day 1 – Snoqualmie/Alpental (02.25.09)
Took a ride on the Wild Side @ Snoqualmie (aka Summit West) on Wednesday night. There was probably about knee deep pow. And by pow i mean NW style–heavy, gloppy, sloppy, dreamy. I got there a bit late and most of the pow was tracked, but no worries–the board fucking annihilates choppy pow. And if that pow happens to be NW heavy pow, this board doesn’t give a fuck. Strait line that shit.
Snoqualmie is known for it’s flat, treeless terrain. Add a foot of new glop on that and you’re liable to get stuck. Flat pow on a traditional cambered board puts the hurt on your back leg and if you’re hauling ass and get a little lazy–woops! Over the handlebars (don’t act like this hasn’t happened to you). This board literally allows you to ride in a relaxed position with your weight centered, going slow, in wet/heavy pow, on a flat slope.
Riding pow, and jumping into it pretty much sums up snowboarding for me. I managed to do some jumping on the thing and it’s got plenty of pop. The board doesn’t have so much reverse camber that you can’t ollie. It’s also pretty stiff, yet not so stiff that it rides you. Another thing that i noticed right away was landing. At Snoqualmie there’s a bowl on the right side of the Pacific Crest chairlift. Towards the top there’s a bit of an edge that you can jump off. It’s nothing special but if you haul ass off it, you can clear some distance. The landing however was completely tore up–traverse lines all up and down it. I hit it 4 times and just kept going faster, landing farther and landing going faster. It’s like once you get used to the board and it’s ability to blow through chopped up pow you just start bombing shit. I don’t think i’d do that on my normal board.
I went over to Alpental for a couple runs also. Pretty much to just see if there was any pow left. No dice. I traversed out the lower chair cat track which is usually groomed. I guess there’s not enough snow this year so what is usually a groomer wide is instead a traverse trail with whoops, doubles, ice, crust, chunder, etc. It was probably triple black diamond. The board was solid. No problem with edge control at all. Didn’t feel any different than a normal board on that stuff.
Day 2 – N.Cascade Heli Trip (02.27.09)
The second day riding the Slackcountry was up at North Cascade Heli (2/27). Read about the trip here.
Although it’s probably hard to have a bad time on a heli trip regardless of the board you were riding, the Slackcountry was perfect.
The snow on the heli trip was variable. There was a lot of wind the day before so there were scoured slopes and drifts scattered all over. We came down a few clean, steep pow sections–the board turns great. I came through a chute that was kinda steep, but wide enough to turn in. The turns were pretty tight and at 164cm i didn’t have a problem making quick, tight turns at speed.
The terrain we rode in on the heli trip was largely non steep. Most of it was Snoqualmie-ish steep. The steep that we did come through was pretty short. The Slackcountry reverse on a mellower slope is the shiz. It’ll save your back leg quite a bit.
Day 3 – Alpental (02.28.09)
After the 5 hour drive from Mazama, i passed the F out when i got home. Tired.
The next morning I went up to Alpental with Ki.Bryan. There was no line on chair 2. First run we powered out to piss pass cause all the inside backcountry lines were pretty tracked. When we got to piss pass we decided to hike 261. Since we were pretty much there anyways… That was the first run. After run 1 we hung out in the parking lot for a bit. That was pretty much the end too.
Specs
| Size | Eff Edge | Waist | Tip/Tail | Sidecut |
| 161 | 1254 | 256 | 301.6 | 9700/8200/9700 |
| 164 | 1279 | 258 | 305.0 | 9800/8300/9800 |
| 168 | 1305 | 260 | 308.3 | 9900/8400/9900 |
Post Shred Thoughts
This board makes riding chopped up pow fun. On a normal board i would’a hung it up way earlier, but the choppy pow session at Snoqualmie was super fun.
Even at 164, the board was easy to do handplants on. I think the tail being kicked up allows you to get it up over your head easier. Handplants are fun.
Plenty of pop. Ollie your face off.
The thing rails on groomers.
Find out more information about the Ride Slack Country at ridesnowboards.com
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SHANEBOARDER.COM SAYS: “I LOVE IT!!!!”
FUCKIN CROKKKPOT SELLOUT IN A BEDAZZLED SINGLET FUCK RIGHT OFF!
PS FLOW ME ONE A DEM SHITS PEACE
dude i’m killinit on the web with that where’s my wi-fives?
wi-five a-rod, wi-five
ps, i didn’t get to keep the board. it was a loaner.
i demo’d it again last sunday (3/15) at alpental. holy shit it was sick. took my 165cm Option Franchise (normal camber) out for one run. fuck that.
Do not EVER review a product that is not given to you for free or almost free. They pay big bucks to get product reviews posted on well known and liked web cites.
Just words of wisdom from someone who has been there.
“well known and well liked”
thanks!
if you have some reviews, drop a link! i’d like to read them.
i want a demo-our-shit job. itd be way cheaper than buying two pairs of bindngs, riding 3 different boards, two pairs of goggles and two pairs of boots per season. jesus h.
too rich for a college kid.
kelsonmcclung@gmail.com
go ahead and forward that to everyone you know.
thanks.
It actually lends some credence to the review, knowing that he didn’t get the board.
That, and dude can actually ride snowboards…
…or was shamebot joking? It’s hard on the e-Nets, when you don’t know the poststyles, to always get everything…
Great review….finally ride steps up and produces a "man" deck,
Still made in CHINA and owned by K2 (think skiing.) just sayin…
Everything is made in China these days man, I salute Lib and their efforts to produce in the US but ultimately it's too hard to compete with the likes of Burton, Rossi, Salomon etc. when they all do this. Oh and BTW even Lib makes skis now.
But how about a little respect for a local company who's been providing jobs and supporting the local community since Bill Kirschner founded K2 in 1962. If you want to buy Burton, get a board made in China, and support the Vermont economy that's your deal but I appreciate the jobs K2 provides the NW and Ride for the bad ass boards they build.
I dont mind that K2 provides local jobs on Vashon, i have a friend that used to work there and i got sweet hook-ups! just a bummer that they gotta use the "China" word in their company, not that it really matters i guess, since China owns more of our country then we do. As for lib, i love my skunkape!!!! And they do make skis now, wish they made them back when i was a skier so i could have supported a local company. Oh, and yes Burton boards are made in china, and Burton also owns Channel Islands/Al Merrick, along with foursquare/special blend and forum. Im sure were all riding something from China/Burton Corp.