I’m not a great boarder. I fall on my butt, knees, shoulders and arms, but the surf like feel and tiger-claw like grip of this board make me feel like I can ride much more aggressively without facing dire consequences. I’ve been able to much more easily charge through steep moguls, do slashes on steep sides of almost any gully, and carve deep and long enough to double grab the inside of the board on turns. Can’t seem to pull it off on the old board. Maybe there’s a magic feather effect going on here, or maybe its the tech.

Traditionally cambered snowboards bend the tip and tail downwards to help push the corners of a board down into the snow. Like a ski. Lib-tech’s banana boards, taking a queue from rocker boards from the 80s, invert this curve, bending boards upwards at the ends.

This has several effects: It helps boards float a bit more in powder and over choppy snow, pivot the entire board between the feet for quick slash turns, make the ends less accidentally catchy, and precurving the board’s ends in an arc that allow the board to carve well when you lean over enough. It gives the overall board a very free feeling, like a surfboard or park board with no edges, but let you carve when necessary when you put the board up on its side.

There are three minor disadvantages/catches: edge to edge for a quick turn is the same as on any traditional board, but going from carve to carve takes a bit more effort. Also, the rocker shape is good for keeping from diving in powder, but you’re certainly not floating over it, either. (Lib sells a longer variant of this board with a shovel nose, and a narrow tail model called the Snow Mullet specifically for powder.) And when you are exhausted, since no edges press down on the snow when you’re just standing there, it’s hard to control unless you are charging. (Hey, those of us riding should be charging all the time anyhow, right?) The board always wants to move.

The bottom line is, rocker boards are super fun because you can take more risks on them, and they fly over lots of rough terrain. Every other board maker is going in on this revival of old 80s rocker shapes. But Lib tech boards like this one also have magne-traction, and so they can carve unbelievably well.

Regular snowboard edges are curved but smooth, like a samurai sword. Magne-traction boards have waves in them, basically turning the edges into steak knives. Here’s how I’d explain the advantages to this. Imagine cutting a piece of ice with a butter knife, and then again with a steak knife. Steak knife does better, right? OK then! But here’s another advantage the wavy edges have: smooth snowboard edges don’t assume lateral movement. The kind of movement that happens when an edge of a board or ski slides out on ice. Take the same ice cube, and drag the butter knife across the ice and it should just move. The serrations on a steak knife serve to hold the edge in place, or regrip again after moving, very quickly.

It’s hard to express how much I enjoy this board, out of all the boards in my collection. Usually, I’d have to deal with compromises in terms of short and maneuverable boards and boards that can survive on powder, but somehow through shape and technology, it manages all to a certain degree without being dull. And the paint looks pretty killer, too. I’ll be riding it at Snowmodo, for sure.

[Lib-Tech]

Dubbed the “Lamborghini of snowboards” by Cheetah, this $US1,900 board is heavy on the hype until we can get resident rider and Editorial Director Brian Lam to test it out (*cough* winter reader meet-up *cough*).

If Cheetah is to be believed, the F-117 will do everything short of take off and do an Immelman Turn, thanks to a huge honkin’ hole that runs down the centre of the board. Says Cheetah, “the main purpose of the opening is to reduce the amount of surface which comes in contact with snow. Smaller surface means less drag, which translates into more gliding speed.”

Then there are the supports, which would no doubt do Christopher Nolan proud with their nod to Batman’s Tumbler. However, unlike the Tumbler, one thing this board cannot conquer is heavy powder, which the makers say one should avoid if you want to buy. A heli-skiing and boarding piece of gear this is certainly not.

The board is limited edition and available for preorder now. Shipping is expected to begin sometime this month [Cheetah Ultra Sports via Engadget]

[Blam: Not sure I buy this design. "Less surface area for more glide" is a principle that doesn't make sense for me on all conditions. I bet that thing will do alright on a groomer but will sink on powder. I like the fact that weight is placed directly on edges, for focused turning power, but depending on the rest of the geometry this board could be very twitchy. And while some makers are focusing on reducing the distance between a boarder's boots and the ground, this design clearly raises you. It might have the same type of instability you'd get from stilts, albeit to a lesser degree. Regardless, a lower centre of gravity is your friend in this sport! But I'd have to test it to find out more.]

It’s called Flaik, and last Friday it walked away with the top prize at the Australian International Design Awards.

Flaik consists of two main components. The first is the tag, a stylish red pod that straps to your arm. Inside there’s a GPS chip that accurately tacks your movement around the ski resort, measuring speed, distance, altitude and airtime. The unit transmits this information every few seconds to its servers, which you can then review at your leisure either via mobile phone or online.

And that’s the second component – Flaik isn’t just a gadget, it’s a community. You can pair the Flaik with your mobile phone and use it to track your mates on the slopes, send your own location to friends and receive detailed analysis of your runs.

There’s even a safety element involved – it can warn you via SMS when you go out of the resort’s boundaries. And because it’s a GPS tracking device, if you do happen to get lost, your location can be tracked by the authorities, meaning a swift rescue and ongoing ridicule from your mates.

The Flaik is designed to withstand temperatures up to -60 degrees celcius, and has a 15 hour battery life in GPS mode. It has an impact resistant design that can withstand the bumps and knocks you get from falling down the slopes, crashing into people and trees and falling over at the end of a long night’s drinking.

That guy smiling in the photo is Butch Brady, of Jackson, while the guy behind him is Eric Sweet. And the board is probably the longest snowboard in the world, according to the Guinness World of Records. Hmmmm. Guinness. Time to go to the fridge. [Spluch]

Winter is coming and it’s just about time to hit the slopes, but are you having trouble deciding between downhill skiing and snowboarding? The Venom Switchboard is a cross between the two, and adds an aluminium steering bar for even greater control. This vehicle looks like it mixes together just the right amount of danger and thrills, and it’s not all that expensive, either.

The Switchboard consists of two boards joined together, and when you move the attached bar along with your front foot, it turns the articulated front board, giving you lots of control. You might not want to try this one on icy slopes, but screaming down a hill of packed snow, powder or loose granular ice might be the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

Imported from the Netherlands, Switchboard is now available in the United States for $590. [Venom, via Sci Fi Tech and SkiBikeFun]