Board Exam: 2011/2012 Lib Tech Travis Rice Limited Edition Snowboard Review

What the rep said: All-mountain freestyle; mellow magnetraction; C2 power banana for better edge hold, stability and pop; true twin shape

Stats/Setup: I checked in at 6'1" (1.85m) and 170 pounds (77.3kg) when I rode the Travis Rice Limited Edition in a 157 with Salomon Dialogue Boots (size 9.5) and some old Technine MFM Pro bindings at Mt. Bachelor, Oregon. Count the prepositions in that sentence.

Conditions: Hardpack, ice, some slush

Check out Lib-Tech's site for the goods

First impression: Dig that limited edition Art of Flight graphic by Mike Parillo

The Ride: A nice deep sidecut has the T.Rice going edge-to-edge like a tweaker standing on a rocking chair. When the turns open up, the mellow magnetraction shines. It's not as aggressive as the MTX found on some of Mervin's other boards, but it will hold on even when you're carving like a Euro hardbooter. I don't know exactly which boards have which version of magnetraction, but my guess is the deeper the sidecut the less need for a deep magnetraction. It works for this board anyway. It charges hard and holds on tight.

Another shining area is the stability. Even at 157 when I'm used to something longer, I was comfortable at speed, through chop and falling off stumps and jumps. This is a damp board that likes speed and likes a challenge.

The pop was pretty good. I've found Lib's C2 poppier than full rocker (or their earlier BTX), but not as poppy as full camber. This is to be expected as it has rocker between the feet, but camber to the contact points. The C2 does give you that little bit of buttery flex advantage over camber, though, for those who like to get your press on.

Bottom Line: It's not going to get you into a helicopter followed by a helicopter all by itself, but it can do everything else. In general, a hell of a lot of fun to ride. I wish I could've ridden the 161 and ridden it in a wider variety of conditions because this seems like a great all-mountain freestyle board.

Similar Boards: My Never Summer SL-R

Bonus Package: As a bonus to the Limited Edition board, the LE package includes The Art of Flight book, DVD and Blu-Ray all in a collector's edition box. It's a rad little package that I paid $80 for. Check it.

The art of book, Field Notes for scale

What's inside

The collector's edition, pop-up box

Board Exam: 2009/2010 Lib Tech Dark Series C2

The Rep said: Check out this stiff-ish, all-mountain freestyle board. Oh yeah, and our C2 Power Banana.

Stats/Setup: I'm around 6'1" and 170# with size 10.5 32 Focus Boa boots caged inside Union Force SL bindings. I tested the 158 board and it was a demo day, so I only rode the board for a few runs.

First Sight: What's up with that riser pad built into the board under the inserts? (I didn't get good pictures, check Lib's site) It felt pretty light swinging from my foot on the lift.

Conditions: Resort in the rain. Hard to icy groomers with slushy pockets.

The Ride: First, what I didn't ride: powder, pipe, rails. A damn shame we didn't have any powder, I've been wanting to test that C2 in the soft stuff and just haven't gotten a chance. That will have to wait. The dude-ditch and the metal features just don't attract me, so they're the last things I demo. Didn't make it there with the Dark One.

I did, however, take the jump line through a notoriously slow, beginner park to test the other freestyle aspects of the ride. The combo of this board's light weight and pop had me overshooting landings that are all too easy to fail from lack of speed. Chalk one up for the new Dark. On the icy patches, Magne-Traction shines. This is no gimmick folks. It might not turn ice into pow like they say, but at least you can keep your board under you in some hairball situations. Couple that with a camber point at the tail from the C2 and this board was powering from one turn to the next. I found that the Org Throttle 3-d Riser (mentioned under First Sight) gave this otherwise narrow-ish board the heel and toe clearance of a wider board while still retaining edge to edge quickness and most of the board-feel. Still, I wonder if it's really necessary.

Bottom Line: The Lib Tech Dark Series C2 is a high-end, all-mountain freestyle board. With the C2 upgrade over last year's model it feels stiffer, more stable, more responsive and comes with added pop at the cost of buttery softness. Then again, if you wanted that, you'd be reading my Skate Banana review. The addition of traditional camber points suited this board perfectly. Big cliffs and park jumps with potato chip ridged landings will no longer scare you. Another cool quality of Lib Tech boards is that they're made right here in the USA (near Canada) in Washington state with more environmentally friendly features than you can hug a tree at. A bio-plastic topsheet made from beans? You know it. But all this technology comes at a hefty price. That's where the 'high-end' comes in. Suggested retail price of the Dark Series with C2: $666 (how's that for dark). If you don't fear the price (nor the reaper), take a walk on the Dark side.

 

Any questions? Check out Lib's propaganda 

or peep Eric Jackson's part in Standard Films' Black Winter.  

Similar Boards: Never Summer Heritage-R