Eliot gets comfortable on the RVL8 Revolts…

So I’ve been a snowboarder for year but have always been an aggressive rollerblader and proficient ice skater so i decided to get some skiboards. Rvl8 seemed like the best brand and since I’m 6’3″ 160lb I went for the 105cm Revolts. I rode all groomers and park this week in the UP Michigan. I was comfortable right away and had a ton of fun. By the end of the second day I was going down switch for entire blue runs, bombing black diamonds and doing some decently sized 180s. I haven’t had experience with any other board lengths or companies but the boards were great. I would recommend skiboarding to anyone looking for a lot of fun all over the hill. I’d be interested to see how shorter boards would feel, but I think the 105’s are perfect for someone of my height.
Rider – Eliot – Beginning Skiboarder


Revolts are awesome for riding the mountain…

This is a review of the 2013 Revolt Trees, I have these mounted with the Receptor Snowboard risers and I use Union Force snowboard bindings. I used these skis at Whiteface in NY for the first time last weekend. Conditions were primarily packed powder and loose granular. I can honestly say that this skiboard can handle anything. It was quick and stable through the moguls, held a great edge on the hard pack and handled well on the jumps. It was stable at high speeds and performed very well on all open trails. Unfortunately due to a low snowpack, I was unable to test the ski boards on the slides at Whiteface or in the trees. The flex on this skiboard was perfect for all mountain riding. This is an awesome skiboard for riding the mountain and handled great even with the soft boot setup!
Rider – Kevin – Expert Skiboarder (2013 Tree model)


Revolts are super easy to turn…

I’ve got the Chickens with the Pro Prime releasable setup.

The weather wasn’t on my side, but I couldn’t wait to try these things out. Boreal is the closest resort, they have night skiing, & fairly easy terrain, so I headed up there after work. They’d gotten 6″ of new snow the day before & 3″ of powder on my way up (& another inch while I was there).

First run I did the bunny hill. Right off I thought I was completely out of control. I then realized it was simply that the boards were responding to every input of my legs & the terrain. Second run down the bunny hill was just plain boring so I headed off a Blue run.

Hit this run a dozen times or so.

Coming from old-school 200’s, these 105’s are insanely manuverable. Especially if I kept the boards close together & kept my weight centered. Turning was easy, stopping was a bit easier than skis, & speed on steeper hills was easy to gain, but not as fast as skis. The powder slowed me down terribly. I found myself walking down some stuff while skiers where floating by.
Fell a few times & found the bindings to be a little loose (had them set at 5.5 front/ 4.5 rear). Tightened them up one full turn & all was good. Falling was NOTHING like falling with long-ass skis. Didn’t twist my knees or anything. There’s just not enough leverage in the short boards like there is with longer skis. I also noticed that I need tighter boots….gonna take care of that today.

My quads were getting a workout & the powder was getting deeper & slower so I called it a night after a few hours & came home.

The best part about the boards:
Super easy to turn & stay in control when you stay centered & keep the boards together.
(These boards will end up training me to be a better skier)

The worst part:
Walking up to the lifts with no poles to push off of.
Powder didn’t help either for my first time out.

Rider – 93Pony – Beginning Skiboarder (2008 Chicken model)


Two words to describe the Revolt’s, FAST & STABLE…

Two words to describe the Revolt’s, FAST & STABLE. I can only imagine what the RVL8 Alps or Sherpa’s are like! I felt like I was on my long skis again with the speed and stability they had, but, (yes there is a but), I did loose some of my maneuverability that I was used to with my old Canon M7’s 99cm, and my legs certainly felt the length difference… in other words my legs got tired which they never did on my Canon’s. When doing those super fun 360 spins… it was a little awkward and not as free flowing. But I was not clanking the boards together like I thought I would be doing, nor was I crossing them over like you can do with normal skis.

So with the Revolt’s at 105cm I got my speed and stability that I was lacking in my Canon M7 99cm, but felt I lost some maneuverability. With that said… I know after another full day or two I will probably regain that maneuverability because I will have gotten used to them. They will be perfect boards for long runs, fresh snow and for just bombing straight down runs for sure! I am 5’4″ rode them with non release bindings with no problems. This is the longest I would ever go in a ski board at my height. The graphics are fun and you will get comments!

Rider – Shelley Bright – Intermediate Skiboarder (2008 Chicken model)


Revolts exceeded expectations…

I used my EMPs in the Canadian Rockies this last week for the first time in varied terrain, from 12 inch powder to freshly groomed trails. The skiboards exceeded my expectations and instilled confidence to try more challenging terrain.

Some background: I am nearly 48 years old, 6′, 195 lbs, non-athletic, and I have been skiboarding mostly green and the occasional blue groomed run for 2 years using SnowJam 90s. I upgraded to the 105 EMPs this season because I found that I had to be constantly adjusting my posture to maintain my balance on the SJ90s when in rough terrain. Greco’s recommendation to upgrade to the EMPs proved to be a perfect match to my ability (or lack of); the extra length provided the stability I desired, while maintaining maneuverability.

Per Valmorel’s recommendations for an all mountain setup in other forum threads, I modified my Spruce composite bindings to provide a 40 mm setback and I replaced the bindings with S810TIs to provide a more direct transfer from the boots to the skiboards.

My first day with the EMPs was at Sunshine Village ski resort. The first run was on a familiar and easy green run, that soon proved to be boring so I moved on to blues. By lunch, I was comfortable on short blacks and was able to join my teenage snowboarding children on runs I never dreamed of being on.

My second (Christmas) day, was at Kicking Horse ski resort and we were treated to fresh powder that reached depths of over 12 inches in the upper bowl. The EMPs carried me through the powder and they were effortless to control through the trees, which I struggled with in the past, and always avoided. Traversing previous tracks and other uneven terrain proved to be easy, and enjoyable. I could not get enough of the powder and the tree runs.

During the remaining three days, another two at Kicking Horse, and one day at Panorama ski resort, I progressively became braver. I did moguls, and let the skiboards max out their speed on familiar terrain while “racing” skiers and my children.

Thank you Greco and Valmorel for helping me find a skiboard and setup that has given me the confidence to step out of my previous comfort zone. The EMPs provide the ride that instills confidence.
Rider – Slow – Intermediate Skiboarder (2007 Ethan Mitchel Pro model)


With Revolts I was throwing down the carves like no tomorrow…

These boards are top notch. They behave great on the groomers, throwing down the carves like no tomorrow, and when you cut into the fresh pow between the trees there’s nothing like it. I can’t comment much on the park performance because I’ve just begun to explore that area. So far however they seem great. My field of experience is limited, since the only other board I’ve used is long rental skis. That said, however, I have yet to find the limits of these boards, and love every minute on them.

Rider – Nate Myton – Beginning Skiboarder

Revolts have a nice balance of speed, agility, and stability…

The original version of the RVL8 Revolts, unlike the current version, have lower tips/tails. Being of the 105cm size, they have more stability and speed than 98cm skiboards, but with better turning radius and agility than 110cm skiboards. Since they are slightly shorter than 110cm skiboards, they don’t perform quite as well on powder than 110cm skiboards that have more surface area, but they do perform well enough, especially when leaning back. On groomers, they have a nice balance of speed, agility, and stability. For those who want more than what a 98cm skiboard can do, and where a 110cm skiboard is too much, the 105cm RVL8 Revolts might be just right.
Rider – Edward Ho – Expert Skiboarder


Revolts are amazing and nimble…

Alright this has been a long time coming but I finally managed to take the time and head up to an indoor snow facility about 1 and a half hours drive from my house.

After Picking up my boots, having the toe and ankle punched (shell) I was all set to head off to snowplanet…

Just Some background info on me: I’m 5’10 weigh about 150lbs, have skied for about 6-7hours in my whole life and have a decent background in inline….

Right anyway, headed into snowplanet got suited up and clamped my feet to my Snowjam Extreme II bindings and beautiful Cities. Instantly I was amazed at how light the felt when compared to the long skis i have briefly tried. Skating was natural as I headed to the magic carpet lift to try the bunny slope just to make sure I wasn’t going to be in over my head; I could immediately turn and could stop rather easily snowploughing.

After that great experience i decided to try my luck on the actual slope, the platter lift was of no hassle and once at the top it looked a lot steeper, but no worry, I went down slowly just making gentle turns with extreme ease, it was so easy and SOO fun. By this stage I had several people snickering behind me in the lift line “hey looks at his boards, they are SOO cool, they look like heaps of fun” or similar phrases to that extent.

On my second run I began to actually dig in the edges and began to teach myself carving and learning to hockey stop, after a few more runs I had that mastered and then was engaged in a conversation with a gentleman who was utterly amazed by my skiboards (the guy maybe in his early 50’s) wondering where he could get some and what they actually were, so I told him they were skiboards and pointed him in the right direction…

Next thing I though to try was speed, extreme speed, I bombed my way right down the slope (after having a conversation with a guy (a different guy) who questioned how fast they would be but still thought they were awsome,I also kindly corrected him that they were skiboards not blades ) Well it just so happened that this particular guy on skis liked to go very fast and well I managed to beat him down.

After conquering speed, turning, carving and stopping having several more looks of confusement and astonishment I thought hey lets try spinning to and riding fakie, this was the hardest thing to do although by the end of the night I could pretty much spin to fakie at most speeds (spinning back is a bit more difficult but I’m getting there)

The only down point of the night was when a complete novice skiier slammed straight into the back of me (she probably shouldn’t have been on the large slope), as well as a bit of topsheet damage but thats natural…

Anyway To sum up

The boards: They are amazing so nimble, quick, (no chatter when bombing) Feel so natural to ride, extremely fun and one of the main factors was the ease of learning, I spent FOUR HOURS and achieved the above It was incredible, not to mention they were a crowd pleaser…

The bindings: Solid didnt get any chatter or vibration when going super speed or initiating massive carves, a great option especially when on a budget…

Snowplanet: Although a bit repetitive (one straight slope) it was probably the best place to learn and it also had a decent sized jump and a few rails, the only other problem was it is only about 200m long and so the runs dont last very long, but it was still really cool.

What I Say: I say Skiboarding is the bomb, it is the best thing to hit the slopes ever it is crazy fun, without putting excess pressure on my bad knee and also even easier to do with a skating background.

I also say that the RVL8 Revolt Cities are incredible thats all there is to it, They hold an edge, they can really fly, Flex is great, spinning is fun and easy, THEY PERFORM. I would recommend the Revolts to anyone wanting to get into skiboarding they are simply great.

I had a great 4 hours on the slope at snowplanet, and now don’t consider myself a complete novice, I can’t wait for winter when I can continue to improve at an immensly rapid pace having fun spinning the whole way down the mountain
Rider – Aidan Ward – Beginning Skiboarder (Revolt Cities 2008 model)


Revolts are extremely stable…

I probably put these boards through the paces this weekend at Vermont. Sunday we hit up smugglers ice notch

Saturday night was bolton valley amid freezing rain. we were completely coated in ice and alot of the trails were icy as well.

These boards held a nice line on carving even on some ice. They are extremely stable at high speeds and on some of the more mushy areas they floated extremely well.

There was a bit more effort to get on edge then my earlier boards (lame mnp) but carve nicer once you are there.

Of course I had to hit up the terrain park as well. My first hit on a long box actually had ice covered on it so I felt like a snowplow and it jerked me a little but I didn’t lose control. wish I got a photo there

Overall I would reccomend these boards to anyone 5’8″ and above, anyone under that they may be a bit cumbersome until you get used to them.

Rider – Mark Carraro – Expert Skiboarder (Ethan Mitchel Pro model 2007)


Revolts are the perfect skiboard…

These are the perfect skiboard. At 105 cms long and 14.5 cms wide they provide the perfect balance between length and width. These boards also excel throughout the whole mountain, they are amazing on rails and off jumps in the park, and perform extremely well on groomers and in the glades. They perform adequatly in powder, but probly not as well as the longer 110s or wider KTPs. I have never really ridden them in more than 6 inches of powder, because I live in Pennyslvania. For the East Coast and park rider, I reccomend these boards 100 percent. Buy the RVL8 Revolt Citys!

Rider – Ty Bereskie – Expert Skiboarder (Revolt City 08 model)