I purchased these as I was looking for a shorter pair of boards for other people in my family to use, but I wanted to ride them myself at first. Initial experiences were on a indoor slope, but I managed to take them outdoors to Villares, Switzerland a couple of days ago.
The shorter length caught me out twice. I fell on my back twice when riding the tails, but the second time I did actually push it to see how far I could ride on tails alone. I also think the shorter length contributes to the boards being slow starters, but I did manage to build up quite a bit of speed. Speed control was easy and so was stopping at the end of the runs. I did notice that the glided very well coming into the lift – better than Summit Nomads (another pair that I own). There were some “out-of-control” moments at speed, but they were easy to correct as the Elailas just responded very quickly.
For a number of rides I followed a snowboarder down. He was riding a good line and it was a good exercise chasing his line or going across the wake he created. He was faster than I was, but I caught up when I rode off my tails, keeping the tips a bit up.
I did upset one instructor because I slalomed through the poles he set up for some pupils. But hey-ho, it was a piece of cake, given the turning radius of the Elaila. I did not even break a sweat and was still riding upright!
It was outdoors that I really wanted to ride and I never realized what a test that would be. There has been no decent snow in the two weeks leading up to my visit, so snow conditions were terrible. Lots of icy sections in the shadows, followed by lots of slush in sections exposed to the sun. Definitely not ideal conditions, but very good for a review of how these boards would perform.
Carving was excellent, even using non-release bindings. I managed to get finger-dragging turns going without an issue. Skating the flats was easy, so was riding fakie.
The only place where the boards struggled was hitting the slush. I spun out a couple of times, and I would think this is partially due to the low tips. Higher tips on these boards would not be impractical though as it would reduce the running length.
I never had a chance to test them in powder, so no opinion on this. Park is not my thing, so no review here, although I must say I have seen guys do some sick tricks using these, so I suspect they are really well suited to the park.
Personally, as I am 179cm, I felt they were a bit short for me as a goto board, but for a shorter person they would be ideal. Martins might not like me calling his boards feminine, but I think given their beautiful artwork, they would definite suit a lady wanting to make a statement on the slopes. Seriously, these boards have an excellent top-side graphic, some of the best I have seen. Compared to the RVL8 boards which tend to have extravagant graphics, the ’11 model has a much more relaxing, mellow design.
I can recommend these boards anytime to anyone looking for a sub-99 board. Beautiful, top-performer, high quality construction, and reasonably priced they are a worthwhile investment and will provide hours of tireless riding.
Rider – Schalk W. Cronjé – Intermediate Skiboarder
