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)
