In a day when the average skiboard is getting longer and longer, it’s nice to see that RVL8 has stepped up and made a truly high performance shorter skiboard. I’ve been riding these for the past month and a half now and they have exceeded much of my expectations.
Don’t let the shorter length of these boards scare you, they plow through anything. Having ridden other short boards before, I can really say that I feel much more confident on these boards on any kind of terrain.
RVL8’s innovative “blunt tips” combined with the high tips of the Tanshos give them great leverage when ridding through softer snow, and actually give more edge contact the harder they are carved. I do find that the tips give a bit of drag through the snow when carve as fast and as hard as possible, but it’s only a small complaint.
The flex on these boards is amazing. The Tanshos might take a bit more effort for the novice skiboarder, as they are a bit less forgiving then other short boards, but give the performance a big boost. They are stiff enough to hold their edge alomst anywhere. The flex in these boards really shines in the park and on jumps. The tails spring so nicely off kickers feels like it pops off the lip of the jumps.
Inline skaters will really enjoy the tight turning radius and skate like feel of these boards. I did find the turning radius might just be a little too tight at 4.8 meters. It would have been nice to have it maybe a bit bigger, at 5 meters maybe. The tight radius does come in handy in the trees or moguls, but slows down high speed carving a bit.
To to wrap it up, the RVL8 Tanshos give a lot of performance in a small package. They are not for everyone, but those looking for smaller skiboards now have a great high performance option, and don’t need to settle for entry level skiboards. And by the way, they look even better in person, the graphics are truly a work of art.
Rider – Jason Roussel – Intermediate Skiboarder SkiboardMagazine.com
