Snowboard Review: 08-09 Lib Tech Box Scratcher

Location: Loveland, CO

Snow Conditions: A mixture of powder runs, groomers, some spring conditions of bumps and crust.

Setup: I rode the Lib Tech Box Scratcher with my Rome Madison bindings and my Vans Omni Focus boots.

First Impression: I was really nervous about the board at first, I’m not a park rat and it’s a 145cm board. It was the last board of the day and the one that stood out the most as just plain fun on that board.

Size: 145cm

Weight: average

Flex: Very easy to flex and maneuver. Softer flex towards to nose and tail but between the bindings I didn’t feet it was stiffer giving you some control over the board. I actually liked that with the size it didn’t feel as loose when riding as the MC Kink and Skate Banana felt when I rode them. This felt like the perfect flex for a BT snowboard to make it work. Easy to ride and easy to turn.

Turning: I found it really easy to initiate into turns and with the MTX being less noticeable, it wasn’t super grippy or aggressive at all. I didn’t have any problems with turns, definitely the shorter radius turns were the best because of the sidecut just preferred it. The most time with this board was in 4-5 inches of powder, so not a lot of hard packed carving with this board so I didn’t get the best feel for how it would handle in a real hard carve. In fact these turns here (photo was modified with blue to make the lines pop out more) were done by the box scratcher.

Stable: After the first run, it didn’t feel like I was riding a much smaller board because it does handle weight. During the powder turns, I was going faster through some deeper snow while following Jay and I didn’t feel out of control on it. The only time I felt unstable was through really choppy, power fields when I expected it to not handle as well. On groomers with speed, no problems.

Pop: Tried a couple ollies with the board with some easy good pop to it but I had the most fun with nose rolls, tail rolls, butters and presses on it.

Switch: I mostly took it switch on groomers, had no problems on riding switch and it was super easy to spin around. Never caught an edge and easy swing weight overall.

Powder: The banana tech helped it tremendously in powder, it was the first time I’ve been on a smaller board and seen how much a rocker/reverse camber will affect how it handles powder versus the size of the board. It was holding up pretty well in 4-5 inches of new snow with staying afloat and still having control over the board.

MagneTraction (MTX): There were some hard packed, icy spots on the mountain where I was glad to have it on the board but even then it wasn’t making it hold an edge that well. The MTX was less noticeable so it gripped but less than some others I rode.

Overall Impression: To be honest…this is probably the most fun board I’ve been on in a while. Even though I’m not a park rat and I barely ride rails…I liked it because it was smaller and it was just fun to mess around with. It surprised me by handling fine for riding outside of the park.

By the time I rode the Box Scratcher, we were away from the park so no testing it on rails (I had a good fall on the phoenix earlier in the day).

I walked away from this board asking Jay about getting it for next year since I do wanna start hitting rails more and having something small and fun would be good for those non-new snow days.

Different from last year, the sidewalls are now power transfer internal versus the double sintered uhmv.

Shay’s Honesty Box: It was fun…yes it’s not going to handle better than longer boards but it does hold it’s own for it’s shortness.

On-Snow Photos
Jay setting it up for me

Lib Tech Box Scratcher Catalog Description
(Click on photo to open bigger)