Snowboard Review: 09-10 Atomic Pivot

Location: Whistler, BC

Snow Conditions: Bluebird with hardpacked ice in the morning and slush in the afternoon. Pivot was the 2nd board of the day, so it hit some ice and some softer snow.

Setup: I rode the Atomic Pivot with Union Trilogy’s and my Rome Vamps size 8.

First Impression: I was on the flat terrain with this board and was doing tail spins while holding a press. It was a lot of fun.

Size: 156cm

Weight: average

Flex: The pivot has a good consistent medium flex from tip to tail, even thought it’s considered a freestyle board, the flex allows it to venture out of the park and still be rideable down the mountain. There’s a good amount of torsional flex making it quick responsive from edge to edge, but with the torsional flex you lose some stability on the longer drawn out turns. With the Pop Rocker FS, it gives it a more freestyle take so it’s still capable of pressing and buttering because of the softer flex on the board.

Turning: Great responsive turns from this board, it was very quick on edge and initiated turns quickly and lets you really carve on edge and power out of each turn. Short radius turns felt the best when riding the Pivot and really you could power through them down the mountain. You really feel the full arc of a turn.

Stable: It was stable at speeds, very comfortable to ride and absorbed bumpy terrain really good but holding an edge on ice wasn’t as stable. I also take into consideration the 2.5 degree park bevel playing a huge role in that.

Pop: The name Pop Rocker sticks to this board, good pop and didn’t need to adjust to how it needed to be ollie’d or landed on. I took it off a fun roller and the sides of the runs, no problem with popping ollies and getting good snap out of the tail of the board.

Switch: The pivot is a true twin with a twin progressive sidecut with the same ride whether it’s regular or switch riding.

Overall Impression: I made sure to include an image down below of the Pop Rocker FS description for the Pivot because it has a different take, it does have camber and it’s flat. The nice thing is there isn’t much adjustment to this board and I didn’t have an issue when getting the first couple turns in, still had the benefits of camber and the flat under the bindings made it pressable for me with the tail and nose.

Shay’s Honesty Box: The first time I rode an atomic with the pop rocker FS, the board was too stiff but now with the Pivot it’s the forgiving softer freestyle flex that lets the board be a lot of fun and still carve good on the mountain. I didn’t need to adjust to it (unlike the stiffer version of it) and I was really happy with how it rode. I was surprised at how well it got on edge for me, you can see in the first photo the ww is more than I need.

*This Review was done in April 2009, please be aware that products may change.

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