It wasn’t long ago that reverse camber/rocker technology was re-introduced to snowboarding, this New/Old technology came back at a time when we needed it and wanted something new. Regardless of who did it first, it saved snowboarding. Now more companies for 09-10 have developed some kind of anti-camber into their snowboards, whether it’s rocker or reverse camber, flat or zero camber, TBT or BS, the choices are endless.
These images that might help explain what your favorite company is doing for anti-camber next year as more companies are creating their own take to the anti-camber movement.
I’ve ridden a lot of variations of rocker/reverse camber/flat boards this year and the best way to know what works for you is to demo it. Some of these variations are quickly adaptable to and others take a day or two of riding before you become comfortable with it. Of the boards I have ridden, no boards have rode the same.
If you don’t see a company on here, let me know and I will try to get a better diagram to show what their technology is for 09-10.
Arbor Snowboards
Arbors take on the rocker revolution is designed around the system, a fusion of interdependent technologies that support jib-specific performance. Featured on the Draft for 09-10.
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Atomic Snowboards
With two rocker types coming out in 09-10, the FS and FR rockers. The FS rocker is featured on the Pivot and Axum and the FR rocker is featured on the new Banger model.
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Bataleon Snowboards
Continuing with their TBT base, they’ll go into this category but they aren’t exactly rocker or reverse camber.
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Burton Snowboards
From rocker to zero, burton snowboards is using their rocker designs with their PDE (pressure distribution edges) to be rideable from east coast ice to west coast pow.
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Capita Snowboards
Continues on with their flat kick in 09-10 but more models are now developing the ninja skills. The Flat Kick Technology is on the Green Machine, Indoor Survival, Horrorscope and Space Metal Fantasy. The Charlie Slasher has Pow Flat Kick.
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DC Snowboards
DC is offering up their anti-camber movement with the wording I use, but offered on their BDR (Bender Anti-Camber Technology). Flat between the feet and that transitions into an anti-camber zone outside your stance.
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Drake Snowboards
Drake charges on with the DF2 model featuring their pre curved base that gives you extra pop while also allowing you to carve easily in all types of terrain. Drake’s U Camber technology provides you with full power transition throughout the board to give you a smooth stable ride.
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Flow Snowboards
Flow will feature two types of rocker, the I-rock for park riding and the Pow-rock for taking on the mountain and backcountry. The solitude will feature the Pow-rock and the men’s era and women’s jewel features I-rock.
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Humanity Snowboards
The folks at Humanity are doing a true reverse camber with a 3-6 inch flat spot (depending on size of board) in the center. Our reverse camber is pretty mellow and we refer to it as smile tech. One thing we are doing is putting a 1 mm concave along with the reverse cam, this brings the edge off the rail so they don’t catch.
K2 Snowboards
The widest spectrum I’ve seen from any company is K2 which features camber, catchfree, flatliner, jibrocker, all-mountain rocker and powrocker. K2 hasn’t left anyone out in 09-10.
Catchfree technology boards are the moment, brigade, anagram, kandi, mini turbo, and lil kandi. Flatline Technology boards are the believer, slayblade, eco pop and airdu. Boards with Jib Rocker are the www rocker, jibpan, parkstar, va va voom rocker and vandal. Boards with All Mountain Rocker are the turbo dream. And finally Powder Rocker is the gyrator.
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Mervin Technologies (Lib Tech, GNU, Roxy)
Probably the most familiar anti-camber boards out there. This year they feature C2 Technology and BTX technology on the snowboards. Most of the line is BTX when it comes to the boards but the C2 are on the Lib Tech Dark Series, Lib Tech Trice, GNU Billy Goat, GNU Danny Kass and GNU B-PRO.
Banana Traction
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C2 Technology
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Never Summer Snowboards
Offering up a whole line of RC Technology and Vario Grip Sidecut in 2009-2010, Never Summer continues on with their rocker/camber mix to almost every board in their line. Whether it’s park, all-mountain or freeride the RC enjoys the ride and the vario grip gives you extra edgehold.
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Nitro Snowboards
Nitro started with an early release Sub Pop featuring Gull-wing camber & drifter base, that is now expanding to other boards in the line. For 09-10 the Sub Pop becomes the Sub Zero, the men’s Team Series and women’s Runaway now feature Gull-wing camber.
O-matic Snowboards
With their B.S. Technology, O-matic is full of surprises on their extr-eco board that features a 3 dimensional Bowed Surface. The the edges are lifted off the snow but the center of the board remains in contact with the snow.
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Ride Snowboards
Ride features two types of anti-camber for 09-10, the lowrize rocker is featured on the DH2, Machete, Crush, Canvas, and Compact and the Highrize rocker is featured on the Slackcountry.
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Unfortunately no highrize image at this time
Rome Snowboards
Offering three types of anti-camber, the MTN, FREE, and JIB will benefit riders all over the mountain. The boards featuring reverse camber are the Postermania 1985 (FREE), Artifact 1985 (JIB), Notch 1985 (MTN) and Pusher 1985 (FREE).
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Rossignol Snowboards
Rossignol introduces the Amptek technology, their version of reverse camber featured on the Angus regular and midwide. The Jeremy Jones will feature a early rise tip with mag, giving it the powder float and with Jeremy Jones stamp of approval on it.
Signal Snowboards
The three stage rocker was introduced as a late release in 2008 on the Signal Park Rocker, what has been described as the most insane rocker out there (I concur). New in 09-10 is the Signal Omni with wavelength technology that is camber between your feet and rocker from your feet out to the tip and tail.
Solid Snowboards
The boys at solid brewed up a 155 Phoenix for 09-10 that is a reverse camber -10 featuring their “two dump hump” sidecut tech. What that means exactly, sounds dirty but not sure.
Stepchild Snowboards
Stepchild has a variety of rockers to choose from: 4, 6, 8mm to be exact. The board is pressed to resemble the bottom of a rocking chair. The rocker gives the board an easy riding feel as it is “pre flexed” going into turns. It works well for parks, jibs and surprisingly well in powder. New for this year are the well rounded Rocker 6mm Chi Borg models. For the jib stick this year we bracketed the Rocker to the board sizes: 148-4mm, 153-6mm, 156-8mm.
Technine Snowboards
Calling it a 9 rocks camber profile, the enforcer is a single radius reverse camber snowboard. Only 10cm of the middle point of the board is touching the ground, while the rest of the camber is above it. The result is a poppy board with a very stable nose and tail built for presses and having fun in the park. When you put the enforcer on a flat table, the board has only one contact point, right in the middle of the board.
Unity Snowboards
Despite being a small Colorado operation, Unity created their own anti-camber model with the Reverse snowboard for 09-10. These boards are twin tip shapes with twin flex patterns, flat between the feet and then angles up at flat angles from the foot area. There is about 6mm of rise on the nose and tail.
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NCPsales.......
July 13, 2009 at 10:26 amstory time:
it was so funny at one of my consumer demos this spring. One afternoon when all of my CAPiTA Flat Kick boards (reverse camber) were all out, I’d asked the kid (about 15 or so) if it was cool if he rode a cambered board since it was all I had left. the response he gave me was, “no, i just want a regular board, none of that weird reverse banana shit.” I said, “exactly, thats all I have left, ‘traditional camber.'” But he insisted that he just wanted a regular snowboard, nothing new, just regular, no camber. I had to explain to him that traditional camber IS regular. He still didn’t get it, he just didnt know what camber was. it turned out that the board he owned was a cambered board. He thought the word camber was a new word used to describe all these new reverse and rocker board theories. After explaining to him what camber really was, he was stoked and realized that his “regular” snowboard was in fact a cambered board that he loved. so off he went with a CAPiTA Mid Life Photo and a grin. WHEW ! ! ! ! (did all that make sense ?)
Bottom line is that all these terms for reverse camber, rocker, etc is starting to confuse the average consumer. CAMBER IS CAMBER, a tried, tested, and approved technology. Don’t get me wrong, reverse camber and rocker is super fun, and also, tried, tested, and approved, but in my experience at the consumer demos, its just starting to get super confusing. Its time to re-educate some folks on what the difference is between these reverse camber camber boards and traditional camber boards. chances are, you may be putting someone on the wrong board.
so hey everyone, when in doubt, if you like to go fast, carve, and boost over shit, USE CAMBER. if you like to fart around, ollie small things, jib or do whirly swirls down the hill, try REVERSE CAMBER ! If you love POW and want to glide effortlessly on top of it and get your slashy slash on, get something with a Pow specific camber theory so your nose floats a little more… ie the CHARLIE SLASHER…. its that easy really !
I know, I know, it can get confusing, and in most cases you can only afford one board, so listen to shay, DEMO THAT SHIT if you can ! ! ! ! There are a ton of new designs out there to chose from and there is a board or boards specifically for you and from just about any manufacturer.
So the next step is to compare them by price. just because they may be using a cool new word or some crazy new marketing description, it doesn’t mean that you need to bend over for them and pay TOP dollar for it. so do some homework this fall, read the catalogs and websites, and TALK to your local shop guy or girl to figure out what is best for you.
enjoy.
-POORpiss
p.s. great post shay !
simon
July 13, 2009 at 12:23 pmventure snowboards will also have rocker on (i think) all their models next year.
from what i have heard its flat between the bindings and slowly rises outside the bindings.
Kristi
July 13, 2009 at 1:16 pmGreat post…so much info! I don’t know how I feel about the S-Rocker. Will have to demo that at some point, could be entertaining. =)
Deepak
July 13, 2009 at 2:54 pmDamn this makes my head spin…
jay robyn
July 14, 2009 at 2:55 amAnything on the nitro sub pop ?
lee pace
July 14, 2009 at 3:51 amooo lets say something about SOLID snowboards..We too have a rocker this year..the PHOENIX,only comes in one size 155..but its a start.
Shay
July 14, 2009 at 7:25 amNCP, Funny story and thanks for the awesome comment! I was at a consumer demo last year where a guy took out a btx board, brought it back and couldn’t tell the difference between his btx board and his camber board. Which is common, I remember when I used to ride anything and not really care either. But the big question is do you like it, does it feel good when you ride it and does it handle how you like it. All the latest tech in the world is awesome but if you can’t enjoy the ride, then it won’t do much for you. I spend a lot of time on my reviews doing what others might call easy riding, how does it turn, ride switch, hows the flex…but those are basic questions every rider has and can use to determine if the board might be good for them. The new options for reverse are insane, I can’t believe how many variations there are now and educating people on them is definitely key.
Simon, thanks I forgot about Venture! I’ll contact them and see what info I can get to include in the post.
Kristi, I’ll definitely let you know when the CO demos are so you can come up and try it!
Deepak…totally huh!
Jay, I just added Nitro and will add a photo/writeup later on them. Gull-wing camber is on the Sub Zero (used to be Sub Pop), Team and Runaway boards.
Lee, just added Solid’s to the mix. Love the name you guys used!
b-rad
July 14, 2009 at 9:19 amSoooooooo many to choose from. Its gettinmg outta hand really
Lars
July 14, 2009 at 10:25 amShay – Thanks for the post, it was so needed.
If I get any graphics highlighting the technology, I’ll pass them along.
lee pace
July 15, 2009 at 6:28 amYa its a slight bump under each foot kinda like a magne ,but not so gnar..I rode it most of the season on the icy east and thought it handled really well,quik turn,super flex strong edge hold..Im kinda a fat kid and the 55 was perfect…Thanks Bureta…and the raddest part????? ITS MADE IN THE USA
Shay
July 15, 2009 at 6:46 amB-rad, Totally.
Lars, that would be great! I’m constantly adding to it, emailed companies and need to email more to get more images.
Lee, Nice…even fat kids need boards to shred 🙂 I definitely want to try a Solid this year, I should steal Drago’s.
Terry Haakonsen
July 15, 2009 at 7:57 pmdo you people often try a board out and not like it? or feel it doesn’t ride right? all boards ride fine these days, everyone is buying into stupid hype and blaming their equipment instead of their skills. buy a board and go ride.
lee pace
July 16, 2009 at 3:45 amYou know Shay..Im not fat ..just big bellied..Oh and Drago says he doesnt believe in reverse camber..mmmm
adrian
July 16, 2009 at 5:44 amHey terry, all boards ride different, granted if you can shred you can ride anything but with all the options you can choose a board that’s perfect for your style of riding and the terrian you ride. I typically ride 3 to 4 different boards throughout the year, they all serve different needs and I can totally tell the difference from one to the next. This up coming year may be the first where I found 1 do all board, the Capita Horrorscope, perfect board for me!
lee pace
July 16, 2009 at 6:41 amadrian…I work for solid,but the horrorscope rides soooo good,which do you ride.I tested the 55 wide
Shay
July 16, 2009 at 5:54 pmLee, haha i love that term…big bellied! I can see why Drago wouldn’t rock it, definitely not his style.
Terry, I agree somewhat. A great rider can ride any snowboard and make it look good. Mikey Leblanc rode a toboggan like it was a snowboard, i mean jeez. However not all riders are pro or Mikey Leblanc and if it’s a board that makes it easier for them then why not? Take reverse camber for example, even another board where the contact points are lifted up, that is easy for someone learning because it’s less edge catching for the rider…and we all learned at some point, had those edge catches that hurt like hell, we see them everyday on the slopes, just part of the learning process but what if the board made it less likely and for that rider that barely gets out each year, maybe a couple times why not invest in a board that will make that small amount of time on snow, the most fun for them?
Some is hype, but man if I suck on a rail (which I do) I don’t blame the equipment. I just suck on rails, haha.
adrian
July 16, 2009 at 7:57 pmHey lee, I ride a 149, which I believe its changing to a 148 this year. Shay says its a bit stiffer, I rode it at the on snow demo & I think mine is just broke in. I got lazy steeze and that board is great for that. I have about a 8 degree bevel and its fine on ice, sick on rails. Good on all sized jumps, great in pow and somehow is still the softest board ever. Great for butters and tail/nose blocks. I ride a 149 with 25inch wide centered stance and 19 degree up front and – 15 and I don’t need to change it for different types of conditions. Its a wonder board! I’d like to check out a soild, where can I check one out?
lee pace
July 17, 2009 at 4:00 amIn your best Balboa voice…YO ADRIAN!!! sorry
well the whoreascope droped down to a 47 this year but they added a 51..the Phoenix for now only comes in a 55..but if you live near the east coast I will stokinley take you out for a buttery carving good time,otherwise maybe a early season demo in summit county??? Or if your really lucky you can shred with Shay,we will be sending her the board before season?(wait that chick rides all year) Hell ya Shay
Shay
July 17, 2009 at 6:59 amAwesome lee, adrian is here in Colorado he’s one of my riding buddies. That’d be rad to get a board to try out and yep I’ll be shredding around the neighborhood before October when the season starts again in CO.
Trends in Shred for 2010 | Lady In Shred
July 23, 2009 at 8:32 am[…] to old Tech and Market it like New Tech – Canted footbeds, Reverse Camber, and Hyper Color are all blasts from the past that you’ll see marketed as the latest and […]
Eiki
July 24, 2009 at 5:26 amHey Adrian!
Did you ever ride a “Indoor Survival”, perhaps with the flat kick stuff? If so, how would you compare it to your “Horror”? I already asked Madame Shay and i am happy with her reply, but some more input ist always appreciated!! Everybody else who has something to add, your welcome!
My Problem is: I am stuck between those two boards mentioned above, cant decide.
please excuse my bad english, I´m european..
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July 26, 2009 at 8:44 am[…] Rocker, reverse, flat, anti, zero…oh my! […]
adrian
July 26, 2009 at 7:23 pmEiki, could you fill me in on a few things first? I have ridden both boards and see upsides to both. What type of terrian do you ride? How would you describe your riding style? do you spend more time in the park or all mountain riding? Do you like soft boards or stiffer boards?
Eiki
July 27, 2009 at 12:26 amHi Adrian! Thanks for your answer!
I ride for 16 years now, but only since the last 5 years I get to mountains for about 30-40 days. Unfourtunatly no mountains near my hometown…
I have to be able to ride very technically because I am an Snowboard Instructor, got a be abel to show some exercises. Love to got in the park! There I enjoy big jumps, small ones and sometimes some boxes (not too good at rails). When theres pow I love to hit that too. I also realy enjoy doing tricks and stuff on the slopes, making the whole mountain a park…
To me, my actual board (Gnu RC 0708 Magne) seems pretty soft, but i guess there are softer ones. I think I would like to go with a board that can do it all, with a mid flex, not too soft not too stiff. Something thats stable on the big jumps but also not too stiff for doing tricks in the flat.
I hope u have an idea of my riding style now! Realy appreciate your help.
Eike
adrian
July 27, 2009 at 2:49 amHey Eiki, the indoor survival fk would be a good for you, its more of a do all board and stiffer than the horrorscope and will suit your needs much better. Its got that perfect mix of softness and stability. I think the fk will make teaching easier too because its just so easy to turn. Also the indoor is probably a bit better overall on jumps. Snatch that indoor up and shred the gnar k Eiki!
Eiki
July 27, 2009 at 7:21 amThanks Adrian! Came to the same descion and your words strengthen my opinion.
I guess it´s just important to adept to your board, once you are getting used to it, everything is going to work out…