Location: Keystone, Colorado
Snow Conditions: Overcast/Bluebird with hardpacked groomers to a mixture of conditions. It was day 3 of demos and the Flow Era was the 2nd to last board of the day.
Setup: I rode the Flow Era with Flow NXT-ATSE’s and my Rome Vamps size 8.
First Impression: Flow’s park reverse camber board is definitely park specific.
Size: 155cm
Weight: average
Flex: The era had a softer flex between the bindings and combined with the reverse camber between the bindings it made it ideal for freestyle riding. A slightly stiffer tip and tail gave it some stability when riding. Whiskey royale is featured between the bindings adding some dampening to absorb rougher landings. The I-rock rocker technology that flow uses is reverse camber (depending on size, -4 to -6) between the feet then flat, has a mellow sidecut radius between the feet and a tighter radius towards the tip and tail.
Turning: Turning with the era took some adjustment because of the varying EZDT sidecut. It was smoothe and quick from edge to edge and getting into the beginning of each turn, but within each turn and how my weight was on the board required me to adapt more to the board turning. It was a bit confusing at first to how it was handling with the sidecuts. I found myself in some turns and getting out of them when I wasn’t trying to.
Stable: It handled some choppy conditions with good dampening under the bindings. At higher speeds it handled okay, it wasn’t meant for charging and I had some moments where I needed to slow down with it.
Pop: I made sure to land on the bindings with the era and that made all the difference, decent pop on the board and could handle rougher landings. Butters and pressing were relatively easy with the era despite the tip and tail being slightly stiffer.
Switch: The era is a true twin and rode like a true twin, no difference when riding switch and not catchy when I spun into switch riding.
Overall Impression: The era is the freestyle reverse camber board meant to absorb the landings in the park and occasionally venture out, it’s softer flex made it easy to ride and play with for freestyle tricks. For turning, it took some adjustment to how the sidecut would take me in and out of turns. It is most definitely a park board meant for the park.
Shay’s Honesty Box: It wasn’t my style of ride but I took a while to figure out that it wasn’t the I-rock rocker that through me off, just the softer flex and sidecut of the board wasn’t my cup of tea.
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