Snowboard Review: 10-11 K2 Fastplant

Location: Winter Park, CO

Snow Conditions: Hardpacked to icy conditions on the mountain, flat-light riding conditions.

Setup: I rode the K2 Fastplant with K2 Auto Agogo bindings and Vans Veil Boots size 8.

Size: 154cm.

First Impression: I have a feeling this is going to be a very popular board next year, 5 year warranty on the core and park specific..loads of fun.

Weight: Lighter than average

Flex: The flex matched the rocker pretty well when it came to the fastplant, softer nose and tail where the rocker was making it playful when you wanted to butter/press but stable from the bindings in where the base is flat.  The bambooyah made for a solid flex without any surprises when riding and it was an easy board to adjust to.  The Fastplant has jib rocker so the board is 80% flat and 20% rocker just enough on the tip and tail to keep the contact points off the snow until engaged.  Despite the name, I didn’t find the jib rocker as jib soft as I was expecting.  It was playful but not insanely soft playful.

Turning: Riding the fastplant was like riding most of the other K2 boards I’ve been on, hyper progressive sidecut that is a predictable easy ride to ride.  You can rally it on edge when you want to, but it will also just let you take it easy down the mountain without needing to carve up every turn.  Despite the size, it handled longer drawn out S turns and really it felt like I was riding a longer board with how the turns rode.  Short radius turns were quick and snappy on the fastplant.

Stable: This is where I was most impressed with the fastplant, I was riding a 154cm which is a smaller size than normal and despite it being a jib rocker park board it actually handled the mountain, felt like a bigger size when riding it.  It wasn’t as stable as the freeride boards I was on before and after, but it wasn’t bad and I could still lay down turns without worrying about the board being too soft to handle them.  The only gripe was on icy terrain, like the icy pipe it felt iffy in holding the edge.

Pop: I’m not the one to tell how it will handle off jumps but just playing around with the pop and ollies I found it really easy to pop the board with no surprises in store.   I did take the fastplant on some of the boxes and got to appreciate the non-catching of the jib rocker (even though I’m still working on my park riding) it helped to have that security.

Switch: The fastplant is a twin and rides exactly like a twin, no surprises in how it handles switch and easy to ride switch as it does normal.

Overall Impression: New for 10-11 the fastplant delivers a eco conscious park board that you’d actually want to ride by how it rides.  The bambooyah core delivers pop and snap for playfulness but it also can handle the mountain outside of park.  There’s no question that park riders break boards so it will be interesting to see how the core holds up for riders once more get on it.

Shay’s Honesty Box: Normally a 154 jib park board wouldn’t impress me much when it came to freeriding, but with the fastplant it handled better than expected and rode like a longer board.  From the easy boxes in the park to pipe to freeriding I didn’t have any major complaints other than just gripping on some icy spots better.  I think this is going to be the “it” board of next year, bamboo in boards isn’t new but I like the take they took on this board.

Ready to buy? Head over to evo for the K2 Fastplant or shop their full line of snowboards

*This Review was done in February 2010, please be aware that products may change.

On Snow Photo

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K2 Fastplant description

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Review Disclosure: I rode this board at a demo day.