Got my hands on my new pair of Playmakers last week, and wow - I love these boards!
I was prepared for there to be a bit of an adjustment period in switching over from the Spliffs I usually ride; I had never tried any fully rockered gear until now, so didn't really know what to expect. Three turns down my first run, I was convinced. What a ride! The full rocker puts the pivot point right underfoot, and makes them turn on a dime. They showed up sharp and made short work of the crustier snow I ran into. Conditions were pretty mixed overall - no real ice but we've had a week or two of warm weather followed by a bit of cold, and a little fresh snow. Ran into everything from windswept, crusty chutes to deep pockets of blown in snow. The PMs handled transitions between conditions even better than my Spliffs do.... they're very forgiving. How forgiving? I managed to goof up when I mounted the bindings late the night before and rode the first 3 runs with a 4 cm offset between my two feet. Ooops...
Speaking of the binding mounting options, having dual 4 x 4 mounting blocks is a sweet option. I dial my bindings (Receptors) far back on my cambered boards (DLPs, Spliffs) to maximize tip float in powder, but started the Playmakers with the boot and binding plate in a centred position, expecting to do some messing around throughout the day. Other than correcting the rear-position mount on the erroneous board, I didn't change a thing. These are the first board I've enjoyed with my boots actually set slightly forward of centre (tip to front of boot was 1 cm less than tail to back of boot). The big rocker keeps them from diving in soft snow, and I rarely if ever caught myself riding backseat to compensate. They're super well-balanced.
There were a couple of "negative" differences that stood out between the Playmakers and the Spliffs - and they're not really negative, just things I had to adjust to after spending 95% of my time on Spliffs for the last 5 seasons. The first was that the lack of camber made them a lot less springy than my Spliffs. This was somewhat noticeable when cruising through the whoopy up-and-down sections along ridgeline, and when touching down on very small jumps, and came more into play when blasting down single-black runs with small moguls or crud at high speed. In the latter case, I think I use my tails as springs to bounce across the tops of bumps and pop over obstacles. With the PMs, it felt like more of a slide and was a little less dynamic and grippy than I was used to. It didn't really cause any issues, but I'll have to adjust to it a bit.
The second difference was more surprising... I've gotten very used to slarving through all sorts of ugly conditions when ripping groomers on my Spliffs, and the PMs were grabbing a bit in the tails when I tried to ride them in a similar way. The conditions were what you get after a hard base gets a little fresh snow and then gets chewed up by intermediate skiers all day; large icy patches with softer mini-moguls piled up between. Slarve and slam conditions! I would have expected the full rocker to make them slarving machines, but they did better when kept on edge. I think this was mostly a matter of tuning, as the edges were nice and sharp and haven't seen the rock action that my Spliffs have. I might manually detune the middle portion tails a bit, or just wait for wear and tear to take care of it. Or I could just slow down a bit, enjoy making turns and not ride like a complete speed-freak jackass on the roller-filled jerry highway that is Wiley Coyote.... nah!
Those sharp edges and quick pivots did make them amazing for slashing down tight, difficult chutes... they feel like they are going to have the control factor and precision of my DLPs with better-than-Spliff rideout capacity in deep powder, crud and mixed conditions. I'll post some updates as I get more days on them.
One more thing... here's what they look like in action!
I was prepared for there to be a bit of an adjustment period in switching over from the Spliffs I usually ride; I had never tried any fully rockered gear until now, so didn't really know what to expect. Three turns down my first run, I was convinced. What a ride! The full rocker puts the pivot point right underfoot, and makes them turn on a dime. They showed up sharp and made short work of the crustier snow I ran into. Conditions were pretty mixed overall - no real ice but we've had a week or two of warm weather followed by a bit of cold, and a little fresh snow. Ran into everything from windswept, crusty chutes to deep pockets of blown in snow. The PMs handled transitions between conditions even better than my Spliffs do.... they're very forgiving. How forgiving? I managed to goof up when I mounted the bindings late the night before and rode the first 3 runs with a 4 cm offset between my two feet. Ooops...
Speaking of the binding mounting options, having dual 4 x 4 mounting blocks is a sweet option. I dial my bindings (Receptors) far back on my cambered boards (DLPs, Spliffs) to maximize tip float in powder, but started the Playmakers with the boot and binding plate in a centred position, expecting to do some messing around throughout the day. Other than correcting the rear-position mount on the erroneous board, I didn't change a thing. These are the first board I've enjoyed with my boots actually set slightly forward of centre (tip to front of boot was 1 cm less than tail to back of boot). The big rocker keeps them from diving in soft snow, and I rarely if ever caught myself riding backseat to compensate. They're super well-balanced.
There were a couple of "negative" differences that stood out between the Playmakers and the Spliffs - and they're not really negative, just things I had to adjust to after spending 95% of my time on Spliffs for the last 5 seasons. The first was that the lack of camber made them a lot less springy than my Spliffs. This was somewhat noticeable when cruising through the whoopy up-and-down sections along ridgeline, and when touching down on very small jumps, and came more into play when blasting down single-black runs with small moguls or crud at high speed. In the latter case, I think I use my tails as springs to bounce across the tops of bumps and pop over obstacles. With the PMs, it felt like more of a slide and was a little less dynamic and grippy than I was used to. It didn't really cause any issues, but I'll have to adjust to it a bit.
The second difference was more surprising... I've gotten very used to slarving through all sorts of ugly conditions when ripping groomers on my Spliffs, and the PMs were grabbing a bit in the tails when I tried to ride them in a similar way. The conditions were what you get after a hard base gets a little fresh snow and then gets chewed up by intermediate skiers all day; large icy patches with softer mini-moguls piled up between. Slarve and slam conditions! I would have expected the full rocker to make them slarving machines, but they did better when kept on edge. I think this was mostly a matter of tuning, as the edges were nice and sharp and haven't seen the rock action that my Spliffs have. I might manually detune the middle portion tails a bit, or just wait for wear and tear to take care of it. Or I could just slow down a bit, enjoy making turns and not ride like a complete speed-freak jackass on the roller-filled jerry highway that is Wiley Coyote.... nah!
Those sharp edges and quick pivots did make them amazing for slashing down tight, difficult chutes... they feel like they are going to have the control factor and precision of my DLPs with better-than-Spliff rideout capacity in deep powder, crud and mixed conditions. I'll post some updates as I get more days on them.
One more thing... here's what they look like in action!
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