So, I have returned from Milton Keynes. What does this mean to you?.. A review of these boards, that's what!
On Saturday I drove up to the MK Snowzone with a friend and tried out my new pair of revolt cities with the exclaim riser. We were there for 4 hours and made use of the park features they had out. This was the first time I had ever used skiboards. I have never ridden blades before, nor do I do any inlining. I've been skiing in the past and have spent a lot of hours trying to snowboard too, without huge success. In my opinion there are two kinds of people that write reviews, those that are annoyed with a product and those that absolutely love it. I am extremely happy to say that it's the latter! This was a large risk for me, just going on what I had read here on the forums, deciding that I'd like a pair of skiboards over the more conventional skis. Spending £300 or $600 could have ended badly! But honestly, it's the best fun I've ever had. No kidding.
I will try to make this review as unbiased as possible. Which is hard considering I don't want to ever go back to skis now. You also just read my skiing background so should have an idea of techniques etc. etc.
The Boards
Firstly, they look amazing! The fairly simple, bold lined topsheet design looks really nice. It looks better and more contrasty in person than the picture on this site! The underside of the board has that amazing dark city design too which looks great. The colour is noticably less contrasty (or dark) as the picture on the site. Because the topsheet was so good, I would put this down to the layer of wax already put on the bottom of the skiboards!
During our riding session, the boards picked up two small (under 1cm) gashes in the side topsheet and a couple of other small bits. They weren't deep at all and didn't affect the look or performance. This was from where the boards banged together on bad falls. You'll notice the steel perimeter edges on them around the base which was the cause, but they ensure that the edges remain sharp. it doesn't affect the ride because it was on the top side of the board. Easily fixed back with some epoxy glue. The bases and steel edges held up really well on the steel rails and boxes which was my biggest concern, but they remained nice and untouched.
In regards to how they ride. WOW! I was astonished. They blew skis out of the water!
It took me one run to get used to how they handle. They turn amazingly easily and fast and the general technique is similar (don't get me wrong, they're very different) to skis, so if you have been skiing then you won't have any problem picking these up. After 3 or 4 runs I was really quite used to them and enjoying every moment, these boards really are fast and they turn amazingly.
The flex of the boards is I think the most awesome thing about them. The ride feels so natural, and I think that is the only word that properly describes it. They simply feel like they should! With respect to carving, the steel edges on these boards were great. They gripped into the slope as if there was a bodybuilder standing there holding onto the skiboards!
We were using a couple of medium-ish sized kickers and I have to say what pleased me most about these boards is that jumps seemed much easier to land for me than on long skis. I don't know why, maybe it was the small turning circle that helped. I got the impression that unlike on skis when one begins to get away from you would usually end up with a stack, on these boards, you just let the slope have and edge and the board comes right back! The fatness also seems to help for stability.
there were a couple of rails set up but I can't really comment on them since I've never been any good at rails. I ate it hard every time, more to do with the fact that they frighten me.
By about halfway through the four hours of using these boards for the first time, I was confidently spinning on the slope and riding backwards. Having both ends curved up and with the binding set centrally made going fakie backwards down the slope much less frightening and quite easy. Of course, not as easy as going forwards but damn easy! (I've never been backwards on skis before, even on the twintips I had rented last year I never got the courage to do it!) So this was so much fun for me. One guy yelled out at me "you're going the wrong way!" which got a laugh. What I most enjoyed was perfecting a rainbow box they had set up. These boards gave me the confidence to tackle it and the last 3 runs of the day I attempted it backwards, doing it once and earning "stack of the day" in the process!
The Exclaim! Riser & Bindings
I was really pleased to have gone ahead and ordered these risers. They were machined from black metal, possibly anodised. They looked just as good as the boards and the black colour (instead of silver I was expecting) matched the boards really nicely. Another surprise was that the guy behind Exclaim! had fitted the brakes and bent them out to fit for me. I had specifically emailed about those brakes a while back and was told unfortunately it wouldn't come with wide brakes so that was great!
They flexed really nicely, definitely not to loose at all, but they seemed to compliment the board in everything that I tried. Not too stiff, not too loose, Perfect.
Regarding release bindings, they performed impeccably. A couple of times when I had some really gnarly falls with a rail and elsewhere, they released as they should. Other than this they did not release (which was as expected). I was pushing them pretty hard so it was nice to have the safety of releasables and knowing that they will release when needed. Otherwise you can just forget about them. Just for reference I'm 5'8, 140lbs and set the toe DIN to 5.5 and the heel to 4.0.
When we went to get our gear from the rental desk at Milton Keynes (Jon went to grab a snowboard and I went to get some boots) I was a little surprised to see that all their skis had been fitted with the exact same Axxium 100 bindings that were on my skiboards. Now on the one hand this makes me feel a little bad that my equipment isn't better than the stuff they're renting, but on the other hand, industry standard, you can't go wrong! Judging by the performance I got out of them on Saturday, and the perfect releases, I'm not going to go any further on that. They were perfect.
I think I have covered every I could possibly put in, but one thing is for sure I will not be going back to skis anytime soon. If these get damaged, I'll just buy a replacement board. Worth every penny. So if you're debating which board to get the revolt is a great board, for all round mountain and park and you WILL NOT be disappointed! I wish G and everyone else backing skiboards a great future, because I for one am convinced skiboards should stick around!
Thanks for reading, I know this was very long, it took a long time to write!, so I hope it was of help.
James
On Saturday I drove up to the MK Snowzone with a friend and tried out my new pair of revolt cities with the exclaim riser. We were there for 4 hours and made use of the park features they had out. This was the first time I had ever used skiboards. I have never ridden blades before, nor do I do any inlining. I've been skiing in the past and have spent a lot of hours trying to snowboard too, without huge success. In my opinion there are two kinds of people that write reviews, those that are annoyed with a product and those that absolutely love it. I am extremely happy to say that it's the latter! This was a large risk for me, just going on what I had read here on the forums, deciding that I'd like a pair of skiboards over the more conventional skis. Spending £300 or $600 could have ended badly! But honestly, it's the best fun I've ever had. No kidding.
I will try to make this review as unbiased as possible. Which is hard considering I don't want to ever go back to skis now. You also just read my skiing background so should have an idea of techniques etc. etc.
The Boards
Firstly, they look amazing! The fairly simple, bold lined topsheet design looks really nice. It looks better and more contrasty in person than the picture on this site! The underside of the board has that amazing dark city design too which looks great. The colour is noticably less contrasty (or dark) as the picture on the site. Because the topsheet was so good, I would put this down to the layer of wax already put on the bottom of the skiboards!
During our riding session, the boards picked up two small (under 1cm) gashes in the side topsheet and a couple of other small bits. They weren't deep at all and didn't affect the look or performance. This was from where the boards banged together on bad falls. You'll notice the steel perimeter edges on them around the base which was the cause, but they ensure that the edges remain sharp. it doesn't affect the ride because it was on the top side of the board. Easily fixed back with some epoxy glue. The bases and steel edges held up really well on the steel rails and boxes which was my biggest concern, but they remained nice and untouched.
In regards to how they ride. WOW! I was astonished. They blew skis out of the water!
It took me one run to get used to how they handle. They turn amazingly easily and fast and the general technique is similar (don't get me wrong, they're very different) to skis, so if you have been skiing then you won't have any problem picking these up. After 3 or 4 runs I was really quite used to them and enjoying every moment, these boards really are fast and they turn amazingly.
The flex of the boards is I think the most awesome thing about them. The ride feels so natural, and I think that is the only word that properly describes it. They simply feel like they should! With respect to carving, the steel edges on these boards were great. They gripped into the slope as if there was a bodybuilder standing there holding onto the skiboards!
We were using a couple of medium-ish sized kickers and I have to say what pleased me most about these boards is that jumps seemed much easier to land for me than on long skis. I don't know why, maybe it was the small turning circle that helped. I got the impression that unlike on skis when one begins to get away from you would usually end up with a stack, on these boards, you just let the slope have and edge and the board comes right back! The fatness also seems to help for stability.
there were a couple of rails set up but I can't really comment on them since I've never been any good at rails. I ate it hard every time, more to do with the fact that they frighten me.
By about halfway through the four hours of using these boards for the first time, I was confidently spinning on the slope and riding backwards. Having both ends curved up and with the binding set centrally made going fakie backwards down the slope much less frightening and quite easy. Of course, not as easy as going forwards but damn easy! (I've never been backwards on skis before, even on the twintips I had rented last year I never got the courage to do it!) So this was so much fun for me. One guy yelled out at me "you're going the wrong way!" which got a laugh. What I most enjoyed was perfecting a rainbow box they had set up. These boards gave me the confidence to tackle it and the last 3 runs of the day I attempted it backwards, doing it once and earning "stack of the day" in the process!
The Exclaim! Riser & Bindings
I was really pleased to have gone ahead and ordered these risers. They were machined from black metal, possibly anodised. They looked just as good as the boards and the black colour (instead of silver I was expecting) matched the boards really nicely. Another surprise was that the guy behind Exclaim! had fitted the brakes and bent them out to fit for me. I had specifically emailed about those brakes a while back and was told unfortunately it wouldn't come with wide brakes so that was great!
They flexed really nicely, definitely not to loose at all, but they seemed to compliment the board in everything that I tried. Not too stiff, not too loose, Perfect.
Regarding release bindings, they performed impeccably. A couple of times when I had some really gnarly falls with a rail and elsewhere, they released as they should. Other than this they did not release (which was as expected). I was pushing them pretty hard so it was nice to have the safety of releasables and knowing that they will release when needed. Otherwise you can just forget about them. Just for reference I'm 5'8, 140lbs and set the toe DIN to 5.5 and the heel to 4.0.
When we went to get our gear from the rental desk at Milton Keynes (Jon went to grab a snowboard and I went to get some boots) I was a little surprised to see that all their skis had been fitted with the exact same Axxium 100 bindings that were on my skiboards. Now on the one hand this makes me feel a little bad that my equipment isn't better than the stuff they're renting, but on the other hand, industry standard, you can't go wrong! Judging by the performance I got out of them on Saturday, and the perfect releases, I'm not going to go any further on that. They were perfect.
I think I have covered every I could possibly put in, but one thing is for sure I will not be going back to skis anytime soon. If these get damaged, I'll just buy a replacement board. Worth every penny. So if you're debating which board to get the revolt is a great board, for all round mountain and park and you WILL NOT be disappointed! I wish G and everyone else backing skiboards a great future, because I for one am convinced skiboards should stick around!
Thanks for reading, I know this was very long, it took a long time to write!, so I hope it was of help.
James
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