Hi all,

Planning to head for a few months in niseko from Feb. Know that there is plenty of Powder Snow. Is a Powder specified board needed?

I am a intermediate rider now riding an all mountain Option Eclipse 154, with a few mm tapered. Notice that there is a Discount Never Summer Summit 161 for US$420 with 18mm tapered, which is for Freeride and Powder. Any suggestion for a worth-to-buy powdered board?

Needed? No. You don't need a powder board for powder.
But if you're there for a few months it would be fun and worthwhile to have one for the many powder days.

(Actually I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm a skier. But that's my guess.)

Hey, last year was my first year in Japan and my Board is a 157, was fine on the pistes, I got adventurous and started ducking off the side of the runs, nothing major but there were plenty places where the snow was waist deep and it was difficult. I enjoyed myself plenty but I reckon a bigger board would've been cool. I'm also toying whther to buy a bigger board now. I guess it depends where you plan on going, because Hokkaido gets dumped on. If you are just gonna stay in resort and play at the sides then your board would prob be ok, if you are planning on hitting the backC, trees and the like you may want to buy a board. I suppose it also depends on how tall and heavy you are too.....lots of things to ponder

def get a powder board if you can afford it.

Speaking of which, I have a 160 burton fish from last year available (brand new) for 40,000yen [since the classifieds are temp out of action]

thx for reply. I would definitely go BackCountry, so i guess i will probably get one powder board for the trip if it is more fun!

Kumapix, sound interesting. where is your board? I am 64kg (140lbs), 167cm tall (5-6").
Would 160 be ok for me?

We are around the same size, 160 would be ideal for powder.

I'd say you should be OK if you just put your bindings in the back-most position.

OK means....?
heard that shifting the binding to the back will burn the back leg.
not sure about it since i seldom ride powder as, sadly, there is no powder.

he means moving your bindings back as far back towards the tail of the board as they can go. This helps bring your weight to the back of the board, but doesn't eliminate back leg burn. Tapered boards like the fish eliminate back leg burn because they float naturally

which is why the obvious thing to do is buy the fish, and enjoy the F'outta your season

Its completely the opposite.
You get leg burn if you don't move your bindings as back as possible. Thats because in order to stay afloat in powder you shift your body weight to the back leg. If you have the bindings on the far back together with a tapered board like fish, you will be able to have a more relaxed stance on the board, hence less rear leg burn.

It makes sense and i do understand the logic.

As for tapered powder board, what would you choose?
2007-08 NS Premier 161 (18mm tapered) US$420 42,000yen
2007-08 Burton Fish 156 (30mm tapered) US$470 47,000yen
2007-08 Burton Malolo 154 (20mm tapered) US$470 47,000yen

I own two boards, a park orientated - but descent all-mountain - Ride DH. And secondly a burton T6. The T6 has the binding holes drilled back of centre so the nose is longer even if the bindings aren't aligned to be purposefully back foot orientated. This means that if you really want to set the board up for pow it can easily be adjusted to have a massive noe and a tiny tail.

Also the radial sidecut of the board is about 40% of the way forward from the back - makes switch trickier for intermediate riders but - this is great for pow contions, because when combined with its tapered shape means that it rises above the pow well. Also as it has no wood in it is extremely light - the Vapour is burton's only lighter board. I holds edge really well thanks to the nature of its sidecut, and its really fast due to the sintered wfo base.

The stiff torsional flex of the board means that it is very responsive edge to edge, but flexy tip to tail allowing for lateral for the lateral pressure adjustment needed for pow.

This is a great choice for an intermediate or better rider (can make intermediate carve turns, advanced slide turns, and basic switch) that performs well in both pow and piste conditions.

Ok means that you can ride powder reasonably well if you switch your bindings as far back as possible. You shouldn't get too much leg burn, unless you are very out of shape.

I'd say if someone is planning on hiking almost everyday or very often to the back-country they'll do better with a powder board, but for the resort rider who sometimes adventures off-piste a normal all-mountain board with the proper binding set-up is more than enough. I'm 175cm, and I've ridden with a 155cm normal board the back-country in Hakkouda and Asahidake with no problems.

I'd say thats a fair assesment.

I would not go for a board thats less than 160, but as you can see from the above posts, its all a mater of preference.
Either of the above boards would suit you fine in a powder day NS has an excellent reputation as well as fish, but if you go for Malolo beter get the 158 cm.

sorry, the T6 is not tapered. Tapered boards in burton's line are the supermodel (10mm), malolo (20mm), piranha (25mm)(that's a special order), and the fish at 30mm.

Anyways, HKNZ, you should be choosing between a 54 malolo and a 56 fish. for malolo's they recommend getting a board 2-4cm shorter than your regular board. For the fish it's 3cm to 6cm down from normal board length.
The malolo will let you ride groomers no problem. ie if you're planning a bc day and when you get to the top the conditions aren't favourable and you decide to do a resort day instead.
The fish would be when there's pow out and you want to slay it. On so-so days you would use your regular board.
Since you're going to Niseko, which is known for big pow, I would say get the fish.

oh, and tapered boards (along with banana'd and rockered boards) kill regular boards with setback bindings in pow. They make riding pow so easy, and all that energy you spent leaning back you can use to up the ante in your riding.

thx, Kumapix. A little worried about the waist width of fish, 255mm!
seems to be more difficult to turn.
i probably would go for a malolo

not at all hknz. you hardly have any tail on the fish and it is the easiest thing to turn. it has a really surfy feel to it.
The great thing about the fish is that it just stays up and it floats really well even in the flats. It is practically impossible to submarine your board!
but then again you won't regret the malolo either