Bataleon Airbobic 09/10
Here’s what I thought of Bataleon's Triple Base Technology. I’m a jib fan, so I was riding the Bataleon Airobic 151 snowboard at Cardrona and Treble Cone, NZ.
“Strange... is this even snowboarding?” was what I thought. I remember shouting out to my friends, “this board rides itself!” with a goofy delighted smile on my face.
With your effective edges bent up from the bindings to the tip and tail, it feels a little like the board is shaped a bit like a wok at both ends, which immediately slams in your face the strikingly obvious and exciting fact that you’re riding a board that won’t catch an edge. Even if you’re a seasoned rider and catching edges has been a thing of the past for many years, these boards still offer a very new and different experience. Literally point this thing where you want to go, and it does so obligingly. flat based. Its cool.
It took a while to get used to the board, 3 of 4 runs. But once you understand it has a larger threshold for covering up your mistakes and higher tolerance for aggressive riding you start trying all those tricks you’ve wanted to learn.
While I don’t indulge in wide sweeping carves down the slope nor was this board designed for it, I did find these boards love to be thrown onto their edges, while even asking for a little more aggression on the riders part. It seemed to me that because the edge is lifted, more rider angle is needed to ‘activate’ them. But to be honest, I couldn’t notice much of a difference edge to edge.
Butters are easy, especially with the crazy flex. Its like a Rome Artifact or Jon Kooley. Flat spin ground tricks feel good even though at times it feels like you’re popping off a wok-base. The board had reasonable pop, but expect more power from the stiffer boards. As the Airobic is the most flexible mens board in the Bataleon line-up, ‘pop’ wasn’t something I was looking for or judging.
I was concerned about nose and tail slides and presses on rails for obvious reasons. But really, no more caution was needed. If you're pressing on a rail, press in the middle of your board, everyone knows this.
Some people have talked about landing spinning tricks and problems with revert with TBT. I will say, if you’re body hasn’t rotated properly you might encounter some overspinning on the landing. But tell yourself this, “if I can ride without fear of catching a mad heel or toe edge on landing, I’m sure I can get my body rotation timing right and land clean everytime.” Thats the trade off for me. I’d rather be landing and reverting, than landing on my face.
I found Bataleon snowboards teach good habits while kindly highlighting and discouraging bad ones. Here’s what it taught me:
Fix up your sloppy body rotation, and you’ll be rewarded with graceful landings.
If you’re nose or tail pressing a rail, do it in the center or you fall off...
With most snowboards the rule is, you’re either on an edge, or you’re not. I like to think Bataleon have blurred this black and white fact, and with this enlightening discovery comes a lot more room for fun and freedom, which is what snowboarding’s all about right?
review by Ben O’Loughlin
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“Strange... is this even snowboarding?” was what I thought. I remember shouting out to my friends, “this board rides itself!” with a goofy delighted smile on my face.
With your effective edges bent up from the bindings to the tip and tail, it feels a little like the board is shaped a bit like a wok at both ends, which immediately slams in your face the strikingly obvious and exciting fact that you’re riding a board that won’t catch an edge. Even if you’re a seasoned rider and catching edges has been a thing of the past for many years, these boards still offer a very new and different experience. Literally point this thing where you want to go, and it does so obligingly. flat based. Its cool.
It took a while to get used to the board, 3 of 4 runs. But once you understand it has a larger threshold for covering up your mistakes and higher tolerance for aggressive riding you start trying all those tricks you’ve wanted to learn.
While I don’t indulge in wide sweeping carves down the slope nor was this board designed for it, I did find these boards love to be thrown onto their edges, while even asking for a little more aggression on the riders part. It seemed to me that because the edge is lifted, more rider angle is needed to ‘activate’ them. But to be honest, I couldn’t notice much of a difference edge to edge.
Butters are easy, especially with the crazy flex. Its like a Rome Artifact or Jon Kooley. Flat spin ground tricks feel good even though at times it feels like you’re popping off a wok-base. The board had reasonable pop, but expect more power from the stiffer boards. As the Airobic is the most flexible mens board in the Bataleon line-up, ‘pop’ wasn’t something I was looking for or judging.
I was concerned about nose and tail slides and presses on rails for obvious reasons. But really, no more caution was needed. If you're pressing on a rail, press in the middle of your board, everyone knows this.
Some people have talked about landing spinning tricks and problems with revert with TBT. I will say, if you’re body hasn’t rotated properly you might encounter some overspinning on the landing. But tell yourself this, “if I can ride without fear of catching a mad heel or toe edge on landing, I’m sure I can get my body rotation timing right and land clean everytime.” Thats the trade off for me. I’d rather be landing and reverting, than landing on my face.
I found Bataleon snowboards teach good habits while kindly highlighting and discouraging bad ones. Here’s what it taught me:
Fix up your sloppy body rotation, and you’ll be rewarded with graceful landings.
If you’re nose or tail pressing a rail, do it in the center or you fall off...
With most snowboards the rule is, you’re either on an edge, or you’re not. I like to think Bataleon have blurred this black and white fact, and with this enlightening discovery comes a lot more room for fun and freedom, which is what snowboarding’s all about right?
review by Ben O’Loughlin
Home - About - Buy Here