Splitboard.com Forums

Burton is to snowboarding what Schimano is to MTBing. Constantly telling us what we want to ride while shoving it down our throats.

So what does it mean by elongated contact points? Are you saying they have lengthened the running length while shortening the tip and tail to make the contact points on the tip and tail further out along the length of the board? Or do they mean that the tip and tail contact points are wider while leaving the waist width alone which essentially makes the sidecut radius smaller allowing for sharper turns?

See what I mean by the Burton marketing jargon being vague. I don't know what they mean. I wish they'd just publish some numbers. I don't understand what they are trying to hide.

Your second thought is spot on. But they gave it a wider waist width. I'm guessing to make more surface area.

From your descriptions, it sounds almost exactly like the early 90's Morrow Lunch Trays and Spoons (also riding 20+ years), or Fat Bob's for that matter. This was back when I was an east coaster, and I fully relate to all the VT guys chiming in here. But the overall average slope angles and tight trees are more beneficial to the shorter lengths and shorter sidecuts. They too had stiff nose, tail, wide overall width and soft flexy middles and ultra short lengths.

I had the Spoon and and other than the tendency to snap, was a great spinny, jib board. I remember riding it in the "deep" 2 foot occaisional dumps and have the super-quad back leg to keep the 142cm nose over the surface, urgh. Like I said, the Raduction probably works well east of the Mississippi, but I'm skeptical on bigger terrain. I can see the reverse is true too, as I get back to VT to ride once a season and my bigger boards are a bear there unless I'm hauling the mail. I'll have to demo one this season to confirm my thoughts.

But seriously, how about some specs... The Cheetah does look like a fun board, but heck I'd like some stats other than its 159cm...

I agree with all of you with respect to marketing buzzwords being irritating as hell. They obfuscate things to make it seem more "tech" or specially made for whatever company is pushing it. Saying "super hyper fast base 29,838,917" sounds, I guess, cooler than "Sintered UHMW base". Sure you can get base material manufacturers to do special things to your bases but I have never seen that marketed.

As far as I can tell the Nug sizing guide includes some dimensions. http://www.burton.com/on/demandware.sto ... pid=276076

The Cheetah though is anyone's guess.

That all said I am not a fan of Burton. I owned and loved a Custom X about a decade and a half ago but I haven't looked back. With so many quality boards made right here in the US (and Canada) I prefer to support those companies because they offer what I want for a competitive price. And that of course brings me to my bone of contention with Burton's pricing.

WTF.

I would like to ride some of Burton's stuff just to see what I am missing out on. But I am not sure I would ever purchase.

Some specs on the cheetah:
http://www.backcountry.com/burton-family-tree-cheetah-snowboard

I'd rather not get into the political debate. This is the first burton board i've got in 10 years. And I agree all their lingo is bull shit, but on the tech end of things I can't wait to get a set of malvita ests on this thing, should be fun.
I have a burton tshirt that says support your local mountain.
I should have Jake sign that one. But they do sell us(Vermonters) goods dirt cheap. And as far as moving the open to vail after seasons like last year I can imagine they probably didn't have a choice. As far as moving manufacturing, state business taxes didn't leave him much of a choice either. He did great things for Vermont. It really is a shame things happened the way they did. So now I too try to support U.S. manufacturing.
Ok, I'm done with that.

Tilted if you need to borrow a deck in VT let me know. You just have to bring some snow!
And maybe you could pick your brother's brain on what he's expecting this winter.

Unfortunately, the day Craig Kelley died, Burton lost what little credibility they had left at that point as far as the backcountry is concerned. Some of the design ideas of these boards might be relevant for riders on packed snow at small resorts, and concerned with high levels of responsiveness at slow speeds-but hey, this here is Splitboard.Com, right?!!!

"JG is a genius" LOL!

Yeah, some "genius". I remember some years ago, when Burton was still relevant, they had an open forum, where JG would sometimes respond to rider questions on board designs. I made a post suggesting that Burton would do well to experiment with taper for backcountry and freeriding boards. I gave my reasoning as well, well considered reasons which are now well accepted board design truths. "Genius" JG, responded, by completely disagreeing with me, then two season later, Burton introduced the "revolutionary" Fish! Hahahaha.

Innovative designs for the backcountry are coming from smaller builders like Venture, Chimera, and furberg. Big companies like Burton are concerned with the mass market, riding at the resorts, on packed snow, or maybe packed snow with a few inches of pow on top, and marketing rules their decisions.

Thanks, didn't think that boards would be up already on retailer's sites. Interesting stats. I like shape, taper # waist, but why handicap it with a 7.21M sidecut. That thing needs a 9-handle to be as fast as it looks.

Whoops, I found a page that shows all the stats for the whole line, wasn't there a few days ago. http://www.burton.com/on/demandware.sto ... pid=276100

Will do - I'm hoping to get to VT early March, didn't happen last season and the season before it was hardpack till the day I left, then it dumped 2 feet while I sat in meetings in NYC...sigh. I'm going to bring my 57 DIY this year.

I'll ask him re: NE12 climatology

From what people have been explaining here, it sounds like the small radius sidecut is the whole point of the technology. Wider at the tips to provide more surface area for flotation with the shorter board. Smaller sidecut radius for tighter turning. I'm sure they have to couple Nug Raduction with Rocker to prevent it from being too "hooky".

I feel for anyone who is actually buying this spew. There is no way a tiny board is going to be anything but a complete day of misery on the terrain I ride here in Utah. YMMV where ever you ride, but that would never work for me, here. (6', 180#)

On the other hand if that is what you enjoy, I say go for it. Personally I'd rather eat glass and shit razor blades.

Screams from tha haters...gotta nice ring to it...I guess every superhero need his own theme music

Free splitboard.com sticker to anyone in the U.S. who can identify the quote without using google.


Guys...marketing is marketing...it is what it is. It's everywhere. Don't hate the player hate the game.

Anyways...why people choose to hate on something like board shapes and marketing is silly in my opinion. Especially if its based on speculation and you've never ridden said board. And even if you have ridden it and it's not for you...why hate if other's like it??? Do the swallowtail dudes hate me because I have no interest in riding a board over 160ish? We're all different! Where's the love?

In your defense tho...the thread title is about the marketing "buzzword" not the board itself so I guess you're on topic.

I'm little skeptical too about riding such a short board but when I speak to riders like Dave Downing and JG (who rode over 100 prototype shapes last year alone) I have to put faith in what they tell me until I can try the shape myself. The design sounds interesting to me. Even if it is a bit outside the box. I'm openminded and looking forward to trying the Splif (split Nug).

Seems like we should all take that approach. Keep the discussion going if you like but until you've ridden the shape it's meaningless speculation to me.

Barrows, your comments remind me of the late great Steve Jobs. One of the things he was known for was his ability to totally change his opinion on something without looking back. For all we know maybe JG had an epiphany about taper and realized it can be useful in certain shapes. Did you really expect him to go back to the thread you mention to tell someone on the internet they were right?

Long live shape evolution!

bcrider thows in 3 cents.

way to get after it bro!

My wife's 154 Mojo RX is larger in almost every dimension than the Spliff. I am trying to picture my self riding her board. Then I try to picture myself riding something even smaller.

I just can't do it.