I looked at all the boards I was riding and tried to figure out the strengths that I wanted from the one I would be on the most. I wanted my stance to be just about centered over my sidecut.

Sidecut for sidehilling, stabitlity, and so it wouldn,t hook up as much on the icy steeps. Originally I was thinking of working with a MFR shaped nose. That changed after talking to Chris. Decided to use a Spearhead style nose so it wouldn’t ‘plow’ through the pow. It’s wide enough at 30.4.

I needed the mid waist width because of the size of my feet and the fact I was putting a fair bit of taper in it.
I wanted more taper so I could initiate turns easier with the larger sidecut. It would also sit the tail down more in the pow, and be less hooky on riding steep walls. That’s why I didn’t get Spearhead or Fissile.

After looking down at the boards I ride and seeing how much tail I functionally use I figured I’d go with the minimal. I’m not riding it switch so I don’t need much. The only reason I didn’t get a swallow tail was for all the billygoating/bushwacking, sidehilling coming out from some tours.
The squared off tail sits down great in the snow. It’s not rocked and has good pop,holds the clip of my skins.

In split mode it climbs amazingly, especially on steep sidehills.The length in front of the touring bracket is good for breaking trail, weight is not much of an issue.
I feel great on steep walls. The effective edge is very straight with the radius and taper, and hooks up little at the tip and tail.The shortened tail makes for easy turns when I have to jump up and out off steeps.
The board isn’t much good for riding trees. I have to muscle it around.
It’s great at speed and on bigger faces, gives me lots of confidence to let it run.

If I were to do it over again I would widen it out a few more mm’s(maybe 268) and put a little less taper(probably 10mm) in it. other than that it’s what I wanted from an all around board.