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ANGRY SNOWBOARDER REVIEW: The Amplid Pentaquark

Conditions: Overcast skies with pockets of blue, moderate to high winds, firm fast snow, ice, chunder, frozen corduroy to soft and forgiving cordury.

Flex: This board is stiff but not a full blown plank. What you get a is a slightly directional flex in nature which means slightly softer nose then progressively stiffening up through to the tail. There’s a little amount of torsional flex but mainly it stays rigid. There is a clear defined flex point right inside that back binding insert pack.

Stability: Now here’s the thing about this board it is super smooth and stable. The little amounts of chatter you get when charging with this board are almost completely killed off before it hits the front insert pack. In more aggressively choppy terrain you feel it but it’s more like you notice its there and less of it effecting the overall ride. That Antiphase technology is legit and does work.

Ollies/Pop: There’s some pop to this board but you have to aggressively load up that camber to get it to engage and when you do it’s more or less just enough to launch off a roller as you go terminal velocity down the hill. It’s less about snapping in the air with this board and more about snapping through a carve.

Butterability: No.

Carving: Alright so here’s where we need to talk about this board and what it’s capable of doing. This is 100% what this board is meant for. It has a very fluid and nimble roll from edge to edge and you notice that. Then it gets on edge and locks in with a precision that I have never felt in another board. It locks in but remains flexible to disengage and do what you want when you want. You can drive from inside the back foot if you need to but it doesn’t force you to do that to get it to carve. The torsional flex is very minimal so when you do steer with your ankles it’s more or less a subtle adjustment to slowly change the angulation of your carve.

This is the thing about this board while you can throw your hips and lower body into a turn to do tight quick carves it’s those medium long carves where you’re just sitting on the edge swooping from one side of the run to the other that stand out. When you do lay it over into a full blown Euro-carve you have to leverage your weight aggressively into the flex point, camber, and sidecut to get it to work. I’m not saying it can’t be done, but what I am saying is you will work for it and it will be beautiful when it works in harmony.


Rider in Mind: The Corduroy Killer

Personal Thoughts:

This board is by far one of the best carving boards I’ve ever been on. It takes things up a notch and changes the whole dynamic of how you ride. This isn’t going to be for everyone, but for those that have a hard on for Korua they need to be looking at this. It’s a board that is so unique in its ride I don’t think this review does it justice.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE AT ANGRY SNOWBOARDER!