Live2Ride Snowboards – Abstract ($420)
The Live2Ride Abstract is an all-mountain shredding deck designed for variable conditions. The symmetrical board has a tip/tail width of 295mm at 160cm length and a mix of camber and rocker at tip and tail.
Type: All mountain
Features: Full wood aspen core, tri-axial fiberglass laminate, carbon X plates under bindings, carbon fiber stringer, sintered base
Specs: 295-250-295 @ 160cm; 119 cm contact
Weston Snowboards – Beetle Kill ($549)
The Minturn, Colo., based company’s Beetle Kill is a flagship all-mountain model. It has a flat-to-slightly rockered profile and flexy wood core with quick response and pop. It is made from plentiful beetle kill lodgepole pine.
Type: All mountain
Features: Clear wood topsheet, full beetle-kill pine core
Specs: 301-252-301 @ 159 cm; 127 cm contact
Zoo York Snowboards – Pow Skate ($670)
This East Coast skateboard company now manufactures snowboards in the USA. The Pow Skate is a twin powder snowboard envisioned from a skaters perspective. “The Pow Skate gives you the freedom to ride your line as you envisioned your slashes, drops, jib, and bonks,” according to the company. Well, OK!
Type: Powder, all mountain
Features: Flat camber with rocker starting underfoot
Specs: 298-281-292 @ 160cm; 95 cm contact
Bonus Board! Never Summer is not part of the 14-brand collective, but as a reader pointed out, it does produce three brands’ skis that are featured here. We added this board to reflect the contribution.
Never Summer – Prospector ($1,200 complete kit)
Never Summer boards are bomber and have been ripping since 1983. The boards are ubiquitous in the Rocky Mountains. The Prospector is a high-end split from the Denver company with a “tapered and spaded” shape that allows for great tip flotation and handling in deep powder, a flat zone for climbing that does not interfere with the camber and rocker in the ride mode. The kit comes with a Voile Universal Splitboard Interface and Voile Splitboard Climbing Skins.
Type: Backcountry split
Features: Carbonium Laminate Technology adds carbon for light weight and strength, full metal wrap edge, wood core, harmonic tip and tail dampening, sintered P-tex inner and outer sidewall, sintered base.
Specs: 306-250-286 @ 164 cm. 133 cm edge.
—Sean McCoy is a contributing editor based in Denver.
