Finally after a few seasons of listening to the hype about Kesslers I got the chance to use a 185 (thanks Billy and Dave at Hardbooter.com). My first reaction by the time I got down to the lift was “Holy Hell!” Here are my stats so you can gauge this review. Riding alpine for over 20 years, 5’8”, 165lbs, goofy foot, with angles of 55 in the front and 50 in the back. I have raced at all levels but much preferred to freeride. I used to get anywhere from 250-300 days a year on snow but now down to about 50 depending on work. The board was set-up with a Vist plate and F2 bindings.
Now on to the important part: the review. I have been riding this board now for about 6 days on snow and this is a beefy, powerful snowboard. Carving performance was unreal, to say the least. Power, energy, no speed limit. For those who are looking for tremendous “pop” from the tail then this isn’t for you but if you really load up the tail then you do get that sensation, just not like an old school glass board. I am not a huge fan of “popping” off the tail and getting sent into the woods so I like softer tail that gives some forgiveness. This is a straight up race board but not like the old race boards that kicked your ass every time you weren’t spot on, it is very forgiving. This combination of power and forgiveness lets you ride anything with confidence. On the first day it was perfect groomers and this board I could relax, or be aggressive, and it responded well to both styles. We ripped race inspired GS turns top to bottom and even through in some Eurocarves for good measure…not to mention some switch riding. The problem with such perfect conditions I can’t fully put this through the paces and it left me wishing that I was back at Whiteface on a blue ice day. On New Years Eve we got up to Snowbasin, which is usually perfect but that it definitely wasn’t that day. My friends from out here said they hit some ice but I just called it good ole hardpack. Coming down the “iciest” part of the run this Kessler didn’t skid a bit, made me feel like Jean Nerva in Chill “you carve, you carve, you carve, you carve…no skid even if it’s icy”
If I hade to have one board this would be it, no doubt. This is especially true with the Vist plate on it. I am going to throw that Vist plate on a Prior very soon to see exactly how much of the feel is influenced by it. I know some freeriders don’t want to ride the Vist or Hangel due to the weight or for whatever other reason but I can tell you that I love the Vist (easier to move from one board to the next) and don’t want to ride without some type of plate system.
This weekend I will be shooting some video to go along with this review and a Park City Mountain Resort review. I was supposed to get some videoing done last week but that didn’t work out. Look for the video being posted over at the Hardbooter.com blog site plus I will try to post it here. Again, a huge thanks to Dave and Billy. See ya on the snow.
Kessler 185
January 5th, 2010All Boards Sports Visit
December 30th, 2009I have been on X-mas vacation for just over a week in Colorado and while driving back North through the state, took the opportunity to drop in on our friend Bola at All Boards Sports in Bolder. What a sweet shop! There are hundreds of skate decks, packs, skate shoes, soft boot gear and of course, tons of alpine snowboards, bindings and Hardboots.
Bola and Dave at All Boards Sports
I snagged a few Kesslers and a Sigi Grabner for review and although time was short because I was ditching a late lunch with my family and Bola had a steady stream of customers, we had some great QT together. If you’re a front range local or a Colorado visitor, you should make time to drop into Bola’s shop. It’s truly an impressive display of gravity sport gear. Thanks Bola for all you do for Alpine Snowboarding!!
Kessler 185 PGS Review: First Impression
December 24th, 2009For the last two seasons I have been riding a slew of different boards like Virus, Prior, and even a pre-KST Kessler. With all the hype surrounding Kesslers I have been dying to get my hands on one to put through the paces, and finally yesterday I had my chance. The board is a new black top 185 that is mounted with a Vist plate and F2 bindings.
But before I breakdown the board let me give you some of my specifics:
Weight: 165lbs
Height: 5’8” (on a good day)
Stance: Goofy
Stance width: 20.5”
Front foot: 55o with toe lift
Back foot: 50o with heel lift
Years on hardboots: 20+
My first run was on a very easy trail and without much speed I was hesitant to how the board would react. Within a few turns it was evident that long gone were the days of forcing a board to turn. Unlike like some boards where you need to really move forward to initiate the turn you can just stay centered and let the board do the work. Back in the later part of the 1990’s my favorite board was a Rossi 193 but I remember how much fore movement was needed to initiate the turn. For me, the earlier and higher that I engaged the edge, the more that the whole board was pressured. Although I wasn’t lucky enough to have any ice to test this on there was plenty of inconsistent grooming. The suppleness of the Kessler combined with the lift from the Vist plate made for ride that felt as smooth as a Cadillac with the power and control of a Ferrari. No matter what type of snow or grooming I ran into this board had it for lunch. There was not one slip of the edge that I didn’t do on purpose. Even though we didn’t have any ice yesterday I could tell this board would rip through the bluest of blue ice days back at Whiteface. I couldn’t help but wonder what this board would do on Whiteface’s Mountain Run, Stowe’s front four, or Sunday River’s Obsession after one of the east’s famous freeze thaw cycles. The board railed turn after turn and asked for more. There wasn’t the need to make huge adjustments throughout the turn unless I wanted to or I got off balance. Again I just wish I had some blue corduroy to run this on. Overall, for pure carving, this is hands down the best ride I have ever had. I haven’t had enough time or variance of conditions to say if it is as versatile as the Prior (which I feel is the best all mountain race inspired board that I have ridden so far) but I am very impressed. For me the goal has always been to feel like water running downhill when I ride, finally I have felt that way. This board makes carving effortless.
FYI this whole set-up is now available at Hardbooter.com. If you are a weekend racer, an inspiring world cupper, or just someone who wants to ride what those girls and guys ride here’s your chance.
New Season
December 13th, 2009Welcome back for the new season! Finally it’s started to snow here in Utah, looks like we have gotten almost 2 feet in the last 2 nights. I will get my first day on snow this Tuesday; I wanted to go up this weekend but just too much grading to do. I am looking forward to taking out the Pretty Good Stick with a pair of the F2 bindings. I will also be testing the UPZ boots for my first time. After riding the Deeluxe boots for 2 years I am looking forward to a stiffer boot but who knows, I might go right back to the Deeluxe. Been fun training with Throwdown Elite Training Center. Wish I would have had more time to do all the BJJ and Thai Boxing but at least I took advantage of the Renegade classes (a lot like Crossfit). On top of that played a lot of racquetball and even won Open Mixed Doubles (with Flavia) and got second in the Men’s Open Doubles division. 
New Shipping policy
August 27th, 2009We’re modifying our shipping policy a bit. We have sent out the first pair of UPZ boots without a secondary box. Looking back, we’ve wasted a lot of extra packaging with cardboard by trying to protect virtually indestructable Alpine Snowb…oard Gear with such a solid shipping company such as UPS. Look for gear coming to you in the stock box and if you have any issues, please, give us some feedback. We want to do as much as possible for the environment on this front.
As a side note, some customers may have noticed upon taking their box apart, if you have for some reason removed your UPS Shipping label, you might see a screen print from the Transformers movie or some random Barbie or Disney princess coloring book printout on the backing. We frequently rummage the recycle bin for viable shipping label stock.
Also, Hardbooter headquarters was probably the first local South Salt lake Biz to buy into the recycling program before it became free to all. If you see a way for us to feasibly improve our footprint, feel free to give a shout out.
March 8th
March 8th, 2009Well its been a while since I have written anything because I haven’t ridden that much. Went out a couple of mornings over the last few weeks but finally got up there to ride for a while today. It was super nice out with the sun shining and a cool breeze. Rode all over the mountain with Flavia, Jared, Tiffany, Skate and Adam (welcome back from Costa Rica). Flavia is still getting used to her new Prior 173 but she is digging the metal board. Overall it was a real good day, riding was good and UNC beat Duke!! With snow in the forecast hopefully we can get some good spring riding in. Well I better prepare for my classes.
Just a heads up…
March 5th, 2009We’re super busy over here at HB and are not always able to post text and or Video immediately on the blog and site. I do post new material often but also try to keep things chronological in the grand scheme of things so new material may be buried under ” current ” postings. ie we will date things as they are recorded and post them as such but not post them right off. Please surf around on the .net and .com sites to gain current knowledge of what is going on currently with things that are HB. We’re really trying to keep things fresh over here and really want to establish a community current feel for the sport that is Alpine Snowboarding. I believe there is a way to subscribe to new posting on the .net/blog side of things and will make you privy of how to do so in the near future. For now, this side of things is real new and I’m not privy to the in’s and out’s of our blog, completely. Stay tuned and as I said, be proactive and lurk around for new postings.
Thanks for checking in!!
Dave
WTC at The Canyons – 2/27
February 27th, 2009Woohooo! This might be the only day I get to make it to the WTC this year, It’s gonna be nice to ride with some of the crew for a change…
I met Dave in the parking lot and proceeded to mount up a B-Squared. I didn’t bother to bump my angles down, switching from my speedster, and I thought I measured my stance-width correctly (but found out later that I hadn’t.) Once we got things together, we headed up the mountain. There had been a skiff of snow overnight, but quite a bit of the mountain had been groomed. We decided to make our way to the “old” side of the resort to ride the Super Condor lift. After a wrong turn by Dave on the way there we finally made it and hit Apex Ridge. Apex Ridge is one of those “vanity” runs, underneath a lift. I followed Dave down, and it was hilarious watching the folks on the lift rubber-necking on the lift to watch him. As the name states, Apex Ridge is a “ridge” with the potential of dropping off of the sides if you make a mistake. Dave said he liked the run, but I think it may have given him flashbacks to his “Femur Ward” run, so we headed over to Boa for some turns, then headed back to the Sun Peak lift to meet up with Kirk, and some other friends of Dave’s.
We headed back to Super Condor with Kirk, and proceeded to make some ruts on Boa. By this time I’ve finally become somewhat accustomed to the B-Squared. As I mentioned earlier, I kinda screwed up when I first mounted my bindings, and the board did not feel great on the first few runs I took. I could feel the metal in it doing it’s job, but it just wasn’t doing it for me. Toeside turns felt OK, but heelsides for some reason didn’t. Dave told me I needed to be more aggressive (What a surprise for a whimp like me.) So, while we waited for Kirk, I switched my stance up a bit, bumping my angles down to 55 front / 50 rear, and widened the stance about 1/2 inch, moving the front binding forward. So at this point I was about 1/2 inch forward on the insert pack. Holy schmoly what a difference that little change made! Now the board really felt good. With the taper, I still had to work the back foot more than I’m used to, but what a fun ride. The metal ate up bumps and ruts like it’s designed to do, and the board became more fun with each run. Now that I think about it, it kind of reminded me of a Madd, only a whole lot better. Maybe Madd / Prior Metal hybrid – damp, but with more pop than any of the other metal boards I’ve ridden. The more you give / put into it, the more it gives back. It’s
definitely got Billy in it’s blood – you’ve got to be on top of it. I’d say it’s not as easy to ride as some of the other metal boards out there, but it’s also got more pop in it. It’s definitely a “do-anything” board. I’m not a racer, but I’m pretty sure this board would do fine in a GS course, but it’s still short enough to throw around and ride pretty much anywhere. I even took it off-piste for a few yards now and then, and even with the hammer-head nose, it seems to float just fine. Hopefully at some point I’ll get some more time on it to really play… I think Dave has put them on sale, so now is the time to grab one if you can, they might never be this cheap again.
After a few more runs on Boa, Dave had to hit the road, and Skate showed up. We took a few runs with Skate on Super Condor, and Kirk and I swapped boards so he could try out the B-Squared. I wasn’t going to complain about riding Kirks Prior WCRM 187…
We decided to make our way over to the opposite side of the resort and check out things on the Dreamcatcher lift. Dreamcatcher is new as of last year, and even though The Canyons is my home resort, I haven’t had the time to make it all the way over. There was probably 3 times as much snow on the Dreamcatcher side of the resort, as compared to the other side, and the runs that had been groomed were pretty chopped up, but we still enjoyed the exploring. That Dreamcatcher lift would be a dream on a powder day. Tons of open trees to ride everywhere. At that point we decided to make our way off of the hill. A run through the meat-gates on Doc’s Run ended our day. (No complaints, of course.)
I did take my crappy little point-and shoot camera with me, but I absolutely suck at shooting action shots with it. Sorry Kirk and Skate, the only half-way decent shot I got was of Flourescent Dave on Boa