After riding The Chairman for about three weeks now, I do have some thoughts about this snowboard that I would like to share. They might be a bit technical, but it is quite a technical board and it took me some time to figure it out.
Carving on Never Summer The Chairman
Not sure if I’m 100% correct here, but The Chairman is the first board that features:
- Vario Power Grip Sidecut
- R.C. Technology
- Quite stiff flex – 8/10
- Superb damping – 9.5/10
all at the same time. And this creates some really cool riding behavior…
So let’s go over each of these features and see how they combine in The Chairman:
Vario Power Grip Sidecut
VPGS provides 5 distinct contact points when the board is flexed (engaged in a turn). The contact points increase the edge hold. One contact point is in the center and additional two both towards the nose and the tail of the board. Depending on the lengths of the sections and radii used those contact points will be more pronounced or shallower.
Variable radius allows the ride to change the turn radius while carving – shifting the weight fore and aft we engage different parts of the board – which feature different radii and hence we can change the radius of the resulting turn.
Extended Rocker Camber Profile
This features rocker section between the bindings and camber sections on either side of the bindings.
It’s quite easy to see that the rocker section will roughly correspond to the straight section of the board. And the shallow / deep radius correspond to the camber section.
The rocker allows for the easier edge change and cambers, when engaged, provide extra edge hold in the turn.
Stiffness and dampness
The board is quite stiff – both longitudinal and torsional stiffness is quite high. And on top of it, the board is quite damp. This usually means good handling at speed, good edge hold, even when the board is tilted at near 90 deg angles during the carves.
The result
So when you add it up, here is the result as I feel it:
The Chairman is very sensitive to the forward/aft body position in the turn.
The Chairman has a distinct middle section contact point. In fact is’t so distinct that it sometimes feels like you are standing on a seesaw while carving. This takes some getting used to.
Variable sidecut radius works.
When you leave the center position and move your body towards the nose or tail you:
- engage the corresponding camber (fore or aft)
- engage deeper sidecut radius section
Thanks to the stiff camber the effect is multiplied. It’s definitely a strong point of The Chairman – when you shift your position slightly, you fell the board biting into the snow and tightening the turn.
Good edge recovery
This almost happens automatically. When you feel you’re loosing the edge, all you need to do is move fore/aft and the board recovers. This is pretty cool.
Here’s a recent short clip of me carving The Chairman:
and a bit of racing: