brian s.

The pop is good and I could ollie really high on any terrain, with exceptional flex on this board, which aligns well for park riding. The plus with this board is it also is super fun and easy to ride in any powder conditions with tons of float. That's somewhat rare for a 'park' board, though technically Burton labels this all-mountain I think to get a few more people who are new to the sport to buy it. It technically is all-mountain but mostly if you're planning to ride like 80% park / 20% other.

Overall weight of the board is good and swing weight is minimized so you should be able to get really good height/distance off jumps and kickers and be able to spin pretty well. However the soft flex is going to limit huge landings except for the most advanced riders out there, pretty much.

That's the good, I'll tell you the part where this board frustrated me to ride and that was in hardpack or any kind of bumpy tracked snow. Will definitely stick to my traditional board in any of those tougher or variable conditions. Just not fun at all and more of a hassle to get through to the calmer sections (and I consider this a real "funboard"). This is my first wide board and even though I was borderline, the extra waist width was appreciated. Definitely recommend it for anyone with a size "L" binding and I easily avoided any toe drag. No noticeable decrease in performance from reduced sidecut.

Also I hated the rails on this thing out of the box since the info pasted on the board and everything else I read said it was fully de-tuned. They say you can't catch an edge on this thing (even though I slightly did on a tracked out powder run on day 1), but that's true only if you detune it yourself. My board didn't even want to slide sideways on the hard packed snow in the liftline so I could go around people and catch up with a few friends. Not what you think of when imagining a park board. Easy way to catch something on any manmade feature.

I also rode the same model year Custom Flying-V in Whistler (Spring '11) for 2 days and prefer that board slightly to this one, if you're only going to ride one board all season long. It's more versatile, not as annoying to ride over choppy snow, has just a little more stiffness (liked takeoffs and landing it on jumps), and comes with a better base. Though if you prefer to never ever wax your board, the Blunt base is going to hold up pretty good for you. If you want more speed than this board can provide, get a sintered base like on the Custom Flying-V.

Also this comes complete with the ridiculous "handmade in China" clear sticker on the tail, so if you're wondering how Burton makes them a little bit cheaper for what they consider to be a slightly more downmarket board, well there you go. You can hold out for a board made in North America if you want to protest against this ugly little feature.

This is a nice overall jacket for a good price. Waterproof and breathability are high, it's the perfect length (about 2" longer than a standard length parka, but not so long as to be restrictive). It has light insulation to keep you warm enough on most days, and roomy enough to add layers on colder days, but no heavy lining. Fits well, which makes it pretty comfy. Removable hood and mesh pit zips are well designed, and lots o' pockets including mp3 and pass pockets.

As others have noted, this is not the "Smarty" version with removable lining. The tag inside still says "Smarty" for unknown reasons, apparently because they use the same tag for all versions, but it's not.

ABOUT THE COLOR PROBLEM EVERYONE IS HAVING: "Moss" is like an lt. olive green (see the thumbnail which shows it correctly). When you click on it, it probably shows the wrong color which most people are calling a "tweed" pattern, almost like a woodsy camo. THIS COLOR IS CALLED "BARK". Notice when you click on the bark thumbnail, it doesn't show any preview. This is because the picture is missing, ignore this fact and if you want that color choose bark.

As for me, I already got the moss and not going to exchange it. I'm irked they had the wrong picture, but don't really too much care either way.