rasmasyean

I demoed this board last year. Ultra forgiving. Very ground spinny and buttery. Very soft. Pretty good for powdery moguls.

Sucks for carving. Sucks for even medium speeds.

Check out the Fix. I demoed that too and it seems to be better for what you want. But it depends on what you mean by "large kickers". You can't always have the best of all worlds.

Burton Hero is good for jibs. Flexible, forgiving, buttery. But it will suck everywhere else. Skate Banana is better for riding a little faster, larger jumps, all-mountain, and powder. Skate Banana is also better for hard snow and ice.

If you can ride switch or are planning to, get the banana. If you only go one way, get the TRS (that's like an upgraded banana). They both have magnetraction and are good for the ice coast.

Oh, and when they said it can be ridden "shorter" I think they are talking about more fluffy snow because it floats from the banana shape so you don't need a longer board. But I don't think it works any better on groomers this way. As a matter of fact, it's worse at higher speeds than a camber board on groomers.

I'm like that 130lb buy and got the 148N for jibbing about. Since you're like 10% heavier and want it for jibbing about too, I'd go for 152. If you want to ride more at speed and in general cruise faster, then 156.

Banana's are not good for large jumps where you spin. Or if you go really fast.

They tend to wash out or overspin if you don't land perfectly. But if you're doing something under 30 foot, and maybe just slow spins, it's not that bad. But I can do a ground 180 at high speeds and with a stiff camber board it locks on to stop your rotation. The banana tends to be less stable and can wash out more easily. But it's more forgiving so it will overspin instead of putting you on your face like the stiff camber board (which happened to be a Lib Tech Dark Series).

156 should have a lot left for end of season if last year is any indication. They make a lot of those "in between" sizes. Small ones go the fastest and is real tough to get on sale, esp the pink. This board is real popular so even though they make a lot, some color/size combo's might be not that easy to get on sale if you're picky.

Search it via Bing Shopping. I found a 159 pink top / pink bottom (the best combo!) that's cheap and if that's your size, it looks like they are trying to clear it out since it's all they got.

I would go for the T Rice for more all mountain. Or the Dark Series for more groomers. The T Rice will work better for powder and the Dark Series will turn faster. This board will go fast good, but not as good as the ones mentioned.

But these 2 boards are a lot different feeling from the un inc. The TRS is not as "big of a leap" in feel.

PINK ALL THE WAY!

I think it's harder to get depending on the size because most of the smaller ones are gone. Because of all the girlies. But the yellow one is played out imo. They make a lot more because it's supposed to ride the "banana" trademark hype but now it's kinda stands out too much. And it looks lame because there are so many of them.

DogFunk has like random sales. Apparently, sales fluctuated a lot at end of season.

The TRS is much more high tech and is said to be like an upgraded Skate Banana. The other difference is that the TRS is directional flex and stiffer. The Skate Banana is true twin and a tad softer. The TRS will have more pop and dampen vibrations better at high speeds and will work better in the foward direction. The Skate Banana will be better for jibs.

The Burton Hero prolly would be more comparable to the boards you mentioned in terms of specialty. But the Hero can't really "handle" the entire mountain too well. I tired it and imo it lacks in this area as do many jib boards. It's not "recessed" though. The Skate Banana is more of a general purpose board...that "can also" be used to jib.

Oh, also, the Skunk Ape does sound like something that might suit you too. It's what used to be called the "Hard Carving Freestyle" boards which is basically a direction all mountain board. I rode previous years' HCFS and the DS before and I can definately say that going in a single direction and carving...the Skunk Ape "should" be better if it's still sort of the same specs. The DS does faster edge transitions and rides switch better though.

The TRS is a good riding board that's like this board but a bit stiffer and more geared toward riding.

That guy up there suggested the T-Rice and Dark Series but those are actually expert boards with the T-Rice being more geared toward riding directionally and the Dark Series more of a terrain park massive hit machine. At least that's what they are designed arround. You can do whatever you want with them of course but if you feel you will advance fast and become an expert rider soon, then there aren't too many boards that can compare to the TR and DS.

Hello??? He's NEW to boarding! The T-Rice is an advanced all mountain bomber and the Dark Series is "agressive freestlye" designed for launching off 60 foot booters!

Anyways, those C2BTX boards are WAY too stiff for learn on. I hear the banana is easy to learn on since the rocker makes you catch less edges. But the SB is still kinda stiff so you can do all mountain riding on it. The only thing that makes it a "park" board is the twiness and the rocker it seems. As it's more like a versatle board.

There are lots of banana park boards out there, but the SB is just popular as a "park board" because it was originally marketed as "easy to press" etc.