sorry for the repeat but I figure if I put it here I would get a good answer from you, which would be great.right now I have a Ride Society which I find is sick for pipe, booters and generally charging around the mountain. I need a board that I can jib/butter boxes rails and flatground without catching and something that presses really well unlike the society. I'm afraid the WWW rocker or ride crush will leave me wanting a nicer board because of its lack of tech and carbon but will a parkstar or machete be too stiff? that leaves me with the jibpan, I thought it was a decked out www but I hear its stiffer than a parkstar?Basically I want something as different from my society as possible when it comes to the things i mentioned without being a POS noodle.

I agree with Shawn that the Machete is what you're looking for, but I'll explain why it'll be better than a Crush, WWW or Jibpan.

The Crush is just a Kink with Lowrize Rocker in it. The Kink and Crush are fun boards if you're looking for something that is super soft, easy to press, tough enough to hold up from the beatings that you will put it through in the park.

But the downsides are that you lose speed with the extruded base and to keep it soft there isn't any carbon fiber in it for pop. So the three boards that sit between the Crush and Society are the DH, DH2 and the Machete.

The Machete is still soft enough to press and screw around on, but it has a sintered base and carbon array 3. The CA 3 gives it pop to be fun in the pipe, kickers and general all mountain riding. But, still keeps it soft enough to play around on.

The DH has been a solid all around park board in Ride's lineup since 03-04. Basically the Machete is a rocker version of the DH. So if you're not quite feeling the Machete because of the rocker, then grab the DH.

The DH2 is basically a stiffer & Lighter Machete. It has Carbon Array 5 in the nose and tail and a membrain topsheet that shaves off about a 1/2 pound in weight. The DH2 is pretty close to a Society with Rocker, but not quite as it doesn't carve as aggressively as the society does.

Hope that gives you a better idea, if not keep firing the questions at me and I'll do my best to answer them for you.

alright thanks for that info, its really helpful. Good to know the machete is soft enough, that what i was wondering because its only 2 notches lower on the ride scale than the society. One thing I'm still confused about though, what do you think of the jibpan? I'm leaning towards it because I can get a longer effective edge with a shorter board when compared to the machete (150/152) and I've heard the jibpan is slightly softer. Is that the only difference, other than that and the lack of slimewalls it seems the same.

If you're concerned about playfulness and hooking edges... then you shouldn't want more effective edge. The more of that you have, the more likely you can catch something.

Personally I would say the Jibpan is a kink without slimewalls and will be softer then the machete as it has no carbon in it... like the WWW with Park Rocker is a Crush without Slimewalls... So again you back to your original hangup.

ok so I'm pretty much sold on both of them, I think the deciding factor will be the length. I'm 6 ft and 155 lbs would the 150 be too small even though its got a longer effective edge than a machete 152? I'm just think it might get harder to press cause maybe I'll be flipping over easier?

At 155 pounds you can go down that far if it's just going to be a jibstick. But riding a board that small at your height and weight will limit it to being a jibstick as you're going to lose some of the all mountain aspects of the board. Also, hopefully you have a 10.5 or smaller boot size to fit on the smaller waist widths.

i'm sold on the machete only question left in my head is sizing - i also rock a society for all mountain business but wanted to add the machete for more park oriented donking around - with the lowrize i'm told it will still be great in the pow....given i get it long enough. I'm 6'0" and was wondering what size you'd recommend as to not have any sinking issues in pow but still short enough to spin and jib on in the park -- essentially what's the happy medium?

sorry - i'm 6'0" 165 lb

I would go with the 158cm if I was you. It will float for you in snow but small enough to screw around in the park.