Word on the street is that here at Salty Peaks, we’ll be getting Arbor snowboards in the shop for the 2015/16 season, so when the Global Sales Manager Ryan Turley rolled through with Customer Service Manager Jeff Oborn and told us they were doing a shop-only demo at Brighton Resort, I got right on it! Similar to the Lib Tech/Gnu demo I had the privilege of taking part in, the Arbor boys basically ended up putting on a private demo for little ol’ me, so huge thanks to them for hooking it up! I got to take runs on the Cosa Nostra and Sin Nombre, two boards that aren’t available until the 2015/16 winter season. We’ll start off with the Cosa Nostra, but be sure to stay tuned for the next edition of Board Reviews at Brighton for the Sin Nombre, and get stoked for these to be available at the shop this fall!
The morning began with a 159 Cosa Nostra that I took up Crest Express and over to Snake Creek for a run. It is a new model for 2016 that’s directional and tapered with a mini swallowtail and “The Rocker System.” To be honest, I don’t usually like reverse camber/rocker snowboards. For my riding style, I like having more pressure on the contact points than you get with different rocker shapes. But forget all that because the Cosa Nostra ripped! The biggest difference between all the rocker boards I’ve ridden and the Cosa Nostra, is that word Parabolic. What that means is that instead of having one smooth radius of rocker, the curve gets mellower and mellower out to the tip and tail, putting the contact points closer to the snow when you need them. Plus, Arbor’s Grip Tech gives you very pronounced contact points on either side of the inserts to make up for any looseness you may still get from the Parabolic Rocker. Bottom line, it was an incredibly smooth ride, super easy edge-to-edge, and still plenty stable. We’re unfortunately lacking on the snow, but for those that are familiar with Arbor’s line, the Cosa Nostra is the same shape as the Shreddy Kruger with a beefed up core and a stiffer flex, so you know it’s going to dominate powder!
Crest Express; almost always the first lift of the day.
The Cosa Nostra in it’s entirety.
Arbor knows typography.
Get down with the system.
The Cosa Nostra taking in the view.
The crew! L to R: Ryan Turley, Jeff Oborn, Jake Turley
If you notice that blue board on the left in the last picture, that just so happens to be the Sin Nombre that I’ll be reviewing in the next edition of Board Reviews at Brighton, so stay tuned and thanks for reading!
