Head Snowboards USA Intelligence AK Snowboard - 2008 BCS

I ride Loveland, Abasin and Vail and have ridden this board hard the few days I have had so far this season (10).
The board handles great on hard pack and crust carving tight and solid.
In the pow, it is amazing. Super fun to do surf slashes and eats up the trees.
The base has a structure to it so it is VERY fast, make sure to brush out the wax from the structure= fast!!

My only request is, More taper, while I like the small amount of camber and smaller tail, I would like to have at least 10-20mm of taper and a S-rocker like a burton fish along with Head's extensive size options ( 162, 168, 172!!) and Thanks to HEAD for offering some smaller waist widths. ( I am 6.3 and squeeze into a 9.5 boot).

Head customer service is amazing. i had some in-depth questions and I was forwarded to one of their pro testers...talk about service...the dude even called to make sure everything was cool!!

I am the sales rep for Head snowboards but I want to give you a little idea of what how this board rides. It really rides a lot like a traditional all mt. board except that it is tuned to out perform a traditional all mt. board in powder. The AK has a medium flex to it but, with the Intelligence technology it stiffens up on hard snow making for unbelievable torsional stiffness which helps it grip on edge (If you are not familiar with Intelligence there is a video on Youtube under 'Head intelligence snowboards') So in that sense it is a lot like our Intelligence I.CT. However, this board is just slightly tapered (2mm) in the tail and the tail length (off the snow portion of the tail) is shortened by 2 cm. That 2cm is added to the nose of the board which gives the AK a longer nose profile than our I.CT. The combination of the slightly tapered tail and shorter tail means less leaning back in pow. Essentially this means you will have to fight your tail less to keep your nose up on those big pow days. The longer nose keeps the board on top of the snow. Don't think of this board as a powder only board however. I actually raced in the Mt. Baker Banked Slalom on this board in Feb 2007 and it was awesome. The AK makes for a awesome everyday board for the all mountain ripper person who rides 90% forward and 10% switch or less. Its an everyday board that also rips in powder like a real powder board.