Palmer Platinum LE Snowboard - 2008 BCS

Ok, I hope this helps....A kind Rep let me borrow the Platinum LE for a few days and I rode it here at Park City Mountain Resort. The board is incredibly light and came in a stealthy, understated matt black. From a security point of view, probably a very good thing! The board was remarkable in that it has many contradictory characteristics...Nose to tail flex is surprisingly soft for the board that got Shaun Palmer back on the US SBX Team, you can actually butter it! However, torsionally it is very stiff allowing you to hold an edge and carve aggressively on hardpack. Despite the soft longitudinal flex you still get lots of drive out of the tail, dynamic carved turns are rewarded by the board trying to leave the ground - I'm guessing this is due to the mainly Carbon construction. It worked well in bumps too and in fact did everything well and was rediculously agile.
Yet at slow speeds this board turns as easily as a Burton "Learn-to-Ride" beginners board. This is due to the ingenious "Klothoid" side-cut, the brainchild of Hans-Joerg Kessler, the man who has revitalised snowboard racing. He hand builds boards in his Swiss mountain hideaway (including these Palmers, hence the price) and has had his own brand of boards on the podium of EVERY Alpine and Boardercross Race since the Olympic Gold in 2002!
The concept? When initiating and leading through a turn, resistance due to snow deformation increasingly opposes the motion of the turn. Put simply, because of the shape of the sidecut at the contact point, the Klothoid sidecut actually dissipates the pressure making the turn easier and much less effort, not to mention less tiring by the end of the day. This was a consideration for me as I teach 140 days a season, sometimes riding 20+ days in a row, 7hrs a day.
Would I pay this for a board? Does the price warrant it? Bearing in mind that Kessler's Race boards cost $1400 and there is a waiting list....YES. If you can get it cheaper, discount or Pro Deal, HELL YES! I'm making the Rep an offer as I write this...
Strengths-
Light, very easy to turn at ALL speeds. Super quick edge-to-edge, soft enough to butter yet torsionally stiff enough to carve like a race board!All condition/all terrain board, you name it...it does it. Despite being directional still easy to ride switch due to the sidecut, even carves switch easily.
Weaknesses
Price.... :( However it is hand-made and that alone gives you a unique quality.
Similar Snowboards Ridden-
I have ridden hundreds of boards over 20+ years as an Instructor and Magazine tester, too many to list. This board is in my top 5 along with the Rome Design, Atomic Rapture, Rossi Works and Burton Michi Albin.

I am the sales rep for Palmer Snowboards and Head Snowboards. Sorry Rob Connor but, the distributor for Palmer snowboards previous to last season is no longer around. Head is now doing the distribution in the USA for Palmer boards. They carry a two year warranty and if you contact Head you should have no problem as long as what you say is true. Now here is the scoop on the Platinum board. Three days ago I had the chance to put my hands on Shaun Palmers brand new World Cup race boards (Shaun pays big $$$ for each and every one of these hand made boards) at Rennstall tuning shop in Park City UT. Andy is the board tech for the US Boarder X team and he just happened to be working on the boards when I was in there. Anyhow, Shauns personal boards just like these Platinums are hand made by Hans Kessler in a tiny factory in Switzerland. I had a chance to take a close look at Shaun's boards and they feature the Klothoid tip and tail shape. The best way to think of this is decambered tip and tails. Yes this board has camber but, until you are carving in a turn and really bending the board, the far reaches of the tip and tail (contact points) remain off the snow. What does this mean? The board is more forgiving and actually creates less drag (friction) when initiating a turn. It moves the turn initiation from the very front of the contact points back about 6 inches from where you would expect to be turning the board from. It creates a ride that is much more forgiving. You never feel like you will catch an edge. However when you are hauling ass and bending the board in a carve it feels like any other board and the entire edge at that point is in the snow for maximum edge hold. Now this board has no fiberglass in it. It has carbon laminates in place of fiberglass that you find in every other snowboard. Carbon happens to me very progressive in its power distribution. The more you put into it the more you get out of it. Its also extremely light. With that said this board is not going to make a very good freestyle board due to its powerful nature. It is an unbelievable all mountain board for accomplished riders who want to put the pedal to the metal and like maximum power. If you are doing any kind of racing this is the best board on the planet. Fastest base, fastest shape available, period! I rode this board at Snowbasin last february and i was completely blown away by how much power it has when you want the power. It guess it would be like driving an Audi V12 in the city. You might just have to hold back a bit because its so fast you could find yourself in trouble.

I've had this board for 3 seasons - everything you read about how well it rides, how forgiving it is and how fast it is is true - it rocks. Alas there are also a fair few review around about it breaking and that is also true - within a few hours of buying it bits of the topsheet started to peel off where it hadn't bonded properly. Palmer claimed it was impact damage (it wasn't) and it took a lot of time and legal action to get them to pay up and replace it.