Weston Sapia

These pads are sweet. They're super light, barely noticeable when you're wearing them, and totally bomber. I would recommend them to anyone. They don't slide around or fall down at all. I never ride without them now.

I found this board cheap on Whiskey Militia, and I bought it without doing much research. The few reviews I did read said that it was okay for all-mountain (I'm closer to a free-rider than all-mountain) so I bought it.

I don't think this board really qualifies as all-mountain. It's a twin, and very soft, so it falls into the park/freestyle area more-so than the all-mountain category. It doesn't do very well on ice or steeps or pow. I wouldn't recommend this board unless you're going to be using it exclusively in the park.

I wasn't super impressed, but hey, that's why I get for buying a board without doing research simply because it was cheap.

I'm replacing it with a Rossi Experience, which I think will be much better for me in the long run.

Good bindings, super comfy and fairly adjustable.

I give three stars because the ratchets kind of suck. They stick pretty bad sometimes, and that's a real pain. When you want out, you don't want to have to take your gloves off and ruin your bare hands pulling on the damn things.

Also, one of the screws that had loctite from the factory fell out and I lost it. I probably should have put some more on, but still, it had loctite, and it still fell out. It wasn't a big deal, I had a replacement in under 20 mins, but still not something you want to have happen out in the BC.

Overall, they're pretty good, but not amazing. I'd recommend them, but I'd also give some pointers.

I love these poles. I use them for backcountry snowboarding, and they've yet to let me down. The only reason they get 4 stars is that the powder basket attachment method doesn't seem like it will survive repeated removal of the basket. It looks like the basket will eventually wear down enough that it won't stay on tight. Definitely a problem if you're planning on using the BD Flicklock Snow Saw with these poles. Other than that, they're great.

Used these all last season for snowboarding in the Lake Tahoe area. They were okay. I never needed anything more than a pair of boxers underneath to stay warm, but I tend to always be warm no matter what the weather's like.

I did end up getting a tear on the knee halfway through the season, but I never patched it or replaced the pants, and they seem to be doing fine.

These aren't the most waterproof or breathable pair of pants out there, I try to avoid sitting in the snow on slushy days when wearing these because I don't feel like they're all that waterproof. I've definitely had them soak through on some of the wetter days of the year.

I wish the inseam vents were a little longer and wider, I was doing a lot of BC hiking with my board on my back, and while it's nice to have the vents, I don't think they were quite up to the challenge of dumping all the heat I was generating.

The other thing that I would change is to add some small amount of insulation to the butt. Sitting on a long, slow chairlift in a blizzard would be a lot more comfy with a little more padding between you and the frozen seat.

Overall, I think these pants did the job, I got a good season's use out of them, but I probably wouldn't buy them again. I would recommend them to skiers (provided that they wear layers underneath for padding and insulation), but I wouldn't recommend them to a snowboarder.

This is a great jacket. I bought it because it was on sale for cheap and I loved it all this past season.

It seemed to be even better at shedding water than it's 5k waterproof rating indicated, and the pit zips are awesome for dumping the extra heat you'll most certainly have with this jacket. I wore it all season with nothing but a t-shirt underneath, and I wasn't cold even one time.

I would highly recommend this jacket if you're on a budget and don't want to spend a lot. I hope to keep it for another season or two as it seems to be holding up very well to the abuse I put it through over the last year.

I'd definitely recommend it.

This pack works fairly well, but I definitely ran into some problems.

First off, it's really not big enough for anything besides avy gear and a hydration bladder. Good luck fitting even an extra layer in it. The pack is really only useful in-bounds at a resort, it's just not large enough for a real day of backcountry boarding.

The second problem is that I've only had this pack for one season, and the shoulder straps are starting to tear at the bottom from carrying my board horizontally. There is hypalon on top of the straps that's supposed to protect them from the edge of the board, but mine are cut most of the way through after only a few months.

Now on to the good...
I love the avy pocket. It's huge, and it's one of the few packs I've seen that will fit my Voile Telepro shovel head along with my probe (the probe barely fits, but I can get it in there - BD Quickdraw 265). The pocket won't fit the shovel handle, but the ice-axe holder on the right side does a good job of keeping that in place.

I like the hydration tube routing, even though it could use some more insulation (my hose froze up a couple times this year).

The goggle pocket is pretty sweet and does a great job of protecting the goggles.

Overall, I like this pack, but it's just too small for it's intended purpose and the hypalon straps at the bottom are a little too fragile to trust out in the backcountry. Fix these problems and I'll take another look, but as of now, I wouldn't recommend it.

Great beacon, has everything you want/need without being overly complicated. It's great for beginners while in basic mode, yet also has an advanced mode for guides and pros.

The user-interface is simple, only two buttons. The build quality seems to be good, I spent a lot of time playing with it over this past season, and it's held up very well. Also, the battery life is pretty good considering the performance that you're getting out of it.

I'd recommend it to anyone.

Overall, this is a pretty good probe for the price. I don't think I'll be breaking it anytime soon. The design could definitely be tweaked to make it easier to disassemble though. When you have gloves on, breaking down the probe simply doesn't work very well. If BD were to use a design like the BCA probes use, it would make it more user-friendly when you have gloves on.

One thing to note is that BD should get rid of the sandpaper grip thing and use some of the gummy grip like they put on the Traverse poles. Currently, the grip wears away the numbers making it harder to use the probe for snow study.