First, I am pretty particular about my snowboard setup - (boots, board, bindings). I did a good amount of research (rocker vs camber, length, width, stiffness, etc), and decided upon this board. To start, it is *very* fast from edge to edge, and the base is super fast as well. I have the shortest wide board (159 W) and have no problem going mach 1 down the groomers. The edges and sidecut allow you to turn and stop on a dime as well. As far as powder goes, I was lucky enough to get a few days and the board excelled.

Now, this board will kick you around a little bit in the choppy stuff. I have a theory that my short stance combined with "pressure distribution edge" is part of the reason why. The "pressure distribution edge" means that the edge bumps out slightly where your feet mount to the board. This leads to awesome carving power, (see above), but is a lot of work to maneuver in the bumpy stuff. Again, this is just a theory, and I am going to try widening my stance to the "reference" position and see if that helps.

Given my options with an 11.5 boot, I am very happy with my purchase. Burton has new boots with "shrinkage" technology that wear like boots that are 1 size smaller. Had new boots been in the budget, I may have considered the Supermodel X. But I was right on the edge width-wise, and the "twin" nature of this board was the winning feature for me. I waited until the end of season and got a *great* deal from backcountry.

Also, if you get some EST bindings go with the CO2s. (Again, get them on sale). My new setup is pounds lighter than my old board :)

This is my 3rd pair of DaKine gloves, but the first time I ordered them in "mitten" fashion. I obviously like the company, and couldn't resist them being 15% off.

When I got them however, I pulled the elastic string to tighten the bottom of the glove around my jacket, and the string pulled right out... Interestingly enough, the exact same thing happened on the other glove! It seems like they tried to sew one end of the elastic string inside the glove, and did a poor job twice :)

Backcountry's return policy is fair enough, but I am out $7 for return shipping. I ended up going to my local sporting goods store and buying the same gloves. This time, the elastic strings seem to be sewn on a little better. I also like the fact that I can return them if need be without having to pay for shipping, knowing that these gloves have already failed me once.