All-Mountain Masterpiece

By cantsee Ranked #126 - All Mountain Snowboards March 16, 2009

I've been looking at this board for a while, so when my last board gave up the ghost and backcountry.com hooked me up with a deal on this deck, I jumped on it. I'm about 150lbs., ride mostly in the North East, and my last two boards were a GNU Rider's Choice MTX 151.5 and a Ride DH 155. I rode this board in 20" of powder in the Pacific NW, the resulting heavy crud, and spring slush/ice conditions on the East. My current setup is: Arbor Wasteland 155, Ride NRc, Salomon F22. Now that the background information is out of the way, about the board:

The first thing you notice when you start checking out this board are the wood topsheet and the killer inlaid graphics w/ 5 types of wood. Holy shit, this board scores hard in the visuals department. Then you notice that it's called the 'Wasteland,' after TS Eliot's poem, "The Waste Land." Keeping this in mind, you'll notice that the art correlates with the concepts in the poem... Arbor totally outdid themselves on this end; I've never had a snowboard as mentally stimulating as this one. At this point, I already loved the board and I didn't even get to ride it yet.

Once I started to ride the board, all I could think was: "Damn, this board is smooth." The Wasteland doesn't really 'rip,' more accurately, it devours everything in it's path. It absorbs all the vibrations that come from the crap that you're riding over and returns a high-quality, finely-tuned ride. It's very smooth. Going from edge to edge takes a little bit more input than other boards, perhaps because the Wasteland is a mid-wide, but by the 3rd run on the board, I stopped noticing. Despite the width, it performed well in the trees on the West, but I've yet to test it in the tight glades of the East. The width also helps the board float in powder: with my stance set back, I didn't get the crazy leg burn that I was used to with the Rider's Choice and the DH. The Wasteland seems to have low swing weight or low weight in general; I was able to eke out some extra 180s on spins. When you land a drop off-center, the board manages to straighten you out without much drama: it just soaks everything up. Taking the board to the jump line is also uneventful. The tail doesn't catch in weird ways off the lip of the jump the way some boards do, there's solid & smooth pop off the transition so you can get pretty good air, and like I mentioned, spinning and spin initiation come easily. I didn't get a chance to take this into the pipe, but keep in mind that it's not really a stiff pipe board. As far as jibs and rails and boxes are concerned, the board does it all with just one issue that I will get to later. It's definitely soft enough for butters and presses on snow and boxes.

The board has a very fast base, maybe because of Structurn, but who knows. The base doesn't seem as hard as others out there, though I've yet to put any gouges in it. It's also average in terms of wax retention, at least in ice and slush.

Compared to the GNU Rider's Choice MTX, this board is softer, wider, smoother, has a more stable sidecut. You can get the Rider's Choice to pop HARD on a transition while the Wasteland doesn't pop quite so hard, but the pop is smoother and more controlled. Compared to a well-broken-in Ride DH, this board is somewhat similar in stiffness, smoother, and has a more stable sidecut at high speeds. Can't really beat a radial sidecut (DH) for predictability, though. The DH you can jump on and pull your entire bag of tricks, the Wasteland you need to 'feel out' a bit, at first.

Now, about that topsheet. A bunch of reviewers have said that the topsheet peels easily, chips easily, etc. I agree, the topsheet is somewhat fragile and on a board that looks this good, you notice and feel every cosmetic imperfection. But that said, it's all cosmetic and doesn't seem to affect the performance of the board. If you get some major peeling, consider breaking out the epoxy to precent further peeling, but it's been rather minor for me. The topsheet doesn't seem any less durable than Mervin (Lib, Gnu, Roxy) topsheets, which also chip and peel frequently. Because of this topsheet issue, I would think twice about jibbing things and sliding rails on this board. I tailtap'd a plastic 'no jumping' sign a little too hard and now I have a chip there. Tailtaps on bamboo and fabric 'slow' signs don't seem to do any damage.

Arbor: This is an incredible riding board, with an incredible graphic concept and graphic execution, but you've really got to do something about these topsheets. It's not a non-issue for a $650 snowboard.

Backcountry: Your customer service is absolutely tops, thanks again.

In conclusion: those who freeride or freestyle exclusively will benefit from more specific boards. But for people who like to ride everything in between, the Wasteland makes no excuses.

View Details: Arbor Wasteland Snowboard

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