Rating: 5/5
A nobody’s quest for perfection - A tale...
A little context for this writing. I am a male snowboarder, about 190cm tall and weighing in at 84kg. I’m 43 now, and have been snowboarding for more or less 29yrs. I like speed and powder, and are mostly seeking lines around 40-45 degrees. I’m in rotten shape but I still drag my corpse up the mountain when conditions are good enough, and if I have the opportunity.
My first 10yrs was spent doing mostly freestyle and some backcountry riding. After that, I tried some longer boards. Going from 160 to 165 made a difference, but the real difference came with board stiffness. I switched focus to backcountry and freeriding and the urge to go faster and harder grew, especially in decent powder. That’s when I started to do some exploring in the alps of Europe with my friends.
This made us realise we needed better equipment. We tried a lot of different boards, boots and bindings. I was trying to find a setup that made me super stable at high speeds, but also incorporated playfulness. I found boots first. I can’t remember when, but I ended up with the Sonic’s from thirty two. For me, these where great! Very stiff when I needed them to be, and could - just about - be adjusted loose enough to be playful.
Binding where next. I needed more control and power for my 163 wide Jones Flagship. (This was the 2012 model, which was a little too soft in the nose..) And I chose the burton diode. They where a little to stiff in the upper high back, but otherwise the perfect binding for me.
At this time, I was switching between the Jones Flagship and the Rome Notch 2010 model (camber model, not S-rocker).
Both boards had good features, but none of them did everything right. The Flagship had good float and good grip on even terrain, but felt a little unresponsive and imprecise compared to the narrower and more surfy Notch. The Notch where also much more stable and trustworthy on hard and choppy snow. Good overall stiffness and shape made this board cut threw anything, at almost any speed. But both boards could need some more damping. Especially the Flagship, and the notch would tend to oversteer in hard pack due to a bit too much taper, or maybe lack of any reverse sidecut. Otherwise the Notch was perfect for hard and steep conditions. Great grip, fast and surfy. Most obvious downside was lack of float, which the Flagship had. Otherwise both boards had a rather short sidecut radius, and therefore did not perform well with proper carving at really high speeds.
What I wanted was the best of both boards, and maybe more.. a surfy but playful board that could go faster, without any problems in any condition from choppy hardpack and ice, to pure powder bliss.
I started analysing board shapes to understand which board to buy next. I did not understand all aspects of it, but at least I understood more or less what I wanted, and I got some idea of what to look for in new boards.
This is when I coincidentally met a Furberg team rider through a friend of mine, in the alps of Italy. I think this was back in 2012. We rode together for a day or so, and I remember asking him a lot of questions about his board. Telling him about my boards shortcomings, and what I was looking for. I was on a quest to find the perfect board, and he gave all the right answers about his board, to my increasingly suspicious questions. I had not seen his board before and never heard of it. And to even top that, it was also from my home nation Norway. Very strange..
I could not completely believe what he said, but he rode faster than me, and I surely couldn’t keep up. He was obviously a better rider and in good shape - which I couldn’t say for myself - but maybe it also was somewhat down to the boards as well..?
Later I tried to do some research on this board, but little came up. Time passed, and I didn’t buy any new boards for a while. Meanwhile the splitboards gathered momentum, and we did more and more riding where splitboards could be interesting. I started checking them out, and Furberg came to my attention again.
Last year, l actually bought a Furberg Split and was really exited about it. But due to different circumstances, I ended up reversing my order before I got it. Mostly because I could not really afford it, but also because I had never tried it. Splitboards are very expensive, and buying one that isn’t exactly what you want, really sucks. Besides, now more reviews where available and I read most of them. I found some reviews very good and reassuring, others where a bit strange and concerning.
Since I got my money back from the split and really wanted a Furberg, I made a search for used boards. I ended up with the board on “review”, the 2016 Furberg Freeride 172. I thought maybe it was too big, but I bought it anyway. If nothing else just to check it out..
First day was not completely satisfying. I tried a lot of adjustments but couldn’t quite get it right. During the second day I managed to get it dialed in pretty good. The third day, we had our eyes on a pretty nice and relatively safe line. The sun was shining, snow conditions were stable and we had about 40-50cm of good pow. I was confident on the setup and determined to go flat out from the start...
... I cannot really explain the feeling of this ride without sounding like a babbling idiot. But I’ll try. Suffice it to say - that for me - this ride was truly epic! At last I was actually satisfied, this setup really worked, and it worked better than I thought possible.. Without any training or any other change, I went faster and felt more in control than ever before. I also think this is the most fun I have had on a snowboard, ever! It was a total blast.. coming down the mountain.. epic.. I actually gave my board a name after this run.. though I don’t think I will tell you.. And what’s worse, it wasn’t even a very challenging run either, just deeply deeply satisfying!
...and no, I was not under any influence, but I certainly got very very.... no TOTALLY stoked! And of course my friends had to hear me rave about it all night.. to the point it may have had a reverse effect..
Anyways, if you ask me about this board today - fair enough, a nobody in rotten shape - all I can soberly say, is:
For freeriding and more, this is definitely the best board I have ever tried. And I think you will be wise to try it..
You may be surprised, possibly you’ll end up giving it a name too.. I certainly hope so :)
