Honestly, I was looking for information on Netbooks when I ran across Cheetah Ultra Sports‘ new snowboard, the Whip F117. I ran across the board on a Gizmodo post. The stick costs nearly $2k and looks like a snowboard mated with a Cyclon ship. I have to admit, it’s dead sexy.
The hole in the board is… odd… making for certain that this is not a powder board. This leaves me wondering just what this board IS good for. The product page suggests it’s good for new riders. However, in my many years of teaching, the best thing I’ve found for new riders is some soft powder.
Perhaps it’s an interesting board for the park, but will the hole get caught on parts of rails, boxes, and pipes? If it’s lighter, it might be nice for areal tricks. How this board snaps and carves could have a big impact on take-offs and landings.
The risers are extremely high. I hear a lot of riders like risers, but I rarely see them and never this high. I was joking with friends the other day about making elevator snowboard boots. I imagine they would feel something like this board would feel. Unfortunately, I’ve never had the experience of riding with risers, so I can only imagine.
Part of me wants to take this board onto Snowflex terrain. There’s something that feels appropriate about taking a space-age looking board onto an artificial surface. Ultimately, I would really like to demo this board and find out how it feels. However, until I can, I’m going to have to classify this in the gimmick category – a very expensive gimmick.
I don’t know how I feel about that board. It doesn’t really appeal to me. Just looks like some kinda toy… but who knows, maybe it works.