I’ve long lusted for an Arbor Mystic. Imagine my surprise last summer when I found one in a Texas shop at 50% off. I spent more time riding the Mystic 154 this past season than any other board.
Before the Mystic, I’d never experienced a true park board. If you’re considering a park board and have never owned one, you might want to demo one first. The first thing you’ll notice is a different edging. Where an all mountain board is sharp around the curves, a park board loses it’s edge near the ends as to not catch the snow while doing rotation tricks. This means you must have your carves on hard park dialed in a little better. You’ll also notice that a park board has a completely different flex pattern. The middle of the board tends to be springier while the ends are more firm.
The Mystic is one of Arbor’s bamboo core boards. Bamboo is lighter than carbon fiber and lasts twice as long. The use of bamboo also makes Arbor one of the most eco friendly boards on the market.
The base of the board uses a technology Arbor calls Struc Turn. From the website, “It prevents a vacuum from forming between the board and snow.” I quickly became aware of the effectiveness of Struc Turn on my very first ride. I thought a smaller board (I usually ride a 162) would be a bit slower. The Mystic accelerated much faster than any board I’ve ridden.
The mystic is a true twin tip. This is rather funny, as I set my bindings on the board backwards initially and never bothered to fix it. I spent a lot of time this season focused on improving my ability to ride switch. The twin nature of this board made it much easier. With my directional boards, it was difficult to tell what was different while riding switch – something I was doing versus how the board felt. With the twin, I could easily identify what I needed to focus on while riding switch.
Overall, the board is fairly light. It’s not as light as some of the new honeycomb boards coming out; however, you definitely won’t have to worry about a knee popping out of joint while riding the lift up.
Finally, the board just looks sexy. Traditionally, the Arbor boards have been mostly black with very classy and mostly green artwork. While the 04 artwork is, by far, my favorite – I still love my 07.
Conclusion Highly Recommended