Snowboard techs: Magnatrac or not?
 

Looking to pick up a new board, and the goofy sales reps at the stores keep telling me I'd be an idiot not to go with a magna traction board like the ones made by GNU...

Now I consider myself a bit of an old school purist, I've been riding 12 years and have been riding only Option boards for the last 9. I ride a 163 and a 167 and mostly stay out of the park, more of a speed/big mountain type of rider.

Should I bite the bullet and embrace the new technology? I haven't found a mountain yet that demos magnatrac boards so I don't really want to commit to something that will be too much of a change, because I'm so comfortable with all my bad habits :lol

Do you slice steak with a non-serrated blade?

If you do, then keep with the current boards out there.

The thing with magna traction is that when the board is on edge, you have multiple contact points on the surface you're trying to turn on.

With a regular sidecut board you have 3 points of contact when the board is tipped on edge [nose tail and everything inbetween]. Where as a magna traction board, you have the entire edge, but 3 other points that protrude out of the sidecut giving you that much more edge gripping area.

Yes, it's been a staple for skiis and snowboards for years, and yes the super G and downhill racers use traditional sidecut, but the thing is, Mervin Manufacturing has claimed the rights to their product and it's not going to branch out to anyone anytime soon.

Having owned a lib with magna, and test riding every other board with magna, I can tell you that after 19 + years or riding, going back to a traditional sidecut is boring. It's harder to get the board to hold an edge.

Rent a board with magna traction and then compare it to yours. Take it on hard pack and reef the shit out of it on edge and you will see that even with dull edges it will hold much better than regular boards.

If I had the money, I'd go for magna traction. I think it's good technology that's not just hype.

:lol I know the science behind it, I was looking more for the flow, like how does it feel, would a rider experienced on a traditional board enjoy it, which you did answer.

I'll probably ride my current setup til the end of the year anyway but I'll keep my eyes out for a place that rents boards with the magna traction.

you won't notice any difference when the board is on edge. It's still a radial sidecut with a slight twist, or more of an advantage for you.

it's the board with banana camber [reverse camber] and magna traction that you'll feel a little off on.

But those boards are even MORE fun than a traditional cambered board and magna traction.

Honestly, Magne-Traction is definately worth it, once you get it, you will never go back. They always sell out, which makes them hard to find. I myself have a Lib-Tech Magne and i absolutely love it.

I tried my buddy's Lib Tech Dark Series 61 on a pretty crap hard pack day, and compared it to my Stepchild. You can really tell the difference when you're trying to dig into an icy surface. You can feel all of the contact points dig in. Too bad I never got to try it on a powder day because the banana tech would have been pretty fun to rip around on as well

i was reading on some neversummers and their technology is similar
mayb look into those too since its not as well known yet as the mervin products

Hear lots of good things about Neversummers but everytime I'm on the market, those boards are on the heavy side in comparison to the usual Burton, Forum, Rome, etc.

It's the only thing turning me off on it. Haven't checked out Neversummers in the last 2 season so they may have progressed on that as of late.

been riding 17+ years, also a fast/big mtn rider without too much time in the park. a good friend of mine runs a snowboard shop here and pretty much sold me out of magnatraction (gun/lib dealer, he had my size in stock fwiw). great if you ride east coast ice all day long but other than that its not a big deal (big white is home for me). im still curious to try MTX but i ended up getting a retarded deal on an Endeavor and haven't looked back.

Man I would move back to Canada and live in Kelowna just to ride Big White every day...

As much as I try to stay away from ice, at least half my trips end up being to places with icy conditions so maybe the magnatrac wouldn't be a bad idea for me though :(


p.s. miss you HyperREV!