arild_harboe
Posts : 1670
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Posted on Nov 16, 2008
Just rode my new NS Heritage, and since it´s been a while since I contributed on here, other than telling off various idiots, I thought I should share my opinions on this board.
Place: Kiruna, Sweden
Conditions: Very good, lots of natural snow in the park (some man-made, but you´ll need that to build a proper park in Scandinavia), and about 6 inches of fresh snow on top of the crud outside the park.
My weight, height, level: 190lbs, 5´10", advanced-very decent big mtn freerider, decent in the park.
Board length: 162 cm
Bindings: Bent Metal Restraints (stole the highback and ankle strap from my splitboard bindings)
Stance: 15/-12 regs, 25.5" wide.
Boots: F22s, size 11.
First impression: Feels very fucking light.
Torsional flex: Pretty stiff, but no 2x4.
Longitudinal flex: On the stiffer side, but with softish tips.
Well, since saturday was my first day of shred since july, I had to just get used to riding again, and get used to the stick at the same time. No worries, I can still ride.
This is an aggressive board, with a somewhat deep and "turny" sidecut for its length, merely 8 point something metres of sidecut radius. That, in combination with its torsional stiffness, makes it aggressive. I had a lot of fun just straightlining it downhill, then initiate carves at mach 10, and it held up very, very solid. No skidding at all. I like that in a board.
Preloading for off-the rollers 180s and cabs, I had a blast. The Heritage seems to possess a sickening amount of glorious pop, and it wanted me to have fun. It is light, the sidecut is, as previously mentioned, turn willing, and with the extraordinary amount of pop, that´s just a very good recipe for good times on a snowboard, in my opinion.
I hiked for a bit to the top of the "mountain" - really just a hill on top of an old iron mine - so I could get me some pow turns. To say the least, it was rocky, and I went head first into some vegetation a couple of times due to this. When I got over the rockiest section, it was all good. Freshies! Cruising down, riding switch and doing halfcabs and fs180s in the nice, dry snow was, again, fun. The tips, dependent on whether I was riding regs or switch, just wanted to rise above the snow, which is good. And, inspecting the base after going over the rocky parts, I found nothing. I´m not a light dude, and I was expecting more than a few, thin, shallow scratches after that abuse.
Riding the park today, and giving this board a proper review is kind of unfair. I´m not the best person to ride big park kickers - my dream day is based on a big mountain with lots of cliffs and decent snow conditions - and in addition, I´ve got knees that have gone FUBAR a long time ago, so I try not to push the boundaries of what those can take. Still, landing some of the smaller kickers was a breeze. Riding onto them, and popping off switch (cabman!) was also very easy and confidence inspiring. Rails aren´t really my thing, so I didn´t ride any, but given the flex properties of this thing, I´d be surprised if anyone said it´s the best board ever for jibbing.
The Heritage is a directional twin. Standard camber, longer nose than tail, and a tiny stance setback (quarter inch or something like that) as default. You could think of it as a much stiffer, more aggressive Rome Agent, or a softer, more playful Arbor Mystic (but those aren´t made anymore). From a two day perspective, I have no trouble saying this is my best snowboard ever. It will likely last a while, both because it is sick as catholic hell, and its built by the guys at Never Summer, giving it a three year warranty. It would probably be fun with new NS recurve camber tech, but it´s very fucking fun without, and I don´t think I´ll miss it.
Given that it is a midwide with a deep sidecut, I don´t think people with size 12 will have any problems with drag if they ride ducked out and wide enough.
All I know is, I found my new love, and that is my Heritage. It´s fucking spectacular.
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