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Snowboards

Bataleon Carver 2021-2022 Snowboard Review

  • Price: £460 / €530 / $530
  • Category: Freeride + Powder
  • Sizes: 158
  • Flex: 7/10
  • Shape: Directional
  • Profile: Camber
  • 3D: Yes
  • Base: Sintered
MORE INFO:
BATALEON.COM

As snowboarding has matured, a fresh appreciation has developed for the simple joy of putting your board on edge and opening up the throttle. The Carver taps right into that new school love of surf-style turns, bringing cutting-edge 3D shape to bear on an aggressive silhouette that’s clearly built to glide.

“As snowboarding has matured, a fresh appreciation has developed for the simple joy of putting your board on edge and opening up the throttle”

Who Is The Bataleon Carver For?

Buyers of the Carver will likely fall into two camps: older dudes who know who Serge Vitelli is, and hip young things in felt hats who’ve discovered enlightenment outside the park. You know the guys rolling up to your local surf break on CI Mids? Them.

Shape, Profile and Sidecut

The Carver fully embraces a directional philosophy, with a rocket-like outline that screams speed. The long nose will help you drive through turns, even when the groomers are scattered with ice cookies it’s all turned to crud, and if you feel like diving under the ropes (mid eurocarve, natch) then the shape is well equipped to slashing through powder, too. In fact the Carver packs more width than typical carving models, so it floats really well. It’s able to do so thanks to Bataleon’s legendary Triple Base that lifts the edges off the ground towards the nose and tail; the Freeride 3BT version deployed here is a fairly pronounced bevel, so despite having a good amount of surface area the board effectively only a narrow ‘centerbase’ that it needs to roll across. The result? Lightning edge changes. Steeper SideKicks accentuate the hull-like properties of the nose and make turn initiation even smoother.

The beauty of Triple Base is that you don’t need rocker to eliminate hook-ups. As such, the Carver’s side profile is full, spring-loaded camber – exactly what you need to keep the edge engaged and launch instantly from heel to toeside.

“The Carver fully embraces a directional philosophy, with a rocket-like outline that screams speed”

Construction and Materials

Bataleon spared little expense in the construction of this snowboard. The Light Core blends Swiss paulownia and poplar, with six carbon tubes milled into it near the sidecut to reinforce the camber and keep it feeling firmly planted on edge. Even more carbon is included in the layup – two strips running diagonally across the board to beef up its overall flex pattern. And with triax glassing thrown in for good measure, it should be clear by now that we’re dealing with a torsionally stiff carving machine capable of hitting lightspeed with barely a whiff of chatter. The base… Well, it was always going to be sintered, right?

“There are so many cool shapes vying for your attention these days, but for pure directional freeriding, the Carver is up there with the best…”

Roundup

There are so many cool shapes vying for your attention these days, but for pure directional freeriding, the Carver is up there with the best, marrying the classic art of the turn with modern 3D design. As a certain fighter pilot once put it: I feel the need. The need for speed.

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