• Price: £580
• Category: Freeride/Powder
• Ability Level: Intermediate, Advanced
• Size: 166
• Flex: 7/10
• Shape: Directional
• Profile: Hybrid
• Base: Sintered

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out what kind of riding you’ll be doing with the Retro Ripper. Clap eyes on this beast and you can’t help but think of open powder fields, fat rooster tails and throwing huge slashes.

The Retro Ripper pays homage to the OG snowboarders on the hill. Long, directional shapes with pronounced swallow tails were all the rage back in the day, and they’re having a comeback akin to Liverpool in the Champions League. In 2021 XL swallow tails are speeding away, sails chock full of their second wind. Shaped by renowned surf guru Matt Biolos, this thing is designed to get you as close to being pitted and barrelled as you’ll ever get thousands of meters above sea level.

“This thing is designed to get you as close to being pitted and barrelled as you’ll ever get thousands of meters above sea level”

The swallow tail is a thing of beauty, it doesn’t just catch eyes and help open beer bottles, it massively reduces the surface area in the tail of the board driving it down into the snow and thus catapulting the nose above the snowline.

This is a snowboard that was built to float, a 15mm taper, 5 inch setback, and a nose that would put a Proboscis monkey to shame. The narrow back end of the board is far more manoeuvrable, gearing you up to drive slashes and turns with your back leg as well as ensuring the nose ain’t sinking anytime soon.

Built for the big boys, the Retro Ripper comes in one size only- 166cm, with a waist width of a whopping 27.3cm. That’s 688 square inches of pure retro radness.

Mervin have pulled out the stops and stuffed the Retro Ripper full of their premium materials, but as with all their offerings they haven’t wavered with their steadfast aim of minimising their footprint. Recycled retro goodness, hydro power build and eco-friendly inks are to be found in this Lost x Lib collab.

“This is a snowboard that was built to float, a 15mm taper, 5 inch setback, and a nose that would put a Proboscis monkey to shame”

While you’d expect the Retro Ripper to excel in the pow, and it does, it also can haul some serious ass on piste too. The aggressive C3 Camber Profile paired with a jet fuelled sintered base and overlaid with tri-ax and bi-ax laminates offers a responsive, powerful and devilishly smooth ride on groomers.

The Retro Ripper is inspired by the pure, undulating powder fields of Japan, so it made sense to feature graphics from Katsushika Hokusai, one of Japan’s most distinguished artists. Strap in and hold on for dear life, the Lib Tech Retro Ripper is one radical rocket that’s raring to rip shit up.