Today i finally had the chance to go see the
Rollin Boardshop and it is a great boutique, there is a good selection of snowskates and
Boyd Hill sub-skis, i needed a few
Extreme Grip packs to put on a deck and ended up buying a
Triple Eight Bumsaver padded short .
On my way back home i picked up a package that
Minus Seven sent me... a replacement sub for my warped
Parkore. What you see here is a
UNIQUE TWIN PARKORE oh yeah and i'm going to test the shit out of it to see what it's worth. This could definitely become the new shape for this model.
I've had some very productive emails and calls with
Kurt at
M7 concerning my review of this board and he decided to make some changes starting with my replacement (see previous
REVIEW). This is really exciting and tomorrow we are going to
St-Bruno for a good session. Thanks a lot
Mr. Zapata!
You can see on the left the regular model, it is a very wide 43" (109cm) sub with an asymmetrical offset design, on the right you can see the "prototype" and its symmetrical design, there is a bit more length from the inserts to the tip which should help in controlling the board, same overall construction but different core (the
Poplar seemed to cause some torsional issues). It came directly with some risers and new
Rocker Trucks so again, thank you for this cool addition :)
 |
| newly gripped deck all ready to shred! |
OK then, here are my 1st impressions after a very cold session last evening (about -20°C) with some friends. All our boards were painfully sticking to the snow and some areas were icy due to the wind, certainly not the best conditions (and not the right wax) but at least the resort was deserted:
- Control > The ski is warped again, it's very noticeable at the nose where the tip ends up very twisted, this definitely affects the ride negatively because it is not really possible to evaluate the quality of my turns and the overall board control objectively. Riding was simply difficult and there are multiple parameters to take in account here (weather, material, dimensions... etc.) it was clearly not as bad as the previous model it replaces but it wasn't pleasing.
- Flex > It is way too stiff, although the nose was barely more flexible than the tail. This means that you can forget doing manuals, ollies were very hard to pop in the contrary of the original 43". Nollies on another hand were quite easy and pop shuvits too (frontside/backside). I couldn't land any kickflips due to the difficulty to control a basic ollie. I think the stiffness didn't help in riding either because with such a large waist, you need to apply a lot of force on your toes/heels to initiate a turn and the board was quite bouncy when carving toeside, which can be scary at high speed.
I was able to carve well on mellow slopes and softer snow but with lots of focus and it wasn't possible to relax without bailing, steep trails were extremely frustrating. I was extremely tired after only 2 hours of riding. Playing with different thickness along the extremities and the center of the ski could probably help manage the flexibility.
- Following the width issue, it is now clear that there is a better balance to find between the deck size and the sub. Yan (Harfang rider) and i rode it and we do think it needs a larger deck so you can put more pressure on the edges (overhang). As soon as i got back on my Lib/Harfang everything seemed so easy which clearly indicates that the Parkore wasn't performing as it should be. As previously stated in the first review, the deck is nice and the proportions are good, increasing the width (~ 9.3") just a little wouldn't affect the feeling too much IMO but would definitely help controlling the skate.
- Dimensions > Good, i definitely like the new shape of this ski, if it wasn't warped and had a more progressive flex i bet it would be really great. It is a short stiff stick and it does not absorb the shocks nor the distortions of the terrain very well for now. When doing tricks the new twin tip design makes more sense and is more pleasing to the eyes as well.
- Design and finish > This is a tough board, it can take a beating but despite the bulletproof construction there is room for improvements. The clear top sheet has some weird wrinkles near the inserts, the core layer and the cutting could use a little more polish. There are also some tiny gaps between the base and the edges sometimes. It's nice to have the clear top sheet and base, i always liked the transparent construction where you see the core and different layers of a board however it would be even better with some cool graphics :-)
Kurt is probably a one-man-army so it's difficult to compare the control-quality of his products to a snowboard/ski company with hundreds of employees, technicians and super high-tech factories. It's very understandable that it's difficult to be perfect and i see similar things happening with other companies like Ralston, Predog... etc. Even LibTech has had lots of delamination issues on their snowskates, i'm very supportive of this amazing community and the efforts they are doing to create those products, that's why i spend so much time riding a warped board in freezing night skiing conditions!
So again this is a wrap up for the review of the twin version of the M7 Parkore and let's not forget it is a prototype which will probably evolve a lot. I really want to see this model reach its full potential and become a classic freestyle snowskate.
T.
