For me riding sideways has always been about turning. Even when skateboarding as a kid I was more drawn to speed and carving, then hitting our local bowl which was an asphalt covered drainage ditch called the ”Banana Bowl” in my hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden. I got the biggest rush from pumping up speed on a slalom deck or bombing a hill. Snowboarding didn’t interest me much until I encountered the full laid out Vitelli turn (Serge Vitelli invented the eurocarve) on a trip to the Dolomites in Italy. From then on I was hooked on snowboarding. With this in mind it’s easy to understand why my first shape was a split tail carver called the ”Afterburner”. And the reason for creating my own shape? I couldn’t find a board for my style of riding. Snowboards for carving back then was narrow race boards, highly specialized tools for riding gates. I wanted to do full arcing surf turns on groomers without skidding or booting out. This was a long time ago and fast forward to 2022 and you will find this dna in all Strandas. More in some less in others, but they all excel in edge grip. What differs is how they turning in when you put the board on edge.

Best carving snowboards 2023

For me a carver is meant to slingshot you in to a deep 180 degree carve across the fall line. Here the Cheater excels as it has a perfect combination of camber, variable sidecut and torsional stiffness in the center combined with less torsion in the nose. When you put this board on edge carving is like cheating, hence the name. A more freeride orientated board like the Descender, although it has outer worldly edge grip with it’s PowerBumps, wants to take you down the fall line as fast as possible. Yes it carves, but not in a surfy way. If you wanna mix these two ways of riding take a look at the Bowlrider or the Shorty. With plenty of tip and tail rocker in combination with camber under foot and intelligent multi radial sidecuts they are fun tools for surf style carving on the groomers but is as great in deep stuff. You could call them ”surf carvers”. The Pipeliner on the other hand is a full camber board with a tiny bit of early rise in the nose that begs to be pushed hard when ridden. Speed limit is at the high end but it demands a rider who commits to the turn. If you hesitate it will be a wild bronco ride as skidding a 185 fairly stiff board is not an easy task, but if you’re after high speed ass dragging turns, the Pipeliner is the board for you.

See you on the groomers!