DRAKE DF2 SNOWBOARD 2013/14 REVIEW

Drake first burst onto the snowboard scene with bindings, which quickly earned a reputation as some of the best on the market. A few years later they launched a board range, which they’ve been building on ever since. Their team is small but screams quality, with freestyler Victor de le Rue (not to be confused with his big mountain loving brother Xavier) and X Games gold-medallist turned-powder-Jedi Antti Autti leading the charge.

The DF2 is Drake’s mid-range freestyle stick, aimed at intermediate riders who spend a fair bit of time in the park, but also enjoy piste cruising. It features what Drake call a ‘triple rocker’ profile. Reverse camber between the bindings makes it easy to manoeuvre and playful, while camber underneath the feet helps to mitigate the unwanted skittishness that can sometimes affect rocker boards. This combo profile is complemented with tip to tail carbon stringers, which add a bit of extra snap to the ‘premium pop’ poplar wood core.

This combination must be doing something right, as our testers were suitably impressed by the ollie power this board offered. While it’s not as stable at speed as a traditional camber stick, they also said it had “great forgiveness” and overall felt “mint” – which is a ringing endorsement if ever I’ve heard one. The base is extruded rather than sintered, but unless they’re hitting the pro-line regularly your average park rat probably doesn’t need a super-fast base, and the cheaper to produce base helps keep this well within the price range of most intermediates. If you’re getting into freestyle and want something that’ll keep you going until you get to “officially shit hot” level, this is well worth a look.

BUY THIS BOARD AT: absolute-snow.co.uk, bucksboarding.co.uk, librance.com, ldmountaincentre.com, skiexchange.co.uk, surfdome.com

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