- Price: £425 / €450 / $470
- Category: All Mountain
- Ability Level: Intermediate, Advanced
- Size: 156L, 159L, 162W
- Flex: 6/10
- Shape: Directional
- Profile: CamRock
- Base: Sintered
For a brand whose proud tagline is “Swiss Crafted Riding Devices Since 1887”, Nidecker’s Classics Series of straight-outta-the-archive snowboards is, without doubt, a real fluorescent highlight amongst everything they’re bringing to the table in 2020/2021. And although we’re not going quite as far back as the likely donkey-powered sleds of the late 1800s, if you’re looking to relive the straight-up madness and fun of snowboarding’s formative years, then you’ll want to stick this slice of 1990s madness to your bindings.
Along with Nidecker’s Liberty and The Lip Stick re-ups, The Air Pipe takes the untouchable feeling of old-school riding and marries it with high-performance and modern-day materials that, together, increase the power and strip out the weight and knee-pulverising impact of retro shredding.
“It takes the untouchable feeling of old-school riding and marries it with high-performance and modern-day materials”
The Lip Stick marked Nidecker’s first step into the new wave of freeriding in the 90s, and pays tribute to its legend by sticking the proper Jazzy Jeff-style graphic to their directional Merc board shape for 2021. With just 1cm of difference between the nose and tail, it comes armed with buckets of drive, whilst still allowing for the rider to dip into more modern switch riding, too.
Aside from the grin-grabbing designs, what’s impressed us most about everything in Nidecker’s Classics Series is just how much modern-tech they’ve hidden inside these killer throwback set-ups. The Air Pipe’s carbon-made Premium Sandwich construction, Absorbnid topsheet and lightweight Master Core all play a massive part in stopping unwelcome impacts and vibrations from ruining your playtime, whilst individually increasing responsiveness, upping its durability and sending more powder to the pow, too.
Then there’s the Standard Camrock camber, which places more rocker in the nose and tail and traditional camber under the feet and between the bindings for added control, pop, and ultimately, fun – as if you needed any more help in ramping that upon this good-times machine.
