Construction and Materials

The Amplid Kill Switch boasts an interesting mix of tech: a relatively basic construction (biax fibreglass, all-poplar core), augmented with lots of clever bits and bobs designed to elevate performance without the need for a bigger budget. Carbon running down the middle of the board, for example, increases pop performance whilst maintaining the relative lack of torsional stiffness (which, given the width of the Kill Switch, is a smart move).

Thanks to some durability-minded tweaks, the Amplid Kill Switch will itself be quite hard to kill. Impact plates under the bindings protect the board from high-stress situations, and the thicker nose and tail can take a beating too. Offsetting this is the Hexo 2 Lite core construction, which inserts some feather-light honeycomb sections (made from recycled paper) into each end, reducing the weight.

Underneath it all is a high-quality sintered base. It may be one step below Amplid’s best version, but it’ll still whip the Kill Switch along like greased lightning.

“Amplid’s two-season approach is sustainability done right”

Roundup

Amplid’s Peter Bauer sometimes talks like a mad scientist, but his output is far from Frankenstein. Well-researched and extensively peer-reviewed (through the brand’s people-power-harnessing Test Pilot programme, among other channels), you know you’re not getting sold snake oil when you see the Amplid logo.

The Kill Switch will likely never be amongst the brand’s flagship boards, but then that’s not the point of it. Wearing its experimental credentials firmly on its sleeve, this one is there to rattle the cage. If you feel you’ve lost your spark, this may well be what gets it back.

Pros:

• That’s a nice price for such an interesting board, thanks to the smart construction
• The two-season cycle gives it serious eco-cred and also means it’s as ‘tried and tested’ as they come

Cons:

• It comes in only one size, which means a lot of riders will inevitably miss out

“Peter Bauer knows how to make damn good snowboard. I mean, damn, this thing felt nimble, even when I had just one foot strapped in and was scooting my way to from the gondola to the first lift.

You can turn this thing on a dime which would make it great fun in trees a little earlier in the season with fresh pow.

I was mostly on the slush and groomers enjoying how effortlessly the Killswitch turned and how well it griped a carve when I started wondering if that nimble feeling might sacrifice stability at speed.

So we found the longest, steepest, quietest piste we could and I straight lined it to the bottom with less chatter than you’d find in a library.

The Killswitch cruises like a Rolls Royce making 100mph feel like a 30mph school zone so you’ll need to watch out for speed tickets.

I even took it for a hot lap through some small kickers and it was fun in the air too. I’d definitely choose this one if I was looking to cruise the pistes, hit the occasional side hit or rip through some fresh snow.

A well-built charger through & through.”

“As if injected with a highly potent “Do-Everything” serum, the Kill Switch brings more serious all-mountain capability to our Future Shape family. Deadly slashes, big faces, vicious carves and bone crushing stomps, the Kill Switch is an unbridled beast. True to its family roots the fun-factor is sky high. With its cleverly though-out construction – HEX02 honey comb, carbon pop band and impact plates, the Kill Switch’s longer mid-waist shape gives this mutant the same insane auto-float sensation as the other Future Shape geometries, but with even more stability and control at higher speed. Less directional than purebred powder specialists, the Kill Switch handles regular and switch duties with ease in an all-mountain aspect, but when conditions are epically deep, its chip-fork-like pintail loosens the ride in a surfy way and keeps its big nose out of trouble. With its superwide brother – the Big Kahuna – we are catering to the same type of rider but with boot size 45+.”