UPDATE: Check out our review of the 2018/2019 Bataleon Fun.Kink here
- Price: £355
- Sizes: 151, 154, 157, 159W, 162W
- Flex: 3
- Profile: Camber
- Shape: Directional Twin
- BATALEON.COM
Bataleon have certainly had their fun with this model in the past. There was the time they answered the constant cries of “when will you put rocker on a board?” by literally writing it across the base of the 2010/11 release – and of course, last year’s “splitboard” version…
This year’s Bataleon Fun.Kink might have done away with the piss-taking, but it’s lost none of its all-mountain chops. It’s pretty flexible and very nearly a true twin, so park laps are a must. Thanks to the traditional camber bend, there’s plenty of pop when you need it too.
Of course, calling it a camber board is an oversimplification. Like all Bataleons it has their patented ‘Triple Base Technology’. While the board has the usual bend from nose to tail, it’s divided longitudinally at both ends into three sections. The ‘centrebase’ makes contact with the snow at all times, but the ones on each side slope upwards, raising the edges slightly raised off the surface of the snow.
“The shape makes it a natural floater, and you lose none of the ability to set an edge on the hard-pack”
When you’re pressing on rails and boxes, you’re far less likely to catch an edge and eat metal. When you’re in the powder the shape makes it a natural floater, and all the while you lose none of the ability to set an edge on the hard-pack and carve to your heart’s content.
The benefits can be felt no matter what kind of riding you’re doing, and that’s just as well as the Bataleon Fun.Kink is designed to go everywhere. It has a slightly longer nose that makes it more stable at speed and more buoyant in the deep stuff. As already covered, it’s ripe for freestyle, and the long effective edge will come in handy when you really want to grip the piste.
If you’re interested in picking up one of these, take not that you can get it together with the matching Switchback Fun.Kink bindings for a bargain price of £420. Check out our full review of the Switchback Fun.King binding here.
