UPDATE: Check out our review of the Lib Tech Orca Snowboard for 2020/2021 by clicking here.
- Sizes: 147, 153, 159
- Flex: 7
- Profile: Hybrid
- Shape: Directional
- Price: £535/ $600
- BUY FROM SURFDOME
Travis Rice’s offering to the weird and wonderful revolution, the wildly popular T.Rice Orca has made a name for itself as the go-to board for those who demand the best. Like its namesake, this board is an apex predator, wandering the mountain ready to demolish anything it finds in its path. Fat pillows, cliff drops, elbows down eurocarves- it doesn’t matter the terrain the Orca will excel.
“This board is an apex predator, wandering the mountain ready to demolish anything it finds in its path”
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Meant to be ridden shorter than your regular board, the Orca will benefit from the increased manoeuvrability and drastically lowered swing weight. You’ll be spinning off windlips and tackling the narrowest tree runs with ease when you’re strapped in. What you lose in length, you more than make up for with width when riding this killer whale. With a waist measurement of 26.7cm in the 153 size, you’ll be hard pressed to find a board that floats better whilst still being as nimble. The 10mm taper and 2.5” setback just further add to the Orca finding its home in the deep.
Utilising Mervin’s C2X profile, it features a shortened rocker section between the feet and more aggressive camber underfoot out towards the tip and tail. This versatile hybrid profile is the ultimate blend of smooth and surfy in the deeper snow, and dynamic and aggressive on the hardpack. The rockered section acts as a pivot point and allows you to load the tail of the board with your weight, causing the nose to shoot skywards.
Despite making a name for itself riding nipple deep champagne powder, the Orca handles beautifully on piste as well. The camber sections underfoot work in tandem with Lib Tech’s Magne-Traction to leave you with a board that’s rock solid when it’s on its edge. The drastically increased width means you can get super low into your carves without catching toes. With a tidy little 7m sidecut, this is a board that is begging to turn and burn, and the sintered base is made for cranking up to mach 10 even when the snow starts getting gloopy.
A real all-terrain vehicle, the Orca can sniff out powder stashes, boost off natural features and dig trenches with the best of them.
