- Price: £335
- Sizes: 148, 151, 153W, 154, 157
- Flex: 5
- Profile: Flat
- Shape: True Twin
- SLASHSNOW.COM
The Slash Spectrum is a freestyle board, but don’t think it only belongs in the park. Anything in sight is ripe for tricks when you’re riding this model, which Gigi Rüf has left largely unchanged for 2016/17.
Bar the usual kicks at the nose and tail, the Slash Spectrum is completely flat. While that will always mean less pop than camber, it also means a smaller chance of catching your edge. It doesn’t take long to get used to a flat base – and once you do, you have something incredibly versatile. Floating it in deep snow is easy, as is anything freestyle-related, and you can still get a strong edge on the groomers (aided by the small bump halfway along each edge).
“If the resort is one big playground to you, from the back bowls to the handrail outside the liftpass office, then the Slash Spectrum fits the bill”
The Spectrum is one of the few boards in Slash’s line to feature the brand’s ‘Reactive Flex’. In layman’s terms, both the wood and the fibreglass in the core have been chosen to make it easier to manipulate the board torsionally (meaning from edge to edge). By ‘pedaling’ with your feet, you can twist the board through the waist in order to engage or disengage part of the edge. When perfecting those turns it can help you to initiate smoothly, and when on a rail you can minimise the likelihood of a nasty hang-up.
From end to end it’s got an average flex, so while it won’t excel at high speeds it can certainly deal with them. Then when you see a nice, open stretch of piste, the flex and the flat base make for easy buttering. You’ll get plenty of pop off side hits and park jumps thanks to the bamboo stringers, while the multiple-radius sidecut helps you dig trenches all over the mountain.
If the resort is one big playground to you, from the back bowls to the handrail outside the liftpass office, then the Slash Spectrum fits the bill.