Shape, Profile and Sidecut

While a fully positive camber profile won’t exactly scream “powder quicker”, it will certainly prick up the ears of anyone who knows a thing or two about carving, and the Vertical is indeed a pretty stellar choice for riders who really like to attack the mountain with a bit of precision and intensity.

But you only need to take a glance at the outline to see that it’ll be more than capable of blasting powder fields the morning after mother nature has laid down a few inches of freshies. Not only is the outline clearly directional with some extra inserts positioned towards the tail of the board to really capitalise in deep conditions, there’s another trick lurking up the Vertical’s sleeve (or should that be “hiding under the Vertical’s nose).

Starting from where the contact points would be positioned in the nose, the base starts to bevel out to create a 3-dimensional, spoon-like profile at the front of the board. The benefits here are twofold: Firstly, it deflects snow out from underneath it, allowing you to keep the front of the board planing over fresh snow; secondly, it offers up the double benefit of utilising that full length camber profile, without any of the twitchiness at the start of your turns. The end result is a board that performs equally well on the pistes and in the powder.

“It’s not an overly demanding board to ride as the flex rating sits right down the middle at a five out of ten. Having said that, the response is dialed up exactly where you need it the most”