UPDATE: Check out our review of the 2017/2018 West La Hache here
The Details:
Relatively speaking, West Snowboards is a sapling of a brand. These Swiss board-builders are doing their own thing on a small scale, but the positive word of mouth they’ve gathered in the last few seasons suggests that they’re here to stay. Entering its third year on production, the West La Hache has cemented itself as their flagship all-rounder – and it’s been souped up for 2016/17.
Unchanged is the directional twin shape that can handle everything, as are those eye-catching pointed ends with aluminium protective plates. However, the profile has been given a little tweak. While it’s still mostly camber with rocker sections toward the ends, the camber section has been make more prominent than in previous years. So it’ll still offer decent float in powder and pressability on boxes and rails, but the emphasis here is on strong carves and power through the turns.
A bigger change can be found in the core, where two carbon stringers that run from nose to tail have been added. These increase the end-to-end stiffness a little, without doing the same from edge to edge. The result is a board with tons of pop and a little more longevity that’s still easy to twist through the waist as you turn.
The board pictured here is the wide version, so riders of all shapes and sizes can get on with this.
