Starting to get these on the brain, and while I am not due for new equipment this season, I could see one of these in my future. I heard that he changed manufacturers from Nidecker to someone else (I forget who) a year or two ago, and that the boards are pretty solid, even somewhat heavy, which can be a good thing depending.

Any feeback on the build quality or overall ownership experience?

The new Aviator sounds interesting for a full camber board with 2 degree bevel at the tips for a more forgiving ride.

I've always liked the look of the shapes, and that they have mellow magne traction. But I'd read reviews saying the boards were overly damp, not very responsive. Maybe that's changed.

I also heavily respect Jones as a rider and what he's doing with POW.

There is a decent discussion on splitboard.com about jones boards and quality issues, check it out.

http://splitboard.com/talk/viewtopic.ph ... fdf0972176

Maxi-pad makes several appearances in that thread due to having issues with 2 solutions last year. Yes Jeremy Jones is a great human being and super rad at life but I wouldn’t buy another Jones board until they work out all the kinks in their production quality and customer service.

And of course J-bay, myself and Mr Jones will be touring plenty this year so I will definitely mention it to him when I see him ; )

Well that's some first person info right there. Bummer for Jones.

Slightly off topic, but someone once posted about a guy that uses some special saw/blade to cut a board into a split. I've got an old Lib TRS I'm thinking of splitting.

Really!?

Finally checked out the new Flagship and Mountain Twin in REI last weekend. I really like the top sheet on the Flagship, it has some texture to it.



Upon closer inspection of the top sheets, rails, edges, base they sure seem as quality as anything out there, but ya never know. K2 boards look great, but in my personal experience with 3 boards they come apart in short order even if you treat them well.

I would consider the Aviator 160w as an eventual replacement for my Salomon Special 159w... and perhaps the Flagship 163w in place of my Slayblade 163w, but damn I love that thing.

All i have had is Turbo Dreams from K2 (4th one now!) And except the first one, (die cut popped out) which they warranted no problem, I have had no durability problems with them. I have nailed my fair share of rocks and the edges have never blown out. If you are talking about top sheet chipping and whatnot...its just a graphic!

WTF? I don't get any name drop credit in the quote?

LOL...J/k.


As they're all heroes of mine for one reason or another, I want them all to get listed. L to R:
Bonnie Zellers (she makes me proud to say I ride like a girl), Jim Zellers (first and only descent of half dome, not to mention first snowboard descents on most of the peaks all east side tourers dream of), Myself (cakespreader), JJ, and Chris Gallardo, (Tahoe ripper, former pro rider, owner of splitboard.com and a guy who gets to ride with the legends on a regular basis).

No, I'm talking about top sheets de-laminating, splitting, and peeling back on my friends Raygun and my wife's EcoPop... and most recently the base on my Slayblade formed 3 bubbles when I hot waxed it. Been using the same Wintersteiger Iron to wax at least 8 different boards over the last 4 seasons and not once have I ever burned, smoked, melted, damaged, etc. a base until this damn thing. I've hot waxed the Slayblade at least a half dozen times before with no issues, but now every time I heat that spot it bubbles up.

Well if they are delaming, that is a guaranteed warranty issue, and you and your friend should be getting new boards out of it!

Haven't had any issues with the base bubbling up, but I have seen that happen from time to time with a variety of boards. Usually the only thing that can be attributed to that is having the iron on 1 spot for too long, but who knows.

I hear ya Kyle. I even sent pics of my wife's EcoPop to K2 with the facts of the matter (i.e... not caused by damage or abuse) but I dont want to deal with sending a board back mid-season that I paid good money for her to be able to ride. As for my friends Raygun, it could have happened when the Gondi operator slid his board down into the basket, maybe grabbed the edge of the top sheet and pulled a strip of it up, but who knows. In both cases there was no definitive act that caused the board to come apart, it just happened.

Bottom line, its gonna be hard for me to keep buying K2 Snowboards when every other brand of board in my friends / family's quiver over the last 5 seasons has had no issues like the 3 quality control issues I've now seen on K2 Snowboards. It's great that they are willing to replace them, but it shouldnt need to happen with such regularity.