2013 MarHar Archaic Used and Reviewed

Sunday, May 6th, 2012

MarHar the little company from Michigan continues to push forward with their offerings for 2013. With the Archaic they finally built a stiffer bigger park feature oriented deck. Here’s what I had to say about it.

Board: Marhar Archaic

Size: 154

Camber Option: Mustache Ride. Reverse camber between the feet, camber half way through the insert pack, reverse camber after, and then early rise in the tips.

Bindings: Raiden Phantoms

Stance: 22.5 Wide 18 Negative 15 Goofy

Boots: K2 UFO Size 10

My Weight: 165

Resort: Keystone

Conditions: Sunny in the morning turning to overcast and windy.

Flex: On the stiffer end of park but closer to the middle for all mountain freestyle. Sweet spot in the tips with a little bit of give stiffening up under foot then softening back up as you get towards the dead center.

Stability: Well with the carbon placement and flex you didn’t have to worry about chatter at all. This board was meant to haul ass and absorb.

Ollies: The stiffer flex in my opinion impeded the ability to load up and snap off rollers. It was OK for ollies but not exactly a board I would write home about as being overly poppy.

Pop On Jumps: This is what this board is meant for, well jumps or halfpipe. Either way when sending a jump it was predictable and you knew you were going to be able to boost to the sweet spot.

Butterability: Not totally optimal based on the boards flex. Basically high speed buttering not a problem but if you wanted to be slow and really play you were going to have to work it a lot harder.

Jibbing: There is a sweet spot in the tip and tail for locking into presses. It took a few runs to find the optimal point you wanted to engage in a press. Over all it’s just like buttering high speed jibbing that isn’t overly technical.

Carving: This board is designed to hold an edge. Coming in hot throw it up on the toes rail the turn transition back on the heels cut hard and back on the toes. You can charge on edge with this board and make the mountain your bitch.

Rider in Mind: The guy that likes to ride all mountain and rip carves on hero snow or I would say someone competing in slopestyle where they need a stiffer jump board that can handle it all.

Personal Thoughts: Compared to the G-Quest I rode last year this was a drastic improvement. The flex is on the stiffer end which makes it more versatile for all mountain use than straight park riding. The nice thing is that it’s not an overly damp board for it’s flex so there is some life to it when playing around.

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