Buzzwords and hype always seem to attach themselves to any new technology that has the potential to be the real deal. If you look at the alternate camber revolution this reigns true, but what often gets over looked is the revolution in sidecuts that’s taken place. Much like camber there’s been a huge progression in what’s going on with sidecuts.
The way to look at all these advancements in sidecuts is they either push outward or inward. This meaning that rather than a standard looking sidecut that just bends in at the waist and back out at the tips you either have an indentation creating a kink or an outward bend creating a bump in the sidecut. Visually you can notice these sometimes by looking right at the board or by putting it on its edge and looking down the sidecut.
Now unless you’ve been under a rock you’ve noticed the hype behind Mervins Magne-Traction with claims that it turns ice into powder. You can even go so far as to say that they’re the creators of this current revolution. Now if you’ve ever been drunk and retarded you’ve probably tried to cut steak or something similar with a butter knife and we all know how well that worked, right? Then you grabbed a real steak knife and it cut through the meat with no problems because of the serrations. Same concept with Magnetraction by creating more contact points it digs in and cuts through ice/hard packed just like the steak knife. There’s various options of this some with more contact points and others with less. Smokin and Rossignol Snowboards have a license from Mervin to use this technology but Smokins design is different and can be seen in the style of the serration used. Humanity Snowboards follows suit with the C6 sidecut that utilizes 6 contact points in various important areas to help with edge grip.
Arbors concept for better edge grip was unblending a tri-radial sidecut so that instead of being a continuous arc making up three radi it would bulge outward right under-foot creating 2 additional contact points.
Burtons method does the same as what Arbor is doing with pushing out the edge underfoot to create two extra contact points. The big difference is in how defined it is, as it’s very minimal you have to look a lot closer to see it.
There’s one other brand that does a single bump in the middle of the sidecut that I can’t remember who it is, but same concept as those above.
Nidecker which also makes Jones, Yes, and Antti Autti’s special projects decks has their own variation. Instead of actually turning the sidecut itself into a giant serrated steak knife they cut grooves into the actual edge. This makes a serration inside of a traditional sidecut that lets you cut through ice.
Never Summer goes the opposite route with having indentations in their sidecut. By having a deeper radius into a shallower radius which finally goes into a straight line these create the indentations or kinks. It’s a very similar concept to what Salomon created with their Equalizer sidecut, the only difference is that Salomon uses straight lines through the whole sidecut and has a few more kinks.
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19 Responses
“Mervins Magne-Traction with claims that it turns powder into ice.” You mean the opposite I guess.
Posted on January 25th, 2010 at 7:33 am
You must not have read the other articles. Angry isn’t a strong believer in Mervin’s marketing claims. Definitely a Freudian slip there. I didn’t realize that the Never Summer technology took the opposite approach of other manufacturers but it sure as hell works.
Posted on January 25th, 2010 at 8:06 am
It was a little late when I was working on this and yeah it slipped. But Mervin can suck it.
Posted on January 25th, 2010 at 8:07 am
Your breakdown of equipment technologies are wicked. Any idea what Nitro’s dual degressive sidecut is all about? Is it basically the same as what Arbour’s doing?
Posted on January 25th, 2010 at 10:08 am
I’ve built a lot of weird sidecuts, bumps, flat section, serrated edges over the past decade and they did grip better….but manufacturing them can be bitch. I had a design that worked well, then the factory made it and it was the worse board ever. In the meantime, I still use for camber boards a deepsidecut that mellows a bit before the tips. You can’t see anything special, but it carves great, stable yet quick turning. But that problem is that nothing can be subtle, everything has to jump out at you. I rode some magnetractions and they were not for me. I did bumps at the feet on a board 4 or 5 years ago, worked well, it gripped, it carved…but the salespeople weren’t happy that it wasn’t noticeable enough visually. Actually dusted it off and rode that board the other day and loved it all over again. A lot of times it’s not how rad the board is, but how many gimicks it has.
Posted on January 25th, 2010 at 10:18 am
Those cutted grooves edges are an interesting idea. I’d like to know if they make the ride better or if there isnt much of a difference. I’m actually really interested in the YES rocker twin.
Posted on January 25th, 2010 at 11:12 am
you can just experiment on an old board using a dremel tool. Just be careful not to heat up the edge too much and melt the base. More small groves or small dimples are better than big deep sharp groves. The one Nidecker uses cuts thru ice better than anything on the market but it slows you down quite a bit. Not sure of the latest nidecker version, there’s a company and switzerland that makes the machinery for it, so apparently Nidecker is the only one that uses it.
Posted on January 25th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
Thanks for the info. I’m curious though, which ones have you ridden and do you like any one method better than the others? I’m particularly interested in the NS method and how it compares to the others. Thanks.
Posted on January 25th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
The Dual Degressive sidecut thing that Nitro does on boards like the Team is kind of the opposite of what never summer is doing.
The side cut has a very large radius (straighter sidecut) out towards the tips and a very tight radius between the feet. They don’t mention anything about it being for added grip, I don’t think it’s meant to be. Its really about having a board that doesn’t hook and is forgiving when you’re landing/spinning.
That straight sidecut also makes it fun for bombing runs.
Posted on January 25th, 2010 at 6:44 pm
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Posted on January 25th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
Yeah the Nitro sidecut doesn’t actually effect the board shape to add and bulges or kinks it’s just like what Supercollider said.
BiznessTime I’ve ridden all of them except the Nidecker one it’s the one I really want to try out big time. I’m going to follow up a post after the On Snow with how the various ones ride kind of like how I did with the Camber theories posts.
Posted on January 25th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
The Nidecker Ultimate Grip is the real deal, i have been riding a Megalight with it for 2 seasons, and a Yes 156.5 this season.
I also have put 30 + days on an original Magne Traction, and a Phoenix BTX.
Unlike MTX the UG doesnt ever feel like it is interfering, and is only noticeable in that it grips like a bastard, but rides like you would expect a well tuned board to, whereas i often found the MTX taking control of the turn, making it too hooky
I also found then when MTX lets go, you really slide out, whereas on the Nidecker/Yes you are able to catch it.
Not very scientific, but if you have ridden them you will no what i mean.
Posted on January 27th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
Abra I agree fully with you about MTX I had the first dark series late release with it.
Posted on January 27th, 2010 at 9:09 pm
e,
Re: experimenting with a dremel.
You mention adding dimples to the edge. Do you mean to cut little pits into the edge? Also for anyone thinking about doing this, a dremel spins way to fast and will heat up the edge like e mentioned. However, I wonder if using a file and carefully cutting small indentation similar to the NS design would work.
Nito
Posted on January 30th, 2010 at 8:54 pm
I personlly would rather eliminate contact points instead of add them. I like park and powder about the same so I detune most of my board but it still works fine on ice and hard packed shit. I could understand Magne-Traction for carving down an icy mtn but why would you put that on a park board…..?
Posted on February 1st, 2010 at 2:59 pm
Nidecker did the UG only between the bindings because that’s where is the pression when you break or need a high edge power. in the tail and nose, the contact need to be without bumps to let you enter easely in your turn without agression, and stay the maximum stable.
yop
Posted on February 26th, 2010 at 8:58 am
I saw the ultimate grip guy with his machine at ISPO 2009, pretty neat, but yea it has the appearance that it would create a lot of drag.
You could probably build a jig on your own to do this to your board with a dremel or a router, but yea free handing it would probably work too.
I think one aspect of getting more grip, is simply increasing how much of your edge is in contact, magne traction works partially because of the actual waves, partially because there is more edge material availalbe per length of board.
Posted on May 5th, 2010 at 11:03 am
Thanks for talking about sidecut! It totally affects how a board rides. I’m super stoked on equalizer sidecut on the Salomon boards with rocker in particular. I ride a Gypsy and the Equalizer sidecut makes it feel stable and fun in the park and on rails.
Posted on May 23rd, 2010 at 10:32 pm
“i often found the MTX taking control of the turn, making it too hooky
I also found then when MTX lets go, you really slide out, whereas on the Nidecker/Yes you are able to catch it.”
EXACTLY. sometimes it would randomly grip and literally pull me through part of the arc, and sometimes it would just skip out for no apparent reason. never has ever happened to me on any other board as long as ive been riding. im not a fan of MTX. that being said, i thought the mellow MTX on the phoenix shape was fine. didnt really feel like full/regular MTX on all the other mervins ive tried out, but i still prefer a regular sidecut.
cant we just have straight up radial sidecuts with sharp edges again? those ones are always my favorite.
Posted on September 6th, 2010 at 3:15 am
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