Actually it wasn’t that fair, neither for the board, nor for Dees Hetzenauer, our 65-kilo female reviewer. But I knew that Dees is a power woman with years of experience who could handle this board and could make some good points about it. And I would also ride the board myself. So here’s our shared review.
The board in question is the 159-centimeter long K2 Manifest. For me it could have been a bit longer and maybe even one of the widebody versions. But this directional camber board immediately feels strong, stiff and powerful. All-Mountain oriented but also good for the park.
Conditions
We did not ride park, but Dees did a lot of piste and powder on day 2 of our review session. On the last day of riding and filming, I mainly hit the pistes with it. Dry weather, fresh snow, reasonably prepared slopes and therefore delicious powder runs.
K2 Manifest
As mentioned, it’s a camber board, directional (so meant to ride mainly in one direction although it does ride switch fine as well.) The Manifest is made as an all-mountain board, where the camber shape makes it possible to carve nicely on the slopes, and the big nose give you a lot of float in powdery off-piste runs.
It is a board that you have to work on, it will not do your turns for you. With Dees’ weight and height she really had to lay on the power on the piste to initiate the turns. It was easier for me (being heavier and stronger). And if you get it on it’s edges, the Manifest is great for carving and when you do it is stable and powerful. If you don’t cut the carves sharply, or if you flat-line the descent, the board can feel unstable a little more at speed on choppy slopes.
In the powder it is a much more friendly board, it is much easier to steer into those wonderful wide powder turns, floats on the snow and gave Dees a wonderful surfy feeling. Playful and sensitive off-piste where it is powerful on-piste.
Target Audience
You could say a board with two faces, which is indeed all-mountain, but on which you have to be able to ride differently on-piste (aggressive and very proactive) and off-piste (more relaxed and surfy). If you can do that, if you have just a little more power, a good technique and you can get it to carve, then you have a very good board here. Work hard on the pistes and then relax off-piste and enjoy.
