Dave, here in The House, talking about the Burton Operator snowboard, Shaun White’s Pro Model. This one is going to be a traditionally cambered snowboard. We’ve got the high point in the center. You know, all the hype now is going toward the reverse camber or rockered stuff, but these snowboards still ride great. They’re still gonna be some of the snappiest, most powerful riding snowboards you can get on; they’re kind of predispositioned to fight against the carve and really flex you into the next turn, or really pop you off the lip of the pipe.
What you’re looking at on this one is a directional Shape, directional Flex. It’s got slightly setback stance and setback sidecut, just the way Shaun likes it. You know, it can still definitely kill any type of freestyle terrain, but he does want one snowboard that he can kind of ride anywhere from powder to pipe, so he chooses the directional shape to be more universal.
From there, you’ve got the Channel on it this year, which is awesome. You’re definitely gonna want to get a pair of EST snowboard bindings to mount up on this. Otherwise, you’re only getting half the performance off the snowboard. EST is gonna give you more snowboard feel, more cushion, easier adjustability, yada, yada, yada; lots of cool things go along with that.
From there, you’ve got a pretty deep side cut to this one. It’s definitely gonna be good for carving across icy flat bottoms, or just a responsive all-mountain snowboard for a lot of people too. Moving down to the base on this one, we do have a Sintered Vision base. It’s definitely gonna hold a hot wax good. It’s gonna get faster throughout the life of the snowboard. This one does have a Triax glass around it, so it’s definitely gonna be a little more supportive than say other jib snowboards would be. This one is about a 4 to a 5.5, depending what length you go with. As you go uphill, it will get a little bit stiffer.
It does have the Infinite Ride process where they stick into a machine that simulates about three years of usage. Basically, a long story short, you get it out of the bag, flex it, and it flexes the same three years down the road. It really does work for sure. This one does have a Carbon I-Beam running down the center of the snowboard. That’s gonna give it good stiffness, but still keep it torsionally loose and forgiving. This snowboard does have a lot of pop in the tail; definitely for the Burton boards, if you’re looking for an extra height on your ollie, or extra air time on the pipe, this snowboard will definitely provide it for you.
Other than that, he does put the Pressure Distribution Edges on this snowboard. Being a pipe rider, he’s looking for extra edge grip in his time on the pipe wall. This one will bump the edges out just a little bit right underneath the snowboard bindings. It’s hard to see with the naked eye. It basically establishes two extra point of contacts, one under each snowboard binding along with the traditional one at the nose and tail here. Really good for climbing the icy pipe walls, or if you’re like a Midwest or East Coast rider, it’s just gonna be good grip shredding anywhere on the mountain. It’s a really versatile snowboard. Like I said, it can be ridden in the pipe or if you’re in powder. You can definitely take laps through the park. It’ll work anywhere. If you’re looking for one snowboard to kill it all, this is a good one to check out: Burton Operator snowboard, Shaun White’s snowboard.
