Temple won the Banked Slalom by 2.5 sec on his Billy Goat! Next year the Billy Goat is only avalible with Banana Tech, you can do the math.
Ski-Camber is a design that forces your tips down causing the board to ride slower and feel more catchy.

If you are used to riding a 170 board with ski-camber and a butter-knife sidecut, then I would recommind that you size down to a 167.

the low-end bases of almost all mervin boards combined with their 7 impact points on a re-formatted elliptical edge certainly does not help in achieving maximum speed.

case and point, when you get a serrated knife to cut into a steak, the teeth tear the meat; when something like this tears/cuts/digs in it creates drag (or friction) thus slowing the 'slice' motion of the knife and/or the turn initiation of the board (the seven mag points, as i see it, create seven unnecessary points of friction or as some of you couch engin'nerds' would say, a greater drag co-efficient).

the rider is a big part of generating speed (through riding skill alone), however, i believe, a slower rider can remove the burden (of lack of speed) by offsetting his/her ride with a non-mag'd setup and a higher-end base.

and in regards to temple shaving 2.5 seconds (which was sick) off his b.b.s. time, i would strongly venture that he was/is not on a tnt base, as these are merely extruded bases. i would further guess that he is on (at the least) a sintered 2001 base with a lessened mag edge (like rice's), thus creating less drag thereby creating a faster overall ride.

as far as rocker goes, it could possibly be the future of overall board constructions due to its versatile functionality.

just my three cents.

There are 3 GNU boards and 1 Lib that don't use a high-end sintered material.
TNT bases are sintered, more expensive, faster and use less wax. This is a fact.
The TNT Base is a high-end base only used by Lib Tech. Temple rides for GNU. He has always used a sintered base on the Billy Goat.

HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU BEEN ONSNOW WITH A MAGNE-TRACTION OR BANANA TECH BOARD?

**Don't forget that Rocker and Banana Tech are 2 very different constructions. Rocker is great in powder, Banana is great everywhere.

...serious saturday bungee from lib's nuts session...

oh, shit drago that made "lol"-look, kids i said "lol"... i'm coo..."kewl".

to answer your question, mom-i was sent a trs mag before they released them to ride and report back on (three seasons ago?) it. i also rode the bannana a season before it was released. don't get me wrong they are fun boards, i just find that mag causes the boards to be a bit sluggish.

and thanks for telling me that the tnt (totally not tubular[brah!]) base is killer and high-end, i'm sure it makes for a nice coffee table.

like the boys did on Fairbits- no wax needed (on the bottom, of course). I swear that movie is the first thing that came to mind when I saw LeBlanc shredding that toboggan on October's cover shot..

If you're riding snow, wax is another element regardless..

god, i feel lame after seeing that-a coffee table?!

but they dont have fast bases, its the one thing they need to sort out

I have been riding Libs for 10 years and never had a problem with them being slow.
You can get wax for less than $10.
It is almost easier to BUY wax then it is to HATE on the 1st company to bring real inovations to snowboarding in years.
You need to ride Banana Tech.

Wow ten years on Libs - sh!t i got my first one in 95 - and i know how to wax . . i love Lib Techs and have a quiver full of em, but the bases are just not as fast as other offerings out there. Sounds like you took some banana acid tabs to me.

for fluoro.

The Lib line will have 4 board models offered with ski-camber.
GNU will have 6, 3 mens and 3 womens. You don't have to buy a Banana from Lib or GNU next year, but you would be an idiot not to. Don't have to listen to me, you can ask anyone that you see riding one on the hill.

I was told by the boss before I got all my dealer logs. You are corect about the boards. Though it seems like it will be hard to find traditional camber. I rode the new this week. Unanimously our shop liked non banana mag. just us. not to say its bad, but I would totally not recomend it for everyone. I am riding the bmx skunkape, and its alright, but very slow transition and you have to turn from the middle of your stance which is weird for me being used to loading the tail and letting it accelerate you out of a turn. Just wrong for old man style I guess. I will say one of my favorite boards though was the K2 turbo dream. Rocker in stages. the board was fast and solid.

well would you recomend it to someone that does boarder cross races

wouldn't recomend banana for Board X. camber when going through a turn, loads energy at the tail and wants to release(kind of spitting you out). Reverse camber wouldn't have that extra acceleration out of your turns. I don't want to say it would be bad concidering everyones diff. riding styles, but I probibaly wouldn't recommend it over other boards either. In saying this, I do own a banana and like it, just not for that. It is def. one to have in the quiver. Hope this helped.

Personally, I am not a Boarder X fan, but I am a fan of technology. Banana Tech has the quickest turning ability, because of it doesn't have catchy ski-camber.
Here is a good experiment to help represent what I'm saying:
1. Find an old school board with that has Ski-Camber.
2. Lay it on the ground.
3. Place 1 hand between the inserts on the sidecut and slowly pick it up leaving the other side on the ground, just like turning onsnow.
4. Now try 1-3 with a Banana Tech board.
You will notice that the BTX board put an edge down way quicker than the ski-camber.

leonbones- Have you had a chance to try Banana Tech yet?

Here is a test for you:

1. ride your board in the trees.
2. catch it on something, like a slightly covered tree root-watch your nose or tail cave in.
3. now ask yourself, would it have been more wise for me to buy a Smokin' deck (with Mag'd edges) that is full wrap versus Mervin's 3/4 wrapped edge job.
4. continue telling yourself something silly like, "but Smokin' isn't real mag technology."
5. go home, pack your bags up and move to SoCal where you will find somebody that I am sure will care about your cause.

Them logs need bowing®.

i bet the banana tech will help with your one handed supermans

my trice is slow... that is all i know.

oh and rocker is also very nice on traditional slopes, jibbing, etc. at least the rocker i tried from Burton and K2/ride was pretty fun on the slopes of Stratton