2009 Good Wood Board Tester Bios

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57 Comments For This Post

• wammybar Says:
  September 7th, 2008 at 1:42 pm

  look like a bunch of kooks to me.

• heavyset Says:
  September 7th, 2008 at 2:36 pm

  what they need for testers is some fatter guys. not everyone who snowboards is a 6′0 tall toothpick. it’s great they can decide what boards are good but look at them. not one is a heavier set guy so us heavy guys have to rely on a skinny dude to choose which boards are best? what a load of crap.

• sean Says:
  September 7th, 2008 at 3:13 pm

  haha fatty

• Myairblaster Says:
  September 7th, 2008 at 3:40 pm

  Best group of testers ever, All around killed it. Can’t wait for next years good wood. MUCH LOVE TRANSWORLD. YOU are always welcome in my Breckenridge!!!

• LO Says:
  September 7th, 2008 at 5:51 pm

  They should use some people with bigger feet than 10.5, Just an idea. Thanks for reading

• bahaha Says:
  September 7th, 2008 at 6:22 pm

  some fatter guys?
  seriously? the one dude is 185, thats pretty damn big.

• e Says:
  September 7th, 2008 at 6:52 pm

  how are their feet all small. im 15 and not even big (5-10, 140) and my feet are 11.5

• hahahaha Says:
  September 7th, 2008 at 7:14 pm

  not every snowboarder is fat… actually, the majority arent.
  and since this is a test for the majority, you can’t expect test results for the minority (you)

  instead of complaining about it, why dont you go test some board yourself?

• pretty please Says:
  September 7th, 2008 at 7:15 pm

  more female testers please

• whatsup Says:
  September 7th, 2008 at 8:27 pm

  BRANDON AND SAM

• OKthen Says:
  September 7th, 2008 at 10:39 pm

  ok we will just go “test some boards” idiot. and whats with the pipe test? that represents about 0.5% of the snowboard population

• Josh Says:
  September 7th, 2008 at 10:49 pm

  Yooo! straight up bro, im gonna have to agree with the other guy, its super biased it’s stupid ridic for me to find boards, im 6′3 184, yah it’s lighter than the other guy, but i got 12-13’s! So like throw some not so common people on the boards then see whats up. Just a though. Not everyone is under 6′ and weighs close to nothing for their height.

  Think about it.

• WIIDE Says:
  September 7th, 2008 at 10:50 pm

  Get people to test the WIIIDE boards, for reeaalll

• Alix Says:
  September 8th, 2008 at 12:30 am

  HAHA GAPERS

• karn karn Says:
  September 8th, 2008 at 5:56 am

  WV Brandon and SAm Reppp! Jake Levine no roots in MAINE??

• dubiemang Says:
  September 8th, 2008 at 9:11 am

  bogies fa sho

• dubiemang Says:
  September 8th, 2008 at 9:11 am

  some atleast

• matt Says:
  September 8th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

  ride sidewayz

• anniefast Says:
  September 8th, 2008 at 1:57 pm

  Hey there,
  Thought I should clarify that a lot of the winning models come in wide options, so, while the testers don’t have large feet, many of those same boards are available in wider waist widths for big-footed riders.
  One example, the NItro Team Series, a Good Wood winner comes in a wide series from 152-162 (waist 26.4–27).

  We’ll designate which Good Wood winners are available in wide sizes when the feature goes online later this month.

• aj Says:
  September 9th, 2008 at 12:59 pm

  i did the FSM board test..id like to see what this crew can do on these good woods.

• heavyset Says:
  September 9th, 2008 at 10:15 pm

  So explain to me what the problem would be for throwing 1 or 2 bigger guys in there? But then again, i understand that most snowboarders are about as smart as a brick. Thats alright, i’m sure you’ll get a sweet job as a liftie making minimum wage the rest of your life. SICK BRO! haha

• Confused Says:
  September 10th, 2008 at 12:29 am

  How about actually covering up top-sheets again? In the newest issue, its horribly obvious that the boards could be judged by the personal feelings…i dont know, is it just me?

• NLTpeople Says:
  September 10th, 2008 at 2:15 am

  Fatty is right. There should be at least 1 ‘bigger’ guy. I think last year they had a big guy testing. Then again, unless your relativly new to snowboarding…you should know what kind of shizz you need ..length, width, flex, etc. and the opinion of 1 ‘big’ dude isn’t going matter so much because it’s just that…1 dudes opinion. I’m 6 feet above sea level with size 13 shoe and weight 250. I’m built more like a linebacker than a snowboarder. My point, I rode an older Rome Agent 155/56 last summer at Hood, fun as hell and super soft…my normal park board is a 159 w/ medium stiffness and my pow boards are 164/165 and are a little stiffer. Its all about how you ride. Go to a shop and make the kid earn his/her money.

• heavyset Says:
  September 10th, 2008 at 8:12 am

  Agreed, i have been riding for 9 years. On the other hand, there are so many boards out there with no reasonable shop around it’d be nice to get another opinion as the shop guys are also usually skinny little whips.

• Donny Says:
  September 10th, 2008 at 2:22 pm

  Its interesting to see that 2 guys out of 5 chose the Nidecker Helvet as their top boards but they got no results.
  Its great to see a small family owned company that presses their own boards getting recognized by the riders even if the results don’t seem to show up in the mag.
  I also believe the top sheets should be covered, Its hard in this industry to be fair with the amount of advertising & bullshit that goes on.

• snowpanda Says:
  September 10th, 2008 at 5:43 pm

  Whatever, im 6 2, 150LBS, 12 boot size and i ride 07 150 Burton Dom, and 08 151 Burton Blunt

• mike Says:
  September 10th, 2008 at 6:04 pm

  hey FATTY, I think you make a good point about FAT people snowboarding, and the fact that all boards will react completely different, depending on weather a HEALTHY person is riding it, or a FAT person, like yourself. But, it’s true, that the majority of snowboarders are HEALTHY, and it’s a pretty big test that only caters to the majority. Also, I don’t like to be mean, FATTY, but you threw the first stone. First of all, unless you have some “condition” that makes you FAT, no matter what you eat or how much you exercise, than you are the stupid one for letting your body get like that. Also, I’ll bet my life’s savings that I could shred your ass off on the mountain, then beat you in a game of Jeopardy at the end of the day. Also, did I mention that I am attending the University of Denver next year on a scholarship, and studying to get my Masters in English? Hows about you stop generalizing, and go take a lap. FATTY

• Pilokki Says:
  September 10th, 2008 at 10:42 pm

  I’m very meticulous in doing research before I make an important or expensive purchase like a snowboard. I wish I knew more of the details of the Good Wood testing process. In agreement with the other comments, I’m hoping that the testing is unbiased, thorough, and controlled. I wish that Future Snowboarding still existed - I had much more confidence in their board test from last season. I guess that’s just me being a picky graduate student.

• PM Says:
  September 11th, 2008 at 8:35 am

  This test is legit. If you are going out to buy a freestyle board, looking at these results should help narrow your options. Statistically, the methods of this test are more than enough to elicit the honest opinion of testers. It would be one thing if they simply had a tester rate a board from 1 to 10. Each tester had to fill out a lengthy questionnaire about each board. Sure the confound of knowing what brand the board is can effect a decision, but that gets thrown out the window when you have a diverse sample of testers who have many different tastes. Maybe next year Special Blend can make GORETEX lab coats for the testers and nobody will complain. Oh wait, that would create drag… no dice. Go to the shops, not big mall stores like BC, but small ones, where they buy core products and lines that support the progression, not the possession of snowboarding. The people who work in core shops have more experience and will not try to sell you an all mountain board just because they ordered too many

• futtbucker Says:
  September 11th, 2008 at 12:41 pm

  that won’t do shit. how do you cover 3d or the channel or magnatraction or tbt? moron

• futtbucker Says:
  September 11th, 2008 at 12:48 pm

  so what though? a couple runs each? all this test says is that those people liked those boards on those days during those couple of runs. thats it, thats all. just because they like the board and it fits for their riding style, you might not like it. most companies make good boards now, each person might like one better than another but the reasons for that are beyond what you can tell us in a snowboard “test”. this whole thing is a pointless exercise with no real value. its all subjective. ollie-ing for example is mostly technique. a certian board might fit better with my technique but not yours. people develope tastes over time because of what they rode in the past. if you jump on something radically different than you are use too, you might not like it. it doesn’t mean its a bad board

  but the most obvious evidence that this is just a shame is that a board can be the number one board one year and not even make it into the list the next. and why? because the company made it radically different? not likely, its just that THOSE riders didn’t like it as much as something else on THOSE days.

• Donny Says:
  September 11th, 2008 at 1:38 pm

  One run on most boards

• Donny Says:
  September 11th, 2008 at 1:39 pm

  But I agree with PM that you should support the core stores.

• yacub Says:
  September 11th, 2008 at 2:10 pm

  yo karn dog, you know I’ll always have a spot in my heart for Maine, the loaf, the river, and all my friends, like you, still ripping up the ice coast. but my home is where I hang my hat, and now my hat hangs in Utah.

• heavyset Says:
  September 12th, 2008 at 10:29 am

  Actually mike,
  What you don’t take into account is the fact that i am a healthy 225. I have very little fat on my body. I’ll tell you what, you can shred all the ass you want if thats what you want to do. Personally i’m not into that sort of thing. I’d rather spend my time on the hill snowboarding, not shredding someones ass. Either way i’m sure your english masters will get you REAL far. Better get used to that beat down 93 cavalier while i roll past in the Range.
  Peace

• Ouch Says:
  September 12th, 2008 at 6:30 pm

  Yeah I noticed that too.

• NLTpeople Says:
  September 16th, 2008 at 1:17 am

  LOL! Hey fatty, I like what Mike wrote…he told you to stop “generalizing” right after he generalizes and assumes. The University of Denver must be desperate for students. He also says that the majority of snowboarders are HEALTHY. Yeah, sure. If you call throwin’ down a case of PBR every night and feeding on shitty fast food and Top Ramen “healthy” living. (Thats my North Lake Tahoe generalization) Boney and skinny with no muscle tone doesn’t equal healthy. Lets be thankful he’s NOT going into the Medical field or any other line of work that matters. Don’t fret brotha, Mike is just mad at his EMO lifestyle and that his body resembles that of a 14 year old girl living on Saltines and gum.

• PM Says:
  September 17th, 2008 at 1:16 pm

  I see you cracked the case of the big conspiracy. Yes, people develop tastes over time but you miss the point of the test. The testers ALREADY have lots of experience and a VARIETY of developed tastes in boards = the cream rises to the top my friend. Let’s think about two alternative sample pools for testers. If you have pros do the test brand loyalty get’s in the way of everything. If you have beginners, Todd might catch an edge on the best board in the test and misinterpret his lack of skill as a sucking board.
  Your criticism of why last year’s winners were not in the top slots again is simply answered by innovation and design advances from year to year. Companies were allowed to only pick a couple boards for submission and they were not necessarily the same boards (or even companies) as the previous years. In fact, many of the boards in the test were brand new models or reinvented previous ones. Further, you say, “most companies make good boards now.” So why is it so hard to believe that the top ten could get shaken up?
  This was not designed as a mechanism to deceive and coerce you into buying certain brands… in fact the opposite: to hold companies accountable and make them walk the talk. Let’s be clear, image sells more boards than actual performance when it comes to the general public. You can find flaw in anything you look at, but give TWS credit for not letting brand name be the only thing that influences the average joe and julia’s board buying.

• matt Says:
  September 17th, 2008 at 5:45 pm

  nobody reppin from mountain creek????

• bryantp Says:
  September 17th, 2008 at 6:42 pm

  Need some big guys (fatty…whatever, try to catch me) with big feet riding in the woods. Everyone doesn’t play in the park. Hell, just one would be good. Someone with 12s or bigger and over 200. Just having wider boards isn’t the same. They don’t ride the same.

• themozz Says:
  September 17th, 2008 at 10:42 pm

  Donny is a kook!!!

• balls Says:
  September 24th, 2008 at 10:27 pm

  I know one of the testers and these guys know there shit..the guy I know is a level 3 snowboard instructor and is paid to travel and teach people the technical aspects behind snowboarding. Every snowboard feels different and these guys ride non stop, therefor they would have a good idea whats fun and whats not pretty easily. size means nothing, height has nothing to do with a boards size, look at the manufacturer requirements, its usually weight not height and it comes down to personal preference

• ben Says:
  September 27th, 2008 at 3:24 pm

  annie,
  that might be helpful if the sidecuts weren’t different on the wides. and its not exactly like you can just say, oh, here, this boards 1.5 cm wider in the waist and it will ride exactly like our testers thought the 24.9-cm waisted deck rode. i don’t mean to hate, but saying that these same boards come in wides isn’t really helpful at all. they might have the same core profiles and pop similarly, but they’re gonna be worlds apart when it comes to making turns and just dicking around coming down the mountain.

• Shannon Says:
  September 29th, 2008 at 11:53 am

  Love Good Woood
  Love Kisiel
  Love Caroline!
  Just love it all

• Darren Peters Says:
  November 12th, 2008 at 2:48 pm

  fxfc9gujvmulzkwv

• future female ripper Says:
  November 26th, 2008 at 6:19 pm

  need more female testers that ride like guys. so girls that can really ride know which boards can handle them, unless they just want to ride the guy boards, which is what i would do. but some girls like specifics.

• TINA Says:
  December 6th, 2008 at 6:34 pm

  185 IS NOTHING IF YOU ARE 6FT OR MORE. MY SON IS ONLY 15 YRS, 6 FT AND IS 213 LBS……YES HE DOES WORKOUT AND THERE IS NOT AN OUNCE OF FAT ON HIM. I THOUGHT HE WAS BIG UNTIL I STARTED TO LOOK AT THE ATHLETIC ROSTERS AT HIS HIGH SCHOOL. SO I DISAGREE WITH “HEAVYSET” AND “BAHAHA”….THAT IS NOT “FATTER GUYS” NOR “PRETTY DAMN BIG”. I AM LOOKING AT THIS BLOG TO FIGURE OUT WHAT SIZE BOARD HE NEEDS AND SO FAR HAVE NOT FOUND A TESTER THAT “FITS” HIS “NOT UNUSUAL” SIZE.

• Ian Says:
  December 10th, 2008 at 6:04 pm

  seriously who really cares. if you wanna know how a board rides go ride it yourself.

  snowboarding is about fun not about arguing on a website about someone else snowboarding. so everyone take a chill pill and go on a demo day and try the boards out.

• Ian Says:
  December 10th, 2008 at 6:05 pm

  oh and if you want my opinion go ride a lib tech.

• butter Says:
  December 12th, 2008 at 1:01 pm

  Is that first pic a girl or a guy?

• butternuts Says:
  December 12th, 2008 at 1:03 pm

  When you wear shorts it must look like your riding a chicken eh?

• Decient test in my opinion. Says:
  December 25th, 2008 at 4:41 pm

  Used the K2 Believer, burton hero, K2 darkstar, Rome agent, this week.

  They were all great and all carry the good wood logo. I do believe that the Darkstar should have been higher, First true k2 freestyle, its great.

• jeremy Says:
  January 18th, 2009 at 3:03 am

  Children, children, please calm down. I hear you bigger guys. I’ve fluctuated between 170 and 215 over the past 14 years due to a weight lifting and summer rugby habit I picked up. After realizing that being heavy and thick negatively affected my riding, and that rugby is not as much fun as mountain biking, I dropped back into the low 180s. Based on physics and experience, I recommend dropping weight, either fat or upper body muscle if you can. It does help. That being said, these people are reviewers for a magazine. They don’t think like you and don’t ride like you do. The best thing to do is check out demo the days that most mountains have each year. You can figure out what you think for yourselves. The guy I ride with and I are about the same height, and he is 5 pounds lighter. We ride the same shit, and have pretty similar styles. He and I ride completely different boards and don’t like each other’s rides….at all. I ride an arbor crossbow, and he rides a lib skunk ape. I can’t stand the feel of banana traction, and he thinks my board is a plank and says it is impossible to butter. Works fine for me. This is all very subjective…these tests. Oh…and heavyset, please do spare us the generalizations. They are a little ridiculous. Some portions of every sector of the population are comprised of less than stellar intellects. These possession and income based insults you toss out about Range Rovers, Cavaliers, and minimum wage jobs reflect poorly on you. Fuck Range Rovers, they are just objects. And, if people were not willing to do minimum wage jobs at mountains, mountains would be too expensive to operate, and we’d all be skinny as hell from hiking our asses up each time. And no, I’m not a minimum wage kid with a Cavalier, but I used to be, and there wasn’t anything wrong with me. I was just young, poor, and loved to snowboard. I still drive a cheap car….beater 89 Audi wagon. All wheel drive and room for shit. NO need to drop money on a car. When you get out of it, you are still you.

• steezbag Says:
  March 6th, 2009 at 12:00 am

  are you for real??

• steezbag Says:
  March 6th, 2009 at 12:08 am

  ya like who are those testers anyways
  is it just me or is pro snowboarding the hardest thing to follow? no one is marketable

• Suzanne Gough Says:
  July 2nd, 2009 at 11:23 pm

  Wow, Dave Reynolds in Utah w/ a beard. Holy Cow, I am truly amazed. Glad to see you doing what you love to do. Happy to see you happy.

  Sue-happily married, two kids in Vegas.

• Mike Says:
  September 27th, 2009 at 1:28 pm

  haha!

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