Capita Sierrascope vs 2008 Rome Slash

slash is a wide agent, which is a standard high end slightly directional all-mountain freestyle board.  sierrascope is a reverse camber indoor, basically.  the slash is probably a bit stiffer im sure, but the sierrascope will feel/appear much softer because of reverse camber.  there will be quite a big difference in feel.

Ive had about 15 days on it so far, so heres what i think:

Cons of the scope:

- It washes. I should for point of disclosure though remind you im 170-175lbs so well at the top weight limit to really charge on it. It should also be noted that on ice it holds an edge ridiculously well, its only really choppier conditions that wreck it. And thats because of point two.
- Its seriously bouncy. Youll love and hate this. It will bounce off anything, but it means ANYTHING! This is why i think it suffers a bit in chop. Its great fun, but bobble over a couple of edges on your heel at a fair speed and its probably game over :)
- It does nose dive in powder. Again, as with all the negatives its kinda balanced out. The reason for this (if my personal experience is anything to go by, which is probably isnt) is that the FK more often than not makes you complacent so you dont really compensate when you hit deeper slower powder. I mean, its not a powder deck or anything, so you have to keep that in mind, but the FK is so fekkin good in shallower powder that you kind of forget, so it dives because youre probably not compensating :)
- speaking of powder, if you get in serious powder it feels pretty sluggish, you really will have to force some turns out of it.
- the top sheet chips really really badly :) But then this has been covered very recently on this forum, so just do the whole filing thing and that apparently stops it.

Now for the Pros:

- Its fun! Its hard to explain what makes it fun, but i guess as with all good medium flex freestyle its the same thing: the resort is your play ground. Youll be jumping up walls, youll be bombing down black runs, youll be bouncing off everything you come across in truth. You can do pretty much everything you can do on almost any other deck. You wont do it as well as a specialised deck, but youll be doing it all well enough. Its a jack of all trades board (but you know how the phrase ends, right?).
- Its stiffer than it sounds. You will be pressing a lot. And you will be thinking sometimes youre riding a noodle. Its not. Its solid. You can charge this board on anything. I have, its great. Yeah it washes on chop, but its not that often, it just does happen, plus youll learn how far you can push it and adjust accordingly after a few days riding it. Understand though, its not a freeride, its not built for huge carves or anything so dont expect that (but be pleasantly surprised when you realise it will carve and hold an edge way beyond what you expect). But it does almost everything my artec did, so im not complaining.
- Its fast. Sintered base = wheeeee!!!!
- You can probably do everything youd want to do in the park. Id say "you can" because i cant. Still, it took me off my first few shots at proper sized kickers and it had no problems with landings so im happy and chuffed with it.
- FK makes everything very forgiving. Its pretty much cheat mode. Say goodbye to edge catching. I dont think ive caught one this year.
- It glides through powder. Again this comes with the qualifier given above, but for most resort powder youll find it feels a lot like normal riding, you wont really feel a need to lean back because youll just cruise through it for the most part, (and then youll nose dive when it gets deeper because you werent compensating) :)
- Its bouncy. Im not sure how to really get this across without saying it a lot, but this is the central defining feature of this board in my eyes. You will be bouncing off every bobble you come across because you really really want to. Once you learn how to spring this deck, you will take off, like seriously take off :)
- "Youll never 'ave a better bit a' butter in your life". Well, you will, but youll be pressing and sliding everywhere and you wont give a crap that you can get two extra inches on that foot high nose slide while youre bombing down the mountain :)
- Finally, i think one of the things that really impresses me about this deck is that it feels natural. Theres never really been an "OMG!!! its a reverse camber!!!" moment for me. It just rides like a snowboard.

Id say if youre in the weight range (and id put that range around 10lbs lighter than me), you can do everything on this deck to a very satisfactory degree. Like most intermediates picking up their first serious board, I bought it because i wanted a board that didnt make me specialise what i wanted to ride, this board excels in that regard. It lets you pretty much muck around on everything youd want to do. Its not a quiver killer or anything though. I think youll still be wanting a solid charging/powder deck in your arsenal at the end of the day, just because it doesnt feel really aggressive when youre in slightly deeper and steeper powder. But if youre thinking of buying the scope, heavier powder riding probably isnt the absolute everything of your game.

Anyway, hope this helps. I tried to keep it honest and balanced, but the truth is i kind of love it, so its plenty colored by my perspective!

i think the issue for me is that on heel edge if youre just flying you can get caught on occasion. Its not like it washes every turn, but in chop it can feel like youre having to lay down a lot of pressure to keep it from taking off sometimes. Also your weight will play a part in all of this. Id honestly say to get the best out of the 156 for more freeride stuff you probably need to be closer to the 70kg mark. The board, understand, is really solid. Its way more solid than youd expect, but at your weight youre definitely going to feel it might be a bit soft. You may instead want to look at the custom knock off sierra do :p The whadjamacallit? the crew! thats it. :p

It seems more all round and has way better size options so you can tailor your deck a bit more to exactly what youre after, plus since they have the reverse camber model now its definitely a rival to the scope for just messing around.

The scope is generally awesome, its a little sluggish in deep pow and doesnt have as many size options pretty much restricting you based on your weight (though that restriction isnt too much, the 156 will carve and it will bomb but youll just have to maybe not let it run as aggressively as someone lighter might). On the flip, you may lose some of the bounciness i was talking about, and youll find buttering to be a doddle :) On the flip of that though, you might lose a bit of its pop. The board though is seriously poppy, but youll have to ask a heavier rider on that.

82kg isnt really that much difference though at the end of the day from me, so itll be pretty negligible id imagine, (so you'll probably have a similar experience to mine with a few minor alterations).

Anyway, have a look at this: http://www.sierrasnowboard.com/Sierra-Reverse-Crew-Snowboards.asp it might give you another option to consider. Like the scope, i havent really heard a bad word about it and it might just be the all mountain deck of choice for what you might be after.