Board reviews. I mean…the thing either goes hard, or it goes home. Very rarely do you find a board the sits on the top shelf…We’ve been struggling to find a board recently that has left us in a state of “WOW”.
Until! This little bundle of joy a.k.a Lib Tech’s Apex Orca entered our lives. Instead of a state of “WOW” it left us in a state of “FLOW” and ever since we returned the board, we’ve been struggling to find our way back on the normal stick.
This board is the 2022 model and is Travis Rice’s brainchild from his iconic ‘Orca’ shape which dropped in the 2018/19 season – selling off the shelves with huge demand. So the board the line is currently in it’s fourth year. He’s mixed it up, like a lethal cocktail and added in elements of his ‘Climax’ series. What does this do?
Like well stirred Martini, it adds a shit tonne of Apex carbon construction to create the ultimate apex. Too much shop talk? Pretty much, the board is on steroids when it comes to ripping around the resort and excels on those fresh days.
We took it out on a fresh 30cm day in Australia and instantly we felt the “float”. It’s all in the shape and it’s mind blowing once it takes off. The floaty nose, the tight sidecut and the contact maxed “whale tail tech” with some futurised shit thrown into the mix which Lib Tech call “carbon over carbon over magnesium”.
We floated and bombed at high speeds on the board and the level of control is outstanding. The shape and construction of the board allows you to engage in long arced out turns (how it should be done) and rail to rail feels perfect.
The directional feel of the board, allowed us to power through the chop and shit after the resort got tracked and left crew for dead. It’s a pocket rocket and we felt like Travis bloody Rice ripping around the resort.
In the air…the thing was easy to manoeuvre and took landings like a legend. The wider profile of the board, means more surface area to find your stability and let rip.
Now we’re a couple giants here at Transfer and were a bit unsure riding the 153. I mean our test model is 6’4…so he was tripping. But, we were wrong. The smaller board performed perfectly and ultimately allowed for more freedom in tight pockets, pinning in-between turns and more hangtime in the air. Lib Tech recommend that you ride this board around 6cm shorter than your normal snowboard.
Something else to make the board even cooler and another reason to get one in your quiver…the art! It was done by Mike Parillo who is out of this world. This is Mike’s take on the board graphic “Mastery is the ability to make the complicated flow effortlessly as if it were simple. What guides the Orca? Where does intuition come from. Are we born with it or does it have to be invited in. Are limitations physical, mental, or just self induced. It matters what we think and say. Remember that we are still the highest technology that we know of in the universe. Don’t forget to optimize your operating system from time to time”
And some final words from the G.O.A.T…
“Made with Carbon, the buoyancy and reaction of this board is like levitating in a light orb.” ~ Travis Rice
We’re giving away an Orca 2022 Board to one lucky soul, keen to get your hands on it? Check our socials and enter! You got to comment the first year the Orca line dropped…
