Bataleon’s powder board offers rocker-like float in a camber profile. Read on to find out how the Camel Toe manages this oxymoron.
Bataleon uses Triple Base Technology (3BT) which basically lifts the side edges in the nose and tail to give you a catch-free ride. On the Camel Toe, the Swedish shred scientists have tuned the 3BT to maximize float (POW 3BT).
Check out the graphic:
Bataleon claim you can ride the Camel Toe 8 to 10cm shorter than your regular powder board, and the waist widths certainly support that claim. It was a 264mm waist on the 162cm deck I had and I could have definitely sized down to the 158 (still a 261mm waist), but hey, I wanted maximum float!
I’ll admit that the first couple of turns on hardpack on it were quite WTF? moments, as the edges aren’t where you think they will be.
In powder, there was no learning curve for me. I was all smiles in this vid of my first pow run on it. I love the whoosh of the snow on the first turn/faceshot.
When looking at the deck on a hard surface, it looks like it has a good nose rocker….yet looking closer underneath the raised edge, you can see the middle of the nose of the board is touching. It has regular camber in between the contact points.
The nose looks like a boat hull. Powder ahoy!
This basically translates to taking the best parts of rocker (raised contact points and pow clearance) but keeping the strength and stiffness of camber all the way from tip to tail. Speaking of the tail, it has a nice kick to it. It helps for short switch sequences and to mention the stiffness again – it has kept me hanging on through unplanned pow wheelies, where I know a rockered tail would have washed out.
How does it ride?
In powder, you float great, but it’s not until you get up to speed that the board behaves at its best. It wants to go fast and when you do let it run free, it rewards with the smoothest ride. It has 20mm of taper and a half moon tail to further enhance your powder float.
The flex pattern is pretty stiff all the way through and that means that it can smash through chop quite well, and ride resort on a non-powder day too. This is quite important in my book. If you can rip groomers and sidehits on your way to the pow stashes, your day is a whole lot more fun.
Need convincing that such a powder shape can be a capable all-rounder?
Check out this video part from Swiss styler DBK showing what’s possible. He takes his Muller-esque all-mountain freestyle from his native Switzerland to Steven’s Pass and Alaska – all on his Camel Toe. He seems to have no problem with it switch, even in powder – keep an eye out for the a massive switch back 7 and a switch Miller flip:
How does it compare to other powder boards?
I started off last season with five powder boards in my quiver and through the season I gradually discarded the ones that didn’t consistently blow me away. I’m happy to report that the Camel Toe made the cut and lasted the entire season.
When compared to powder shapes like the Burton Fish it has a noticeably different feel. As the Camel Toe is stiff all the way through and doesn’t have a soft rockered nose, you don’t get that ‘dreamy’ floaty bounce in pow. Instead you get a nose that won’t fold at speed or when hitting hard snow, giving you more confidence in gnarlier terrain. It made the cut as much for its adaptability as for its float.
Until 2015 the Bataleon Camel Toe was priced at the lower end of the spectrum, with an extruded base and cheaper ‘Reactor’ core, making it one of the most affordable ways to add a powder board to your quiver. For 2016 it has been upgraded with a sintered base …and a hefty jump in price to $550. A victim of its own success? Maybe so, but it’s still a very capable hard charging powder board.
PS. For you surfers out there, check out this video showing the collaboration between Bataleon and Bill Stewart.
Get more info at the official Bataleon Camel Toe page here , or the high end version, Whitegold Shaka.
Disclosure: The Bataleon Camel Toe was purchased by the Japan Grabs team.