I picked up the Korua Shapes Cafe Racer Snowboard in thoughts that I would only be riding it on groomer days when I just wanted to get out and make high speed carves, not knowing it would also be an absolute blast in powder too! It looks like Korua already had this in mind when they designed this deck according to their "what's this board good at" chart. Korua gives the Cafe Racer a score of 8/10 in powder.
It took me a bit of getting used to riding this board, especially on groomers.This is the widest board I've ever owned with a 276 mm waist on my 164 cm length deck. Most boards in the past I have been on have had between a 257-264 mm waist. I usually wear an 11 - 11.5 boot depending on the brand. I would say I have a larger than average, but not huge foot size. At first it felt like a lot of work to get this board on edge, but once dialing in how to ride this thing, the Cafe Racer was all smiles! It's definitely not a board you can just relax and make mellow turns on. You have to ride aggressively and be charging all the time. Once you lay this board down onto the toe or heel edge it feels just like you're on the rails of a roller coaster and it's a pretty amazing experience! The best way I have found to set up my stance on this board is running a bit narrower than I normally would and also running a pretty steep positive angle on the front foot and a bit less but still positive in the back foot too. By narrowing the stance it lets the board flex a bit more underneath you and makes getting in and out of turns a bit easier. The Cafe Racer is plenty stable enough to let you stay confident at high speeds and not panic coming in hot to a turn. The sidecut radius of the Cafe Racer gives this Korua a longer drawn out turn, but if you work for it you can tighten up your turns a bit more.
I ended up riding in powder more days than I thought I would last year and I wasn't mad about it. The big long nose on and significantly shorter tail on this board keeps you afloat plenty. I never really felt my back leg burn much at all. It's definitely a more stable long board kind of feeling but that shorter tail still lets you push into some whiteroom moments. I spent some time on a 157 Korua Shapes Transition Finder on some pow days as well and that board feels way more surfy and playful in the deep. I ended up picking up a 160 Tranny Finder for this season, so I will be putting up some thoughts around that one as soon as we start getting some snow. If you're looking for a board to absolutely destroy corduroy and rip some pow turns on, the Cafe Racer is going to be a solid choice for sure! Happy Turning! See you out there!
Find more info about the Korua Shapes Cafe Racer here.
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