At the end of last season we delivered a stack of 16/17 boards to the offices of ACT Magazine in France for testing. These guys take testing extremely seriously so we're very please to have one ACE of ACT awards with the Paradigma and Morning Glory. Read the translated reviews below, or pick up a copy of the magazine to read the reviews in French.
Paradigma – True Excellence | Ace of ACT Award
This year the Paradigma is very accomplished, with comfort and liveliness at low speed and power in the most committed carves.
The Paradigma, a pillar of Amplid range, has a new shape for the 16/17 season with slight rocker in the nose and more responsive construction. You immediately feel the difference, as it continues the progression which began last year. There’s better pop from the tips and a more solid centre, which gives it a lot of life. When carving it offers complete control. We especially liked the flex pattern, which gradually releases the power. On a flat base it’s very forgiving, providing real comfort, even in the event of bumpy conditions. The Paradigma is now a very serious rival in the versatile all-mountain market, with particularly precise and secure grip. However, the board requires some speed to bring it to its full potential, therefore it’s targeted towards an experienced and capable rider.
UNW8 – Power Quiver
The UNW8’s technology serves purely to reduce weight: we found this all-mountain board to be very fast underfoot, but technical and demanding.
For technical carving the UNW8 remains close enough to the behaviour of the Paradigma, but is distinguished by its more aggressive behaviour and responsiveness. A lot of the stability and support is provided by the firm torsional flex from toe to heel, allied to enough forgiveness to allow the board to pivot freely. However, the Carbon in the construction makes it ultra-responsive and not always easy to ride with a flat base. You lose a little comfort and endurance, so only large or powerful riders will know how to perfectly tame it. In return, the grip on the edge is extremely precise and sharp, cutting carves through corduroy, with enviable acceleration. This is an attractive proposition but would require a little more fluidity to be the top all-mountain carver on the market.
Creamer - Cruising
For the feeling of fluidity and freeride comfort the Creamer offers the advantages of all-mountain grace and increased alertness at moderate speeds. The difference Vs the Morning Glory, the other freeride specialist from Amplid, is the Creamers more classic shape and a slightly firmer flex… an evolution from the previous year. Before the heel edge tended to be a little slippery; this has been corrected, and now gives a good finish to turns. It maintains its capacity to absorb vibrations from rough terrain, offering comfort and a progressive feeling on the edge. Unleashing beautiful turns with fluidity, and confronting all snow the conditions without losing edge contact with the snow. At more moderate speeds, we found that the Creamer has gained liveliness, expanding its versatility towards a more all-mountain performance envelope, but it’d not a board to ride everything because it doesn’t have the ollie and press-ability required for real freestyle riding.
Morning Glory – Winning Ticket | Ace of ACT Award & Best Design
With a fish shape designed for powder, the Morning Glory hides a real effectiveness on piste and a rapidness underfoot.
Compared with the first versions of the Morning Glory, we see a clear change, becoming more responsive and alive, and developing a top notch character. The difficulty in designing a fish shape is moving the surface area: giving great importance to the nose, while compensating for the imbalance in the steering. On the Morning Glory, Amplid has opted to place the cambered section at the very back but retaining flex at the middle. It’s super successful. You have the choice of riding gently on the edge, or alternatively making responsive turns using the punchy flex at the centre of the board. Because of this the steering is both easy and varied. Its powder capacity remains unchanged, it planes very easily and its large nose creates lift and supports the front foot. It's a truly great freeride board for the fun of the moment.
Stereo – Euro Park
This twin expresses its freestyle character with its supportive tips, which are discreet but effective.
This all-mountain freestyle board, inspired by the HiFi, offers a more accessible version in terms of budget and ability level. Its flex is suppler and it adopts a double camber to help it pivot. On snow, it’s because of its precise waist that it’s quick to apply the grip from its edges. Riding, this versatile board has good grip and varied turn shapes. In freestyle, the tips are flexible, and our test measurements also show that this is the case. They are supportive and playful, allowing particularly smooth slides. It needs a little getting used to if you are looking for a freestyle explosiveness from the tips. Here we have a board with conceptually soft tips and therefore it doesn’t have a very assertive character and requires more finesse steering than power.
HiFi - Invigorating
This freestyle board is fast under the feet with stability and likes to dig trenches on its edge.
The HiFi, which follows in the freestyle footsteps of the Amplid’s HiDef, has opted to be a little more versatile player. It is re-orientated again this year towards a more freestyle flavour and is a little bit more technical. Amplid has chosen a camber profile with a double flex at the centre. Logically the result is a responsive feel underfoot and in the tips, and a lively ollie. It also has very good performance in a direct line, with stability and good absorption of lumps and bumps.
However, its liveliness and the feeling of weightlessness are not easy characteristics. Riding a flat base with this Hi-Fi requires skill and experience. It is not forgiving enough for pure jib; it’s just too edge-orientated for that. On the other hand, if your goal is to ride the pipe or large park features, you made the right choice!
