Snowboard Review: 09-10 Forum Destroyer Chillydog

11 Jan, 2010

Location: Loveland, CO

Snow Conditions: Hardpacked to icy conditions on the mountain.

Setup: I rode the Form Destroyer Chillydog with Forum Shaka bindings and Bonfire Geo boots.

Size: 154cm

First Impression: Chillydog rocker, lets see how this is on a mid flexing board.

Weight: Average

Flex: Overall the flex was middle of the road, its meant for all mountain and it’s not a soft rocker board but not stiffer either.  Good mix of flex that blends together to give the board a ride to handle it all.  I found the flex fine for freeriding and when I did take it in the park or just playing with, the nose and tail were easy to press and butter on with the chillydog rocker.  It felt stiffer under bindings and definitely for the words they describe on how it can handle jumping, that would make sense to take the impact on landings better.  The chillydog rocker is a continuous rocker from tip to tail and I found I liked it better on the destroyer than the youngblood where it was a bit too soft for me.

Turning: This is where I preferred the destroyer over the youngblood, the destroyer excelled edge to edge for quickness into turns and held a a turn whether it was short radius or long radius.  It just felt on point for really stable carving and turns down the mountain.  It definitely gave me that all mountain board feel in that it could handle everything from park to pow to freeriding.

Stable: There’s one run at Loveland on chair 2 that you can go fast and haul down the run, the destroyer handled it and didn’t feel like it would buck me or I needed to slow down.  It wasn’t the most stable board of others but it did ride fine and no complaints on it there.

Pop: I didn’t get a good feel of the pop on this board, either I didn’t find the sweet spot or just didn’t play with it enough to be concrete on how it was.  The continuous rocker helped a lot when playing with presses and the lighter swing weight helped when bonking trees, very easy to kick around and tap the tree.

Switch: The Destroyer chillydog is a true twin and rides like a true twin on the mountain so didn’t have any problems taking it switch.  The chillydog is continuous rocker and lifts up the contact points which helps when going into switch riding, didn’t have any edge catching switching it up.

Overall Impression: The destroyer hit that soft spot for me on the mountain and mixed with the shaka’s I got a really good feel for how the forum gear is meant to be combined to their rocker/binding setup.  Overall I liked the board, the flex was ideal for a mix of riding and while I thought it might sacrificed edgehold on the mountain and carving, it handled it pretty good.  It was one of the better edge to edge boards for the day in getting quick response from the board.  I wish I could have rode the board in more all mountain conditions and especially pow to see how it does in the deeper mountain riding but definitely another time.

Shay’s Honesty Box: I rode the destroyer right after the Youngblood and the Destroyer suited my riding style a lot better and I was able to get a better idea of the shaka’s on this board than the youngblood.

Ready to buy? Head over to evo for the 2011 version of the Forum Destroyer Chillydog or shop their full line of Forum snowboards

On Snow Photo

Forum Destroyer Chillydog description

Review Disclosure: I rode this board at a demo day.

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