_REVIEWS2010-2011_BOARDS

Snowboard Review: 10-11 K2 Fastplant

Location: Winter Park, CO

Snow Conditions: Hardpacked to icy conditions on the mountain, flat-light riding conditions.

Setup: I rode the K2 Fastplant with K2 Auto Agogo bindings and Vans Veil Boots size 8.

Size: 154cm.

First Impression: I have a feeling this is going to be a very popular board next year, 5 year warranty on the core and park specific..loads of fun.

Weight: Lighter than average

Flex: The flex matched the rocker pretty well when it came to the fastplant, softer nose and tail where the rocker was making it playful when you wanted to butter/press but stable from the bindings in where the base is flat.  The bambooyah made for a solid flex without any surprises when riding and it was an easy board to adjust to.  The Fastplant has jib rocker so the board is 80% flat and 20% rocker just enough on the tip and tail to keep the contact points off the snow until engaged.  Despite the name, I didn’t find the jib rocker as jib soft as I was expecting.  It was playful but not insanely soft playful.

Turning: Riding the fastplant was like riding most of the other K2 boards I’ve been on, hyper progressive sidecut that is a predictable easy ride to ride.  You can rally it on edge when you want to, but it will also just let you take it easy down the mountain without needing to carve up every turn.  Despite the size, it handled longer drawn out S turns and really it felt like I was riding a longer board with how the turns rode.  Short radius turns were quick and snappy on the fastplant.

Stable: This is where I was most impressed with the fastplant, I was riding a 154cm which is a smaller size than normal and despite it being a jib rocker park board it actually handled the mountain, felt like a bigger size when riding it.  It wasn’t as stable as the freeride boards I was on before and after, but it wasn’t bad and I could still lay down turns without worrying about the board being too soft to handle them.  The only gripe was on icy terrain, like the icy pipe it felt iffy in holding the edge.

Pop: I’m not the one to tell how it will handle off jumps but just playing around with the pop and ollies I found it really easy to pop the board with no surprises in store.   I did take the fastplant on some of the boxes and got to appreciate the non-catching of the jib rocker (even though I’m still working on my park riding) it helped to have that security.

Switch: The fastplant is a twin and rides exactly like a twin, no surprises in how it handles switch and easy to ride switch as it does normal.

Overall Impression: New for 10-11 the fastplant delivers a eco conscious park board that you’d actually want to ride by how it rides.  The bambooyah core delivers pop and snap for playfulness but it also can handle the mountain outside of park.  There’s no question that park riders break boards so it will be interesting to see how the core holds up for riders once more get on it.

Shay’s Honesty Box: Normally a 154 jib park board wouldn’t impress me much when it came to freeriding, but with the fastplant it handled better than expected and rode like a longer board.  From the easy boxes in the park to pipe to freeriding I didn’t have any major complaints other than just gripping on some icy spots better.  I think this is going to be the “it” board of next year, bamboo in boards isn’t new but I like the take they took on this board.

Ready to buy? Head over to evo for the K2 Fastplant or shop their full line of snowboards

*This Review was done in February 2010, please be aware that products may change.

On Snow Photo

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K2 Fastplant description

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

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  • Nolan
    February 16, 2010 at 9:38 am

    Thanks Shay,

    Make me want to start hitting the park!

  • freddy
    February 16, 2010 at 10:34 am

    any idea how much is this thing going to retail for?

  • Francis
    February 16, 2010 at 10:56 am

    The Bindings Auto look so slick, hight tech and lignt too wow

  • Shay
    February 16, 2010 at 11:13 am

    Nolan, always a good time to start…I have been doing more park this year and still working on progressing better. Last year I was really bad.

    Freddy, I believe $500 for the fastplant.

    Francis, definitely I have the auto agogo review coming up next…going in order of what I rode order.

  • Nolan
    February 16, 2010 at 12:11 pm

    Thanks Shay,

    And I already know i will be terrible 🙂 But its looks like a 162W is in the mix there, so might have to think about this!

  • JP
    February 16, 2010 at 2:21 pm

    I totally agree with you Shay, thanks for the vote.

  • Shay
    February 16, 2010 at 6:44 pm

    Nolan, there’s a 156W, 159W and 162W.

    JP, great to hear!

  • Craig
    April 23, 2010 at 6:02 am

    Nice review! i just got a lovely feeling that this is going to be my new board for next season (=

    When do these go on sale?

    cheers

  • Shay
    April 25, 2010 at 7:13 pm

    Craig, awesome I think it’ll be really popular next year when more people get to ride it. You’ll find the 10-11 products hitting shops usually in the late summer/early fall. Sometimes shops get gear in earlier.

  • GKS
    July 9, 2010 at 10:11 am

    Shay,

    Great review. What would you estimate the flex to be for this board on a scale of 1-10? Could you go as far as to recomend this board to someone as an “all mountain” board rather than just a park specific board?

    Thanks,

    GKS

  • Shay
    July 13, 2010 at 2:10 pm

    GKS,

    probably a 4 on the scale. It’s on the softer side but not the softest board like the horrorscope or park rocker. If the person rides the mountain like it’s a park, i’d say yes.

  • 2010-2011 Snowboard Review – Shayboarder.com
    October 18, 2010 at 5:34 pm

    […] 10-11 K2 Fastplant […]

  • Nic
    October 30, 2010 at 4:31 am

    I tried it in Val Senales 2 weeks ago.

    It’s a very solid board! I really liked it, but I don’t think it’s a Jib specific deck, it has almost an all-mountain flex, I would say 5-6 on the scale. It holds the edge very well (couldn’t believe it!) and has a really interesting pop!

    The only con its the weight, it’s too heavy.

  • noahvincent
    March 6, 2011 at 6:29 pm

    do you know what the sizes for next year are? anything smaller than the 151 of this year?