A San Mateo, CA based company by the name of Cheetah Ultra Sports has been working on a new snowboard concept they call “The Whip”. Since the 80′s there have been general improvements to snowboards, but nothing really significant. The last major improvement was adding steel edges, which made a huge improvement and helped bring snowboarding to what it is today.
Cheetah Ultra Sports set out to make a huge breakthrough 4 years ago and today claim to have developed a new board that will:
- Fit better
- Feel lighter
- Go faster
- Cruise smoother
- Turn quicker
- Edge harder
- Carve sharper
- Jump higher
- Land softer
- Do all this without chatter, and without heel or toe drag
Enter The Whip FR-117, Cheetah Ultra Sports next generation of snowboard, such a drastic difference in how it works, they didn’t even want to call it a snowboard. Did we forget to mention that it also uses carbon fiber? The Whip FR-117 board itself is made out of wood, plastic, steel edges, and carbon fiber. The spider back suspension is made completely out of carbon fiber.
While the concept behind The Whip is different than a regular snowboard, Cheetah has developed the binding system to work with any standard 4×4 binding. They do recommend getting a stuff binding with minimal padding though.
So how exactly does it work? Unfortunately I haven’t seen any videos of it in action just yet, pre-orders of the board are just being sent out now. The best way to partially understand how the board is more innovative than a standard snowboard is to read this page. It explains each component of the Whip, as well as its benefits. The Whip FR-117 is priced at $1,899, and can be ordered from Cheetah Ultra Sports directly here. Note that because production is slower than they expected, and there has been an overwhelming response, there is at least a two month waiting time for anybody ordering.
[Thanks to everybody that submitted this!]
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Overall, I am deeply interested in getting one of these boards. The promised riding traits look ideal. Though there are a few things I have concerns about. 1. Regular snowboards have the space in the middle for a stomp pad, how are we supposed to move after we finish a slope run or get off the ski lift? Do we have to take off our bindings and carry it up? 2. With the large cut out in the middle of the board, will it not collect more snow when you make a run, opposed to a regular board? 3. Will the edge(inside) tamper with our riding when we turn or stop? 4. If we go for a run in the mountains, we all know that there is no packed down snow, just powder. How well does it handle around let’s say two feet of powder compared to a regular snowboard?