# Skate Banana VS. Bataleon Evil Twin.



## Guest (Jun 3, 2008)

seriously i have a banana, its different yeah but the whole you can never ride another normal board again is utterly extreme. i have just purchased a uninc to go alongside my banana because i wanted something a little stiffer/stable for bigger kickers. havent ridden it yet so cant comment on it in comparison, my advice is just go with whatever you are more stoked on. i mean there are sooo many damn boards out there it is hard to pick just one. you love kickers and buttering, there 2 pretty conflicting types of boards you are going to have to be looking at. anyway just go with one and dont look back, too much time can be wasted looking at different boards.


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## Guest (Jun 6, 2008)

Alright, I've lurked forever and finally registered just to post in this thread. 

I bought a 155 Evil Twin early this season, probably spent 60+ days on it in all conditions. I swapped boards with a friend one day and got to try out his Skate Banana for several runs. Naturally, most of my review will be about the ET, and I'll compare how the SB felt at the end. Skip to the very end if you just want a super short summary.

With regards to the ET and triple base; it definitely feels a little different than a normal board, but not so much that its tough to ride or takes a long time to get used to. The board transitions from edge to edge a little differently, it feels more like it rolls edge to edge, as opposed to a traditional board which feels like edge -> flat-based -> other edge. It takes a little less effort to transition, which for the first couple runs might make it feel like the board is TOO quick edge to edge, like it's hooking into turns or something. This isn't terribly unnerving, and you get used to it quickly. For me it took less than half a run before I was fully comfortable. So edge transition is faster, easier, and smoother than a normal board (for me at least) and may be a little discomforting at first but I feel is an advantage.

The forgiveness of the Bataleons is where they really shine though. I absolutely could not catch an edge this season. I'm a good enough rider that edge-catches are rare, but there were a few times this year, buttering or spinning off small jumps and coming up short, and I never took a digger. There where a few times that I lost balance or something right at the lip of a jump, landed totally 90 degrees to the slope, back facing downhill, knees locked and everything, just waiting to fly over my heel edge and knock myself out, and I just slid out of them. Since the triple base is all at the tips, you can absolutely destroy butters without worrying about catching edge. On bigger jumps, if I came up slightly short or over-rotated, the forgiving edges allowed me to land or revert without slamming me instantly. So, for me at least, the bataleon is much more forgiving than my previous boards, which raised my confidence and let me push my abilities further this year than in the past.

The one thing I was worried about, given the forgiving edges, was loss of edge hold on the ET, but that wasn't the case. If anything, _I_ feel like the bataleon has better edge hold than my longer, stiffer, super sharp-edged all-mountain board. On icy slopes especially, the bataleon will still won't really hold a carve, and will instead 'slide/scrape' through the turn, but I never had the board completely wash out on me. So even if I lost my edge in a railed carve, the board would still grip enough to keep my feet under me. Given the conditions, I think all but a pure race or eurocarve board would lost the carving edge. The difference is my previous boards would have washed out completely and drop me on my butt/knees.

So with all that said, for me at least, unless I demo some other brand of board that completely blows my mind, I will go on buying Bataleon boards. Bataleon really only got their foot in the door in the U.S. this year, and I think next year and the season after, as more and more people get to try them, they're really going to gain hype.

So how I compare the ET to the SB? Well if for some reason Bataleon folded completely and stopped making boards, the Skate Banana, or some other BTX board would be my replacement choice. Compared to the ET, the SB was the closest-feeling non-bataleon board that I've ridden. It felt about as forgiving at the ET, it also was confidence-inspiring and a lot of fun to ride (BTW, I believe the forgiveness, and easy buttering is due to the BTX, I'm not convinced the MTX is actually an improvement over traditional sidecut.) The edge hold was good on the Skate Banana, again it felt better than the boards I've owned/ridden in the past. The conditions were pretty nice the day I rode it, but I imagine it would have good hold on icy hard snow too. I have to say though, the edge hold on the banana felt a little 'weird' to me. Most people say the SB feels like the carving force comes between your feet, thanks to MTX and BTX, but it felt to me like all the edge hold was WAY out at the ends of the contact points. It wasn't necessarily a bad feeling, but, like the triple base, I think it would take a little while to get used to. The edge transition on the SB wasn't as smooth as the ET, it felt basically like a regular board. The SB I was on was only 1 cm longer than my ET, but was a mid-wide board so that accounts for some of the increased effort to edge the thing. Even still, it definitely felt like an edge-flat-edge transition. My friend who traded boards with me seemed to be pretty keen on the Evil Twin. He too said it felt pretty similar to his skate banana. He's still pretty sold on the BTX but I wouldn't be surprised to see him on a bataleon again in the future.

So in summation, both the Bataleon and the Skate Banana feel distinct from all the previous boards I've ridden. Both boards are much more fun (for me) and inspire more confidence than a normal cambered board. Given my experience with them, I could certainly switch brands/boards between those two in the future, but I don't think I'll stray from triple base or BTX. I think I personally hold a slight preference for the bataleons. I think the triple base is _slightly_ more forgiving than the BTX, and the smooth edge transitions feel really nice. Even with that preference, If the price difference was very significant at all, I would probably go with whichever was cheaper (which, consequently, will almost certainly be the bataleon.) Plus, I'm not sure on Lib Tech, but Bataleons have a 2 year warranty whereas most companies only offer 1 year. And finally, if you're on a skate banana, you're going to look like 20 other people on the hill. I only saw 2 other people on Bataleons all season (though I think that'll change next year.)

Anyway sorry for so long a post, I _really_ had a fun season on my Evil Twin and I get excited when other I get to tell other people about it.


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## landonk5 (Aug 19, 2007)

thanks so much for that post. i decided to get an evil
twin because, like you said, i should go for the cheaper
one(bataleon by close to $250) and i really dont want
to have the save board as everyone else. i really loved
the banana before the previous season, and i'd still buy
one, but thanks to you im sure im getting a bataleon.
thanks alot for this detailed post. i really appreciate
it.


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