A couple of years ago Lib Tech Snowboards (Mervin Manufacturing) introduced a new proprietary technology to some of their boards. It was an outrageous idea to create swinging edges with the ability to gain greater edge control, and they called their creation “magnetraction.” It was a huge success for Lib Tech and many other companies are now chasing the same carrot. You can bet that in the next few seasons all snowboards will have magnetic traction or some similar technology.
What is Magnetaction?
Go to your local store and pick up a regular snowboard and a mag drive. Take a look at the bottom and you can see that the edges of the mag drive are wavy like this: ‘~~~~~~~~~~”. That’s mag drive in a nutshell. Those wobble edges are what makes technology do it deal.
It works because if you think about turning on a regular snowboard with concave edges: “)(“, you’ll notice that your edges only have two real contact points in the snow. Only the four widest points of the board are capable of digging. With magnetic traction, where the rocking edges peak, a new point of contact is born, so when you carve with a magnetic traction board, you’ll have several more solid contacts where the edge meets the snow and therefore , you’ll hold a much stronger spin and just look bad.amazing!
Hello park rats! File the edges of a mag drive ALL THE WAY TO THE BONE and this board will still hold a good edge on the pipe. In other words, you can enjoy all the rails and boxes without hanging (if they bother you, you’ll have a hard time haha) and still be able to scale those pipe walls for some 1080 booths.
If you’re in the market for a snowboard right now, consider a board with magnetic traction. Like I said, I think there won’t be many boards without it soon, so buying a regular board for next season could end up being a disadvantage.
