A couple of years ago, Lib Tech (Mervin Manufacturing) snowboards introduced some new proprietary technology to some of their boards. It was an outrageous idea to create oscillating edges with the possibility of more 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 coming seasons all snowboards will have magnetic traction or some similar technology.
What is Magnetaction?
Go to your local store and pull out a regular snowboard and a mag-traction snowboard. Take a look at the bottom and you can see that the edges of the mag pull are wavy like this: ‘~~~~~~~~~~’. That’s mag pull in a nutshell. Those wavy edges are what makes the technology does it.
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. magnetic traction, where the swinging edges peak, a new point of contact is born, so when you carve with a magnetic traction board, you’ll have several stronger contacts where the edge meets the snow, and therefore , you will maintain a much stronger spin and just look bad.awesome!
Hello park rats! File the edges of a magnetic pull ALL THE WAY TO THE BONE and this board will still hold a nice edge on the pipe. In other words, you can enjoy all the rails and crates without hanging (if they bother you, you’ll have a rough 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 pull. 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.