2012-2013 Rossignol One Magtek

Snowboard: 2012-2013 Rossignol One Magtek, 156cm

Dimensions (mm): 295-253-295 “True Twin”

Setback: 13mm

Flex: 7/10

Boots: Flow Rift Quick-Fit

Bindings: Flow NX2-AT

Stance: 23.5” / 59.7cm

Days Ridden: 16

Test Locations: Taos Ski Valley, Crested Butte, and Monarch Mountain

The Rossignol One Magtek is a true twin, all-mountain board that Rossignol has slated a “true quiver killer” and their “most versatile board” yet.

Its true twin shape allows for park-like play all over the hill, yet it has 13mm of setback to enhance its ability to cut through powder and crud while maintaining adequate playfulness and control. It also has Magne-Traction (added contact points on the edge, like a serrated knife) to add stability and grip.

In Rossi’s own words, it’s “the board to have, when you can only have one.”

Profile / Shape

Rossignol calls the rocker / camber profiles of their boards AmpTek (short for Amplification Technology, and a fun word to say really loud), which comes in three combinations of camber / rocker height / length across their board line: AmpTek Auto Turn, AmpTek Freestyle, and AmpTek All-Mountain.

The One Magtek falls under the All-Mountain category, which has its camber placed in between the binding inserts, rocker on the nose and tail, and is described as 40% Camber / 60% Rocker.

The other AmpTek varieties alter the placement and percentage of rocker and camber to better suit each riding style.

First Impression (Choppy Moguls)

When I first got the One Magtek, I thought it was lightweight compared to the Venture boards I had been riding, and too soft and flexible for an all-mountain board. (Rossi rates the flex a 7 out of 10.) But after some time on the mountain, I found it to be fairly stiff in the all the right spots.

The board is a twin, so it performs well both directions, with a flex that’s stiff under the inserts but that gets progressively softer toward the nose and tail, with the nose and tail themselves being quite soft.

On my first few runs, I was playing on moguls, traversing back and forth, jumping over the rounder ones, and found incredible pop and limited throttling in the steep troughs. In other words, what I found was a surprise: a lightweight but stiff board that had pop.

The flexible nose and tail allowed for quick and steep transitions in the moguls while diminishing the force on steep transitions. And the stiffness of the board, which lies in the binding area, gave a solid and responsive feel when on edge. It took sharp-angled bumps and dissipate the force through the board.

After those initial runs, I was excited for what was to come in the next few weeks.

Chalky / Hard Pack

The runs below chair #2 at Taos (Castor, Pollux, Winston, Reforma, and Blitz) have become an end-of-the-day institution for many local Taoseños. The terrain is challenging in its steepness and its variability, and nearly every type of condition can be found somewhere in the bowl. It is set up perfectly for end-of-the-day fast laps that really make you feel like you have earned your Après.

My tendency is to try to find a clear fall line and stick to it rather than moving in and out of the trees while traversing slopes sideways. But sticking to the fall line usually requires the scrubbing method (riding an edge down the fall line), and on the One Magtek, I couldn’t initially tell whether I was riding the board or the board was riding me.

I had a very difficult time keeping the board planted on the snow, so I latched down my bindings tighter to see if I could translate some of the needed dampening into my feet. But it didn’t fix the issue, and I could figure out why exactly I felt out of control and unstable. It wasn’t that the board was too soft overall, because it has great stiffness under the inserts. One possibility is that the board might have simply been too short for the speed I was attempting to reach, similar to a short skateboard and speed wobbles.

I would scrub on my toe edge and quickly start to feel shaky and on the brink of meltdown (usually resulting in thigh to tree or head to mogul). I started to confuse myself with the aspects of the board and what I felt they should react like: stiffness, weight, setback stance, and edge contact. It just didn’t seem to match up.

I left that day wondering about the board’s capabilities in very mixed, choppy conditions. I simply felt like I had reached the speed limit and that the One Magtek was best used as a groomer-jib-powder-play board, but not for mixed conditions / all-mountain.

Fortunately, initial impressions aren’t always accurate, which is why we at BLISTER believe in testing gear over multiple days in multiple conditions. I soon found I just needed to adjust my riding slightly to get the most out of the board. I found I couldn’t control the board through fighting with it, so I began to relax with it.