Riding Brighton sidecountry and the Grizzly Gulch area on the Blacklight was a blast, as it floated great in fresh snow, was stable landing off cliffs (again, aided by its set-back stance), and was snappy enough for tight turns in the trees.
Riding the Blacklight out of bounds was refreshing, because unlike heavier and stiffer boards designed specifically for all mountain riding, the Blacklight maintains the quick playfulness that usually only a park board can deliver, while still being stable enough to pin it out of lines in smooth, fresh conditions.
Tuning / Waxing
The Blacklight has Nitro’s Sintered Speed Formula II, which they say makes the board fast and allows it to hold wax well. I can’t say I found this to be the case, however.
I rode the Blacklight fifteen times and hot waxed, scraped, and brushed it three times over that period. With other boards doing a wax and scrape once every seven days or so of riding is usually sufficient. At Snowbasin and The Canyons I was often the last person down the hill in warm spring weather, and the Blacklight’s base was visibly dry by mid-afternoon, having lost the wax from the pores of the base structure.
Bottom Line
I’ll move to a smaller board for exclusively riding park late in the spring (a 159 Lib Tech TRS HP), but the Blacklight is a true quiver killer for nearly every type of riding I do through most of the season. It charges backcountry jumps and big mountain lines in fresh snow, and is at home on park jumps and groomers as well.
The Blacklight is right up there with the Travis Rice Pro as my favorite board that I’ve ridden to date. Its set-back stance means that the Blacklight doesn’t provide much float while riding switch in powder but, this aside, I’d still recommend the Blacklight to any intermediate to advanced rider looking for a stiffer, snappy board who wants to take a playful, freestyle approach to the entire mountain.