Cheetah Ultra Sports Whip F-117 is an interesting new snowboard design. Company called Cheetah Ultra Sports has spent four years developing the product which I believe won’t work well on all terrain. There is a big opening in the middle of the board, which makes us scratch our heads here at the “Homeboy Headquarters”.. Why on earth has a snowboard got a huge opening in the middle?
Cheetah Ultra Sports says, “The main purpose of the opening is to reduce the amount of surface which comes in contact with snow. Smaller surface means less drag, which translates into more gliding speed.”
Wow! Wait a minute.. Less surface means more gliding speed? Maybe this idea works on hard slope, but when riding powder snow I guess the opening will cause some serious trouble. I believe you get tons of snow right on your face through the big opening. I might be wrong, but what else could we expect?
Then those huge “shelves” for attaching bindings of Whip F-117 look really interesting to me. Why so big? Unfortunately I don’t know the answer to my question, but there must be a good reason. Anyhow they look cool, eh? The cool design has also the negative side, and it is the fat price of $1,900. I gotta say I would think twice or even few more times before investing almost two thousand dollars to a board which has a huge opening in the middle, but you know, we can’t be sure until we have tested the snowboard.
Cheetah Ultra Sports say that Whip F-117 is the Lamborghini of snowboards, promising to make riders go faster, feel lighter, turn quicker, edge harder, carve sharper.. Really? I guess it’s time for Burton to invest a lot more money to their research in order to beat Cheetah Ultra Sports in the market..
6 Responses
We at Cheetah Ultra Sports would like to thank you for your posting. Obviously, design wise, we understand that the opening in the middle is counterintuitive, but it works well. As for the reduced surface, we forgot to say that it also increases the pressure on the surface which adds to the speed. The only reason it costs so much is due to the hight cost of small batch production in the U.S. Hopefully, we will be able to reduce the cost in the coming years. It has come to our attention that we will have to do some kind of demo rides… we are planning on it as we write. We’ll let you know. Rest assure, there will no snow sprayed on anyones face.
thanks again.
CUS
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You guys do realize that decreasing the surface area in contact with the snow is A BAD THING, right? Take a look at any high-speed board. You want as much of the board touching the snow as possible. This is why longer boards go faster than shorter ones.
I do like that you’re trying to innovate and progress the sport, but I don’t see much here that is going to make the ride faster, tighter, lighter, or better in any way other than landings.
“Really? I guess it’s time for Burton to invest a lot more money to their research in order to beat Cheetah Ultra Sports in the market..”
I don’t think that’s going to be an issue. The Chettah board is a gimmick. It’s a heavy board which won’t even feel like a real snowboard on snow. Having my feet so far from the ground would be a huge problem.
If you want to see a real magic stick, check out the Burton Method. Now that’s an INCREDIBLY light board that handles better than anything I’ve ever ridden! It kicks the pants off of this thing for $HUNDREDS less.
Again, it’s cool to see people trying to innovate and progress, but I don’t see this board going mainstream or revolutionizing the sport.
Dude! That board looks totally awesome!
I’ve been snowboarding for a while myself and dabbled through a few types of boards ranging from the ´80’s vintage-boards to modern computer-chip-technology-thingamagiggers. I’ve even customized a few (cheap) factory-made boards to try to find out where “the next level” is.
I gotta tell you; this board looks interesting. I can relate to the idea of a probable drag due to the hole in the board when riding powpow or slush, but then again, I would think that a set-up like that should be quite stiff to ride, so the way to go is to keep the deck on it’s edge and possibly even jet your edge-transfers… Should work on slush at least. Powpow might be a bit more tricky… But then again: The axe wasn’t invented to be used to put butter on your sammich… If you catch my drift.
Is there anyone here who has ridden this beast? I’d be more than happy to hear about some experiences riding this thing. Photos, videos, etc… would be great too.
-JimBob
Pyhätunturi drunken surfers and suicide-riders
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Guys, thanks for your comments!
I hope we’ll get one demo board from the factory so that we can report real test results and stop speculating. Anyhow, the board looks interesting, even though might not work well in all terrain.
JimBob, so far we haven’t noticed any more information on this board. Really hope it goes to production so that we can get a demo board