So I got this new board from Burton about a month ago called the Joystick. It comes with a V rocker and the shape is anything but conventional so, being a firm believer in the axiom "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", I didn't really want to leave camber. I like a board with pop and I like to charge, so why exchange a steel blade for a floppy noodle, right? Alas, it was the only board I had available to ride at the moment and I figured I should be familiar with all merchandise since I work for the CNN equivalent of snowboarding here at METHOD. 
I headed out for my first session thinking this board is like a little toy, not real snowboard but a "joy stick". After all, there must be a some logic behind the board's very name. Man, was I in for a surprise... After a few laps and a little change in my stance (gangster 24 inch stances are longer possible on these rebuilt knees), snowboarding had a second coming to me… right on my face! It was amazing!
The Joystick is super forgiving so a lot of my sloppy landings were pulled around straight with ease. I've always struggled to do a real, proper nosepress or 5-0... With the Joystick I bagged them both on the whole rail with ease, first try. But wait, did I lose my pop? Nope, it's still there, it's just a different pop, more akin to skateboarding where you gotta use your legs to snap an ollie, which is fine by me. Plus, I'm not sure if the narrower stance or the rocker shape, but weird grabs seemed a little but more reachable, a bit more crankable!
And when I took it to the (hot) pow the nose was hanging high and dry as I plowed through thick, wet snow, even rocking it switch, sin problema. I was raging the mountain against doctor's orders!
I felt like Terry Kidwell at age 19. Except TK was on Sims, so let's say a young Craig Kelly (okay, okay, Craig was on Sims too... so older Craig Kelly then). I was unstoppable! Sure, I had to work the mountain and pump my turns more than before because the board wasn't as tense and snappy as a freshman taking a senior to the prom, but it's okay, I got legs.
I'm going to go ahead and lay it all on the line, the fact is I love snowboarding more than ever because of this thing. Seriously! It's progress, plain and simple (no offense to camber boards, they do their job swell) but I find myself landing a handful of things I would have eaten shit on before, I'm trying moves that don't even have names yet (check the cover, what do you call that?), I can go anywhere. So give the new toys a try, shake things up, try a new shape and technology, and maybe even a new stance. Who knows, it might help your snow dance…
If you like what you see, there are good deals on Joysticks over at Hotzone.TV