The Hovercraft 2.0 features a bit of serration in the edges that Jones calls Traction Tech, which bites into hard snow but somehow doesn’t interrupt carving. I don’t think Traction Tech is quite as reliable as Lib Tech’s Magne-Traction (same concept, but with a few additional bumps), but this board held its edge extremely well in critical terrain.
It’s also the best board I’ve ever used in the trees. Despite its width, it turns nimbly in unpacked snow, where those quick directional changes are critically important. In March 2024, I took this board on a road trip through Northern California, Idaho, Montana, and Washington. At some of those stops it hadn’t snowed in days, and everything that was in the open was tracked out, but when I took this board into the trees I was always able to find some pockets of fresh goodies. On those special occasions when I got it into a big, steep snowfield the board had a casual, surfy feel to it. It glides nicely over flat spots, too.
The Hovercraft 2.0 is also arguably the most sustainable snowboard ever produced. It’s the first snowboard made with Jones’ new Re-Up Technology, which upcycles components from used surfboards. Jones found that 95 percent of a snowboard can be recycled, and that’s where this board’s wood core comes from. It also features recycled steel in its edges, recycled ABS in its sidewalls, a carbon-neutral flax fiber topsheet, and a bio resin that reportedly cuts CO2 emissions by 33 percent compared to traditional epoxy. It also comes pretreated with a Wend natural wax that’s biodegradable and contains no fluorocarbon forever chemicals such as PFAS.
This shouldn’t be surprising, as founder Jeremy Jones is not only a legendary snowboarder but also the founder and president of Protect Our Winters (aka POW). But it’s nice to see companies put their money where their mouths are.
Ultimately, there’s so much to like about this board and very little to dislike, but it’s for a specific type of rider looking for a specific experience. If you’re mostly focused on groomers, this board is good, but it doesn’t really stand out on the hard pack. For intermediate to advanced riders who want to spend as much time as possible hunting powder in ungroomed terrain, surfing down steeps, slashing big turns, exploring the trees, and still do some playful carving on their way back to the lift line, the Hovercraft 2.0 is an absolute delight.
It’s just a pure fun machine that’s taken me down some of the most memorable runs of my life. It has usurped my beloved K2 Excavator as my go-to board for powder days. If that’s your thing, this board comes highly recommended.
Source: www.wired.com
