The Official Korua Shapes Thread

[SJF_NH]

After hedging for about a year, I finally ordered a TF in the wee hours on Monday morning. It's scheduled to land on my front porch in NH this Thursday, which is astounding. Apparently their whole business model is about preying on weak people like me.

Korua is like the Big Tobacco of snowboarding.

welcome to the TF gang, you will laugh maniacally on those first few turns

Thanks, I don't doubt that for a second. I'm sure the people watching me will laugh maniacally too, as I get overly excited and inevitably exceed my abilities. Haters man...

[YukonCornelius]

do you see korua's much out east? i can't imagine seeing one at loon or gunstock, miss riding those fun places (went to school in boston)

i've gone over the bars trying to get my torso onto the snow because of the addictive edge hold, over the bars riding switch and catching the tail on a chunk of snow, washed out an unknown amount of front 3's as the swing weight on the nose requires opening up much earlier and putting the landing gear down to get on toes or i over-rotate into a 5 far too often.

i love that board to death and might be getting some time on mine this weekend if i lend my aeronaut to a friend

[SJF_NH]

Loon is home base for me, although I make frequent trips to Sugarloaf, Killington, Sunday River and others depending on where the snow is. Also take trips out west as much as I can. As for seeing Koruas in the wild, I've seen a few Cafe Racers and an occasional Dart, have yet to see a Pencil or any other Korua models, always a fun conversation though. I chatted with a guy on a Cafe Racer last year, he comes up to Loon for weeks at a time because he has an interesting job. He's a tug boat driver based in Boston, with two weeks on and two weeks off, living the dream.

And I'm very familiar with this "over the bars" maneuver you speak of, I mastered that one many years ago.

[kimchi]

do you see korua's much out east? i can't imagine seeing one at loon or gunstock, miss riding those fun places (went to school in boston)

Never ridden the East, but my impression is Korua's wouldn't be super ideal out there. Wide waist aren't the best on ice and open sidecuts aren't the best on narrower runs. I'd personally pick a different board out there than I usually ride in Tahoe... probably 5 mm narrower (I aim for around 260-265 mm with a size 10 boot), and a 7.8-7.9 sidecut (usually hoping for 8.2-8.3).

I suspect East-bias is also why I'm not super down with Burton boards. As a general rule (at least until recently) their directional decks have too much sidecut for me, basically by the margin I stated above. They also used to be too narrow for my tastes, but feels like they'd added some waist over the past few years... specifically I know they made the Flight Attendant molds wider in the past couple years.

[SJF_NH]

Oddly enough Koruas work pretty well around here depending on your tastes. The two attributes that match our conditions are great edge hold, and burly dampness that allows you to plow through chunky frozen snow without getting bucked out of your line every other minute.

Your observations aren't wrong though, in regard to Burton, narrower and deeper sidecuts seems to be an east coast thing. In fact if you look at two of the more notable riders from NH, the specs on their pro model boards are somewhat narrower or "standard" width, with slightly less than 8 sidecuts (Pat Moore and Lago).

Funny how our opinions change though, back in the day I was all about skinny boards with lots of sidecut like the Balance and T-6. Korua must have changed what I like in a board, because now around a 26 waist with moderate sidecut is my preference, and I really dislike narrow boards any more. I also have a Yes PYL Uninc that I really like, which is also very wide (for me).

[YukonCornelius]

same here in regards to sidecut preferences over the years. i was all about burtons and rode my unincs into the ground, my baby cougar 160 gets taken out once in a blue moon still.

i learned to ride in VT so i've always had a burton bias from that alone, especially since they were the only people making kids boards when i started riding in 97.

but anyhow, korua's are fantastic. i wonder what a more mellow TF would be like. when i bought the TF last year i had no idea it would be an absolute missile, an unexpected but fun outcome. i think the aeronaut is the softest board i've owned since my OG horrorscope haha

[kimchi]

same here in regards to sidecut preferences over the years. i was all about burtons and rode my unincs into the ground, my baby cougar 160 gets taken out once in a blue moon still.

i learned to ride in VT so i've always had a burton bias from that alone, especially since they were the only people making kids boards when i started riding in 97.

but anyhow, korua's are fantastic. i wonder what a more mellow TF would be like. when i bought the TF last year i had no idea it would be an absolute missile, an unexpected but fun outcome. i think the aeronaut is the softest board i've owned since my OG horrorscope haha

Really interesting you think the TF's stiffer compared to the Aero. I had a Stealth 163 (basically an old TF 165 with a useless notch tail), I don't think it's especially more aggressive than the Aero. Definitely wider and damper, but if anything my off-top-of-head impression is the Aero's 161 a hair more aggressive and twitchier with the full camber. I haven't ridden that Stealth in a couple seasons, so I may be misremembering or just not as sensitive to nuance as I think I am lmao. I also switched my primary boots in that time period.

[Vanni]

I also asked about under-foot width, and their response essentially said it's so close it won't really matter.

After Lars video about rear foot width, I dropped an email to Korua to know this spec, for TF50 and 54
They replied me that the width at the back binding inserts are 265mm for TF50 and 275mm TF54.

When I was waiting the reply (I was not sure they were going to reply me at such a nerd question) I took the specs of both the TF50 and TF54:

TF50
Waist width: 252
Tail Width: 278

I did 278 - 252 = 26 mm of difference from the smallest width and the tail width

So, supposing that more or less the back foot insert packs are roughly at the midpoint between the 252 waist width and the widest point of the tail (yes there is a setback, but few millimiters of difference in width are negligible), I did this:

26mm/2 = 13 mm

252 + 13 mm = 265mm

for the TF54 I got 274mm

that was a rough estimation, but I was spot on.

So about backfoot width, with the TF50 I'm in the same ballpark of my other boards, that are spot on as Lars suggested

Ok ok, with all this talking on the TF, I took the plunge.
I bought a new Salomon Super 8
My second one

I guess I'll push back the TF50 purchase to the next season.
Now back on Swath boot 2025 topic... um... The Korua boards

[benjinyc]

do you see korua's much out east?

yeah, there are more and more each season.

plenty of shops carry them in stock here, Otto, TF, Pencil and CRs are what you see

I have a CR and it's great, a keeper for me just for early morning groomers.

[YukonCornelius]

same here in regards to sidecut preferences over the years. i was all about burtons and rode my unincs into the ground, my baby cougar 160 gets taken out once in a blue moon still.

i learned to ride in VT so i've always had a burton bias from that alone, especially since they were the only people making kids boards when i started riding in 97.

but anyhow, korua's are fantastic. i wonder what a more mellow TF would be like. when i bought the TF last year i had no idea it would be an absolute missile, an unexpected but fun outcome. i think the aeronaut is the softest board i've owned since my OG horrorscope haha

Really interesting you think the TF's stiffer compared to the Aero. I had a Stealth 163 (basically an old TF 165 with a useless notch tail), I don't think it's especially more aggressive than the Aero. Definitely wider and damper, but if anything my off-top-of-head impression is the Aero's 161 a hair more aggressive and twitchier with the full camber. I haven't ridden that Stealth in a couple seasons, so I may be misremembering or just not as sensitive to nuance as I think I am lmao. I also switched my primary boots in that time period.

i have a pretty nice direct comparison, as i took my drives off of my TF 54 and threw them right on the aero (i need another set now lol). maybe i've completely lost my mind and don't know what the hell i'm talking about.

board characteristics also seem very subjective. i'm 5'9 170 about and am pretty strong for my size with my background (not a flex at all, just trying to think of things that my impact how we feel on our boards), so perhaps my stature is a big input variable here vs. someone who is 6 foot my weight or something.

i feel like the aero is softer torsionally, and that the TF from back binding to tail feels stiffer than the aero. i have also only ridden the aero once, ill have more data for myself after this weekend, which we have a hell of a storm coming in (seems we are all in for it ). i told my buddy i'd let him ride the aero but think i will pull back that offer now....