Capita The Matriarch Snowboard 26/27

The CAPiTA Matriarch is a directional freeride snowboard, 25.7 cm at the waist on the 158, new for 26/27 and the first signature deck Torstein Horgmo has designed for the brand. The profile is Alpine V4: full traditional camber - a single positive arc from tip to tail - ridden at a stiff Directional 7 on CAPiTA's own scale. One caution up front - CAPiTA files this as a men's board, and at $729.95 it is among the priciest solid decks it builds, so it is neither a women's board nor a value one. A woman after a women's freeride deck wants the Artemis, at $679.95, from the same range.

Most of that price is construction. The glass is Hybrid SuperCarbon HolySheet TRI/TRI, the triaxial layup CAPiTA otherwise keeps for its $799.95 Super D.O.A.; under it sits a brand-new Transcend Core of paulownia, poplar and bamboo. Two Fairmat carbon stringers add the snap - and that reinforcement is carbon, with no titanal anywhere in the board. The base is a genuinely sintered Hyperdrive ADV XT, shared with the Aeronaut.

It is built to ride nose-forward, set back 0.8 inches with a flat 4 mm of taper at every length, which makes it a directional board and not a switch platform. CAPiTA sells it as a park-to-powder board that pops off natural features and floats through mixed snow. That full-camber profile is what generates the pop and the edge hold, and equally what makes it demanding - there is no rocker to bail out a skidded turn or a back-seat landing. Plan on advanced-to-expert technique.

Because it is brand new, no independent on-snow test exists yet; what you get is the spec sheet and Torstein's design, not a ride verdict. The standard board comes in 155, 158 and 161, the Wide in 157W and 160W for the same money, and a US 10.5 boot or larger should go Wide. Keep the sintered base waxed or it slows down. It arrives as a bare deck, so we fit and size it with you at the shop.