The Nitro Swindle is the first snowboard I've loved enough to invest in two generations. The construction, performance and price is unparalleled, so when I had the chance to demo some boards at Mt. Hood a few weeks ago, I went right to the Nitro rack to see if all of their boards were equally amazing.I had heard some amazing things about the Gullwing tech, which is Nitro's take on multi-camber that lifts the contact points while employing traditional camber beneath the bindings. Unfortunately all of the Team Gullwing models were out, but I was able to snag the Gross Out Series Eero Ettala, essentially a team Gullwing with special graphics.
This is a directional model with a slight setback. That always plays game with my head, especially riding switch, so I set up my Flux Super Emblems to get the board as twin as possible. While I thought setting my bindings to make the deck twin might alter how the Gullwing tech rode, I was pleasantly surprised.
Mt. Hood in August has a very unique riding surface. It can be firm in the morning, and especially firm where salted, then it softens into deep slush a little past noon.
High Cascade gave me a lot of options to try the deck out in, from rails to the halfpipe, freeriding, rocks, and a number of medium sized kickers (20 to 30 feet). The Pro Series Gross Out Eero passed all of my tests with flying colors.
On saltier, hard-packed terrain the board gripped well through hard turns. It cut through deep slush at high speed nicely, and never felt too hooky or squirrely.
The pop on this deck was impressive, one thing I always have reservations about when riding an alternative camber board. I guess adding slight camber beneath the bindings does what it is supposed to do. This was one of the really fun things about the board, popping high off rollers, ollieing and spinning over rocks.
In the lap park (where High Cascade maintained a number of medium kickers) the Gross Out Eero absolutely slayed it. I had no problems with speed or clearing jumps, the looser feeling of raised contact points made it easier to set up spins, and one thing I noticed was where I'm usually a bit backseat with the first few hits while I get used to reverse camber, this board did exactly what I wanted it to do from the get-go.
I always kill it in the pipe with alternative camber, and the Gross Out Eero was no exception. Whether it had to do with Nitro's custom base with this model, or simply High Cascade's stellar park construction, I had no trouble keeping speed and linking hits wall to wall.
On rails, the explosive pop and loose ride edge to edge are a great advantage. Raised contact points make it easier and safer to really tweak out boardslides catch-free, and of course the reverse camber part of the deck means you can press and butter to your heart's content. One area I had trouble (and I always do with alternative camber decks) was locking boardslides centered over thinner features such as rails; for boxes everything was all good, but rails not so much.
Overall, the Gross Out Eero wins the award for best deck I demoed this summer, and while I would recommend to anyone more into switch riding in the park that they look for the true-twin Team Gullwing, if you are someone who likes to destroy the mountain all-around this directional take on Nitro's Gullwing tech would be the way to go.
Check out Nitro's Pro Series Gross Out Eero and their other solid products at Nitrosnbrds.com.
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