I had been riding the Korua Shapes Cafe Racer and occasionally my old Lib Tech Travis Rice Pro. I have been looking for a board that is a bit more "chill" for riding around the resort with the kids and stuff but still be fun in powder and be able to ride the smallest amount of switch in case I am feeling like I need to prove to the kids I could actually hit a jump and even do a 180 at one point in my youth. Last season I was able to ride my sons 157 Korua Shapes Transition Finder a few times. It seemed to be just what I was looking for, however it was just a bit small. I loved a lot of things about the Tranny Finder. It was easy to make mellow turns on and just cruise around the resort. The tail had a lot of pop to ollie off little bumps and small old man jumps. I could ride switch without feeling like my life was in danger. What I was most surprised about was how fun it was in powder. We were at Snowbird the morning after a classic Wasatch Front storm with about 24" of light Utah snow and I dropped in thinking I would be figthing to keep the little 157 afloat. ( I normally ride a 164 in a normal snowboard). Even if I did manage to get the nose to sink, it would pop back up quickly like a little dolphin wanting to launch out of the water. Almost like a play boat kayak popping up out of a dive in the river. The Transition finder has a much more playful surfy feel in powder than my Cafe Racer. The Wa-Pow's and Wa-Pa's
tend to come much easier on the Tranny Finder. The camber profile on the Tranny Finder is what Korua calls their "float camber" which is camber from the contact points at the tail all the way up through the front binding and then rocker through the nose.
On groomers, the Transition Finder felt a less stable than the Cafe Racer. Some of this however I think is because it was a 157 I was on. I would say where the Cafe Racer is a locomotive, the Tranny Finder is a Mazda Miata. It can easily be more of a daily driver kind of board, but a very fun daily driver. You can lay down trenches just like the Cafe Racer, just with a tighter quicker radius. It's a lot quicker in and out of turns as well. When I saw that Korua had added a bigger size in the Tranny Finder I knew I needed to pick one up. They now have a 160 which I think is going to be perfect. It is also quite a bit wider than the 157. The waist width on the 157 is 268 mm and on the 160 is 278 mm. I'll be updating this review when I get some turns on the 160 soon.
Shown: 164 Cafe Racer on the left, 157 Transition Finder on the right.
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