GNU Banked Country Snowboard 2023

If you’re one of those riders who love to rip up the resort, then the Banked Country might be your dream board. Designed by Baker legend Temple Cummins and his son Cannon, this stunning snowboard has been designed from the ground up to deliver class-leading performance in the pow and on the piste, with the odd gold-medal-winning Baker Banked Slalom run in-between. Built around a lightly tapered directional shape with a full floaty nose and short diamond tail, the Banked Country delivers outstanding performance in the pow. But it’s not just about the pow, get this board on the piste, and it’s a revelation. The powerful setback camber and all-new directional progressive pro-Magne-Traction deliver a level of grip and drive that must be experienced to be believed. Internally the Banked Country utilises Gnu’s top-end high-spec G-Lite-3 Carbon construction. This powerful and dynamic build allows the board to take full advantage of its advanced shape and geometry and gives it a level of performance that pushes you to ride faster and harder.

Rider Style

The Banked Country is aimed at hard-charging freeriders who want a high-performance board for blasting the piste and the pow.

Shape Overview:

The Banked Country is built around a fully directional shape with a slight taper and 3.81cm setback of the stance. The volume nose gives outstanding lift and float in the pow, whilst the slightly narrower cut-back tail helps drop the back of the board in deep snow, aiding that effortless powder performance. The stiffer directional flex also lets you power up that short tail for more drive out of the turn. The Banked Country’s regular width and medium sidecut ensure quick edge-to-edge transitions with the optimum blend of short and long radius turns. New for this year is the advanced Progressive Pro-Magne-Traction. The latest incarnation of Mervin’s acclaimed Magne Traction is re-engineered to deliver the ultimate performance for piste-focused boards. By placing a smooth radius radial sidecut at the front of the board and then moving the Magne Traction serrations towards the tail, the Progressive Pro Magne Traction delivers a smooth turn entry with a powerful and rock-solid edge hold at the tail, really allowing you to drive that back section of the carve hard. 

Profile: C3 Camber

This versatile camber is engineered for high-performance snowboarding. Very mild rocker between your feet and powerful cambers to the tips and tails. Mild rocker balances pressure distribution tip to tail, eliminating the ‘dead space’ between your feet, maximising edge hold, pop, power and precision with the benefit of a little extra float and carve when you need it.

• Efficient tip to tail edge pressure distribution and control
• Central micro rocker builds in carve, edge hold and float
• Overall tip to tail camber builds in pop, power and stability

Construction

Internally the Banked Country utilises Gnu’s high-performance G-Lite-3 Carbon construction. Heading this up is the lightweight G-Lite-3 core. Combining durable FSC-certified Aspen with lightweight paulownia at 55% Aspen/45% Paulownia, the G-Lite-3 core delivers the perfect blend of featherlight weight and poppy flex. Gnu then adds structural layers formed from tri-ax glass on the upper band and bi-ax glass on the lower band. This blend of glass allows the board’s designers to dial in the perfect freestyle flex through the length with a more responsive torsional flex for when you need increasing control and response. To add extra pop through the length, Gnu also adds Carbon Power Bands.

Base: Sintered

The High-Performance Sintered base delivers a super-fast glide across all conditions and underlines the 4×4’s quality credentials.

• Directional
• 5cm Setback
• Magne Traction Sidecut
• C3 Hybrid Rocker/Camber
• Stiffness 7.5/10
• Tri-Ax/Bi-Ax Glass
• Eco-Sublimated Poly top sheet
• 70% Aspen/30% Paulownia core
• Sintered Knife Cut Base

Length	Waist Width	Sidecut	Taper	Effective Edge	Tip Width	Tail Width	Min Stance	Max Stance	Setback	Weight Range
159	25.4cm	8.3m	2mm	114cm	29.4cm	29.2cm	50.8cm	63.5cm	3.81cm	150-200lbs / 67-91kg
162	25.5cm	8.4m	2mm	116cm	29.8cm	29.6cm	50.8cm	63.5cm	3.81cm	170-220+lbs / 77-99+kg