I did ride the UFC 183 on hardpack during the World Carving Session in Austria, but only for about one hour. There was one slope with hardpack/artificial snow/a bit of ice and one slope reserved for carvers which was quite soft and had lots of crumbs and grip.

The UFC performed exceptionally well on both surfaces. It is a quite heavy and very stable board (nearly as stable as my Virus Spartan) and provides huge amounts of ice grip. There was no difference in ice grip to a couple of high end GS raceboards I tested the same weekend. It cuts through ice like a chainsaw, better than the Spartan.
Yet it seems to behave quite smoothly on rough and soft terrain. No tendency towards folding the nose so far.

There are some NSR features going with it, such as a modestly decambered nose and tail, multi radius scr and titanal. So you may expect some of the NSR typical characteristics, e.g. changing the radius when shifting your weight from front to rear.

I had some slight difficulty with low speed turns and modestly inclined turns. That may be due to the width, torsional stiffness and the NSR features. But as I said, I had only one hour with it. There may be some riding adaptation necessary.
As far as I can tell, the board likes medium to high speeds and it likes to be tilted to maximum. Then it shows incredible performance. A perfect Eurocarving board.

If it is really as good in powder as is it on hardpack.. sounds like a miracle..

couple of photos of me and the UFC:

January 10th, 2011

I bought the UFC 183 after two testrides.
I've had 5 days on it now (in everything from ice, hardpack, fresh snow and warm soft snow, but no deep powder).

It's not an easy ride since the board is rather wide (21.4cm) and torsionally stiff, and the scr is quite long (similar to Men's GS). The board likes to be tilted to the max, so you'd prefer to ride it Euro style or race style with much angulation. It's nothing for the faint of heart and will punish the rider for every sign of tentativeness.
But once you get the clue it's really a blast. The grip on every surface is just incredible – beyond everything I've experienced before. It's perfect for fast laydowns. No skidding, no chatter, no folding the nose, it just goes round and round.. it cuts through piles of snow like a plough and trenches blue ice like a chainsaw. Like a 1000cc GSXR – the faster you go, the lighter it feels. If you do fast racestyle turns it even gets springy.
Unfortunately I had no chance to ride it in deep pow so far – only in 10-20cm of fresh snow where it behaved quite enjoyable.

In my opinion the ultimate weapon for the designated high-speed-eurocarver who knows what he's doing or who's had some experience with wider boards.

As an alternative there is a narrow (18cm) version out now.

edit: don't try it with softboots..

frunobulax

Bomber on Line