Donek Proteus 180
The big winner for me was the Proteus 180, which was the first board I tried.
I kept going back to it just to be sure it was really as smooth and solid as I'd found it to be at first. I'd expected, based on its description on Sean's site, and my experiences with his designs from ECES 10 years ago, that the powerful tail would be blowing me into the woods on every transition. None of that, ever. I did feel that it wanted to finish the turn, all the way uphill in fact, and was a little reluctant to let go and change edges, but the main feeling was of total confidence to drive as hard as I wanted, wherever i wanted. One often hears about boards that want to be ridden right from the middle. The 180 probably does want that, but it's not an issue because that's right where I found myself all the time – it just created a very balanced, confident ride.
