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K2 Niseko Pleasures 2021

$450.00 USD
$599.95 USD $450.00 USD
Sale Sold out
Size
Niseko-based K2 global team rider Yo Amagai has taken the hugely popular K2 Simple Pleasures and tweaked it to his refined tastes to create the K2 Niseko Pleasures. K2 call the result of this teamwork the “the best possible tool for riding in Niseko – debatably the Holy Gail of terrain and snowfall.” but as a rider based in Hakuba, I was curious to see how well it would hold up to the steep as well as the deep. I reviewed the 156 Simple Pleasures back in 2018 and it became a daily driver for its ability to handle freeriding and deliver carving sensations too. Next came the 151 Simple Pleasures which surprised in just how much deep stuff it could handle. In conversation with Yo Amagai, when he mentioned fine-tuning the flex to create a special version of the K2 Simple Pleasures he had my attention. Here we have the result of his turning and tuning, the Niseko Pleasures…

 

THE TECH

The Niseko Pleasures has the same volume-shifted outline shape as the 156 Simple Pleasures. Massive amounts of float come from the 270mm waist flaring out into that distinctive 321mm wide pointy nose. The width is made more nimble by 22mm of taper and a 7.7m radius sidecut, with 116.7cm of effective edge. It takes the directional camber of the Simple Pleasures and adds a small amount of early rise in the tail, and the Bambooyah™ Blended core has been tweaked to give more torsional flex between the feet

K2 rate this as a 6/10 compared to the 7/10 flex of the regular Simple Pleasures, and a hand flex definitely gives more bend between the feet, and a touch more in the tail. The Niseko Pleasures also keeps the top-of-the-line Carbon Infused 5500 Sintered Base, while the regular Simple Pleasures gets bumped down to Sintered 4000 this year. A fast base isn’t just for the speed freaks and racers – who doesn’t want more glide across the flats and through rolling fields of powder?