Sage Kotsenburg linked up with our product design and engineering team and wanted to work on a new snowboard that was designed to ride pillowy, forested, technical terrain. The concept was to be able to “pivot” and “release” the tail freely to allow the rider to ride the natural contours of the terrain in front of them. The crew got to the drawing board (read: very expensive computer software), pumped out proto #1 … and we were off to the races on what became to be the Sky Pilot. Through iterations of shapes, trying different fiberglass lay-ups, and playing jazz with carbon additives, we found the sweet-spot and began to hone in on the best tool to do the job. The Sky Pilot is built around a slightly-wider than normal footprint, and features a “right in the middle” medium flex. It features K2’s 3DContour in the tip and tail, pulling the contact points up off of the snow, and achieving the “pivotability” that Sage was looking for in deeper snow. This ‘spoon’ in the tip and tail works in harmony with our new Carbon Y-Beam - adding snap and stability in the tail, and sending energy to the contact points in the nose - this means that you’ll get the stability and edge pressure that you want, without the unnecessary torsional rigidity. Firm believers that everyone should be able to experience how amazing the mountains are, the Sky Pilot was designed with an all-gender approach - with scaled sizing, flex profiles, and waist widths to accommodate a smaller foot. The Sky Pilot kicks off at a 148 and goes all the way up to a 163. For the best experience, downsize 3-5cm from your normal snowboard length, thanks VolumeShift™️.