K2’s Cool Bean Brings The Snowsurf Experience Inbounds – Teton Tested

The K2 Cool Bean, new for the ‘15/’16 season, was ALL the rage at last year’s SIA Snow Show in Denver. Of all the shortboards and fishes presented at the show, this shape stood out as the most user-friendly of the lineup with its short length yet large surface area, as well as its blunt nose, tapered form, setback stance and mild swallow tail. I was thrilled when the ‘Bean hit my door this January, hours before I embarked on an eleven-day powder pilgrimage to Telluride. As a swallowtail connoisseur and shortboard enthusiast, I am honored to present to you this surf-inspired Teton Tested.

SHAPE

Pintails, roundtails, squashtails, swallowtails, halfmoon tails, squaretails and asymmetrical tails. That’s a LOT of tail, but the Cool Bean had mellower than most. Ian Tarbox photo.

Part of K2’s Enjoyer Series, the shift in volume of the Bean has altered the mainstream conscious by dropping attitudes and letting the rider’s imagination take flight. In short, K2 has brought the volume and surface area closer to the rider’s feet by squashing the shape’s length. This concept has been utilized for decades by niche shapers and international brands, but K2 is one of the first larger US snowboard manufacturers to dive into the surf shape realm.

The first aspects of the Bean’s shape that one does notice are its tips: a blunt nose and mild swallowtail. These tails are so much fun to ride because each and every variation acts and reacts to the snow surface differently. I found this swallowtail to be large in surface area for its length with a smaller cutout upside-down V. This tail felt “user friendly” when compared to other fishtail shapes, making it the perfect fish to get you stoked on the unique and imaginative world of snowsurfing. The shape harnesses a lot of strengths from this tail: ease in maintaining speeds in small swell and mushy waves, unbelievable bite/control when going rail to rail, and insane stomping qualities.

Like I mentioned above, the bulk of this board lies at the feet, but that doesn’t keep the nose and tail width undernourished. The nose harnesses 330mm of girth for float, and the tail delivers a healthy 310mm for legita stomping abilities when you take to the air. The Bean is a true hog, making surf-inspired laidback, hand dragging carves an absolute blast on fresh corduroy and hero snow alike. Some imagine the stout figure would make it hard to transition rail to rail but this is not the case as K2 has really come up with a user friendly all-mountain fish.

Construction

The black edges represent where the thicker rails lie. More volume underfoot leads to a playful, yet in-control ride.

Similar to a surfboard, the volume or thickness of the rail tapers as it approaches the nose and tail. What I mean here is that the rails, or thickness of the sidewall, are thicker at and between your feet, and thinner at the tips. This provides stability and control which you can feel as you turn rail to rail confidently on a smooth surface. I also find great pop and confidence in freestyle maneuvers associated with the stability that the thick rails underfoot provide.

Reinforcement at the tail allows the rider greater peace of mind, on and off the mountain.

My favorite feature of the Bean is the reinforced metal edge at the tips of the tail. Most fish shapes I ride require the utmost delicacy and awareness, on and off the mountain so no damage is done to the tail. While riding the Bean, its stiff and strengthened tail allows any rider, no matter the size, to seek and destroy tranny without worrying about snapping a fin off. But, off the mountain is where the reinforced tail shines, as it can be placed on its fins on hard surfaces without worrying about cracking or delaminating the tips.

The Bean utilizes the traditional 2X4 insert pattern with a suggested Sweet Spot for mounting bindings to achieve the ultimate balance. The beauty of riding so many shapes is that you learn to listen to your body and the mountain; each and every shape requires a different stance for each rider. The Bean is no different, where I have switched the stance at least half a dozen times to really sense what the board has to offer.

I found the recommended insert pattern of 21” in width to be a tad wide and the stance too close to the nose. More on this later in the Drawbacks section…

The guts of the Bean employ the genius construction of K2s WH3 core. Meaning the wood strips are laminated vertically, tip to tip, with honeycomb inserts in between the binding and rails. K2 does not disclose the “three species of renewable wood” that make up the arbor core but my best guess is: bamboo for strength and pop, maple for heightened response and ash for dampening abilities. The extremely light honeycomb inserts have your back when strength and durability come into play. All of this tech business aside, this board has decent pop for its size, great dampening for sticking landings and feels light underfoot for extended air time.

This user-friendly profile will make every snow surface and terrain choice your bitch.

K2s All Terrain Baseline profile with extended Tweekend rocker feel great in such a compact package. As an old school rider, I dig a little camber; with my personal favorite profiles being Taro Tamai’s (Shaper at Gentemstick) Accelerator camber and the YES Cam-Rock, both featuring some sort of set-back camber with rocker at the nose.

Instead, the Bean’s profile rode like a Jones board (which claims Cam-Rock, but really are pretty flat when it comes down to it): fast, stable and surfy. As directional as this board is, I found the continued rocker of the Tweekend in the tail to be a lot of fun while riding or buttering switch.

The Bean’s large and stout surface area features a sintered base that is fast as hell! Just make sure you give her some sweet, sweet loving in the form of a hot wax every five to ten days on snow.

I dug the flex of the Bean with the thicker sidewalls at your feet giving the rider a heightened sense of confidence and charisma. Soft enough to butter fins out with your boys on some logs and banks but stable enough to point through your favorite couloir and the ensuing sastrugi/chunder at the bottom of the run out. Finally, the rather large and stiff swallowtail delivers balance and stability in just about every condition, which can be almost impossible to achieve from a fish in a surface like moguls.

SNowsurf

Warning: The Cool Bean invigorates stoke and may lead to pipe dreams. Jesse Levine photo.

At 4’7” (144cm) in length, this tapered fishtail offers up exactly what my quad-fin short surfboards provide: ridiculous fun in small swell. In and around the resort is where the Bean shines. This shape is FUN – straight up. Corn snow, corduroy, mashed potatoes, hero snow, boot-high powder; the surf-enthused shape allows for inspired slashes, smooth floaters and trannie maneuverability. Similar to my 5’10” Channel Islands Fishcuit, the large surface area between and near the feet provides for some of the best pumping abilities for when speed and fluidity are key.

The Cool Bean excels best, however, in planar corn snow, wide groomers with fresh corduroy, and hero snow (3” board penetration) with natural banks and hips to slash and float. Snowsurf is alive and well here in the States, and K2’s Hunter Waldron says it best as he describes the true sense of the Bean: “Low, quick, slashey, bashey, carvey kind of style.” Hunter and crew praise the width and toe clearance of this shape (waist width measuring in at a monstrous 28.7cm), with stability felt underfoot on groomers to provide swift and sharp turns in small swell.

GEAR PORN: Check out our entire lineup of 15/16 Teton Tested gear here

But the Bean is not all about the art of the turn… this board is a rocket in the freestyle realm as its tiny size and quirky nature can fit into any tranny with ease. Tweaks and bonks over banks and walls... she’s crafty! Progression sessions among natural terrain, a textbook handdrag and fins out slashes… send it! The Bean really starts to come into its own when blended into this progressive Holy Bowly kind of vibe where adaptability and the power of stoke rules the roost.

One of the most impressive qualities of the Bean was its resilience to chunder and less-than-optimal snow surfaces in high speeds. Hell, even moguls are fun as the tail is stiff enough to hold its own. Banked slaloms, or “wiggles” as we like to call them in Wyoming, are the Bean’s most natural element as the shape is sharp and agile in the tightest of spaces.

The Drawbacks of the Cool Bean

Tips up or bust! The short and blunt nose of the Bean did more plowing than floating after 26” dropped in 24 hours on Telluride Mountain Resort in late January. Jesse Levine photo.

Contrary to popular belief, I have found the Bean to be sub-par in keeping me afloat and ninja-like in the deepest of days. How, I say?!?

I found the nose to plow through blower instead of float above the froth. A few factors come into play for this shape not to excel in float. The insert patterns for the front bindings are too close to the nose for a rider who prefers a narrower stance. The large and stiff “mild” swallowtail that keeps the rider so well balanced in small swell does not sink enough to keep the nose afloat when “bottomless” enters the picture. Lastly, all that volume and surface area at and between the feet may take away hover capabilities from the nose. Sensei snowboard shaper and good friend Mike Franco puts flotation quite simply: “more nose, less tail.”

Another dilemma is the lethargic and lackluster response in blower pow. “Its proportions make the Cool Bean ride like a longer board,” says Hunter Waldron of K2; and that shows as the surfy feel in powder is more like a sluggish longboard than a high performance aggressive shortboard. Labeled a powder board, I had such a hard time wrapping my head around the Bean’s sub-par abilities in deep snow that I had my shred partner Hunter Welles ride it after 17” fell on Monarch Mountain since the chairs had spun. His assessment on that deep, wind-effected day was similar to mine, “it felt like riding a lazy boy down the mountain, not an agile or nimble fish like I had hoped.”

The general public tends to misconceptualize and misunderstand swallowtails as expert-only powder boards. The big picture to take from this section is not ALL swallowtails are powder-specific shred sticks. This can be especially true with short fishes such as the Rocket Fish from Gentemstick, which was designed by Taro Tamai for taking the carve to the groomers in its truest form. In short, stick to the smaller swell with this shape and take out your gun when paddling out into maxed out Waimeahu!

The Bottom Line

Roots, rock, reggae… Liquid lines come in many forms for watermen. Jesse Levine photo.

The K2 Cool Bean is the perfect shape for someone looking to get into a short, directional swallowtail for the first time. This fish knows no boundaries on-piste, making the Bean my “go-to” shortboard for inbounds shenanigans. If you’re searching for a fun, quiver-killing fish with an excellent price-point to chase you down the rabbit hole of snowsurf, look no further.

At $399.95 on evo (although now, sadly, sold out), the Cool Bean offers the absolute best bang for your buck in the shortboard/fish market. Compare this to a Jones Storm Chaser at $509.97, a Soulmotion Soulryder for $880, or options from guys like Gentemstick or Franco Snowshapes, which can run north of $1,000.

Check out all of evo's 15/16 K2 boards and their entire lineup of 15/16 powder boards here.