Details from Jones:
The Hovercraft is an alternative freeride board whose nimble maneuverability and diverse performance has earned it a cult following.
It's unique, compact shape matches a short tail with a long sidecut so you can rip turns of any size. The Hovercraft is designed to be ridden shorter than your average freeride board as the trim shape packs serious surface area in a small package. For serious float in any snow condition, the Hovercraft features a directional rocker profile and a 3D Contour Base 3.0, and for added edge grip it has Traction Tech 1.0 edges. The Hovercraft has a new look with a refined Engineered Veneer Topsheet and a black + transparent base plus laser etched topsheet markings that eliminate all solvent inks. Without any inks on the board, not even the sidewalls, the new Hovercraft is the most sustainably produced board we've ever made!
3D Contour Base 3.0
Freeride focused 3D-base contours featuring an even balance of 7mm of spoon bevel in the nose and 7mm of spoon bevel in the tail. Spoon bevel starts at the rocker point.
Shape Tech
1. Traction Tech 1.0
Like a serrated knife slicing into the snow, Traction Tech improves your edge grip by adding multiple contact points along the running length of your board.
Traction Tech is a critical feature for rockered boards. Rocker improves glide in mixed conditions, but the decreased edge contact makes it harder to really lock into your turns and hold a solid edge. Traction Tech is crucial to offset the edge drift of rocker. - Jeremy Jones
2. Progressive sidecut
At the far ends of the sidecut, the radius is incrementally increased as the edge reaches the contact point. Gradually increasing the sidecut radius towards the contact point delivers smoother turn initiation and exit as the edge tracks in and out of the snow with a less abrupt transition.
Blunt nose
How a board glides in powder, crust, corn or any snow more than an inch deep, is dictated by it’s front contact point and just past it. Next time you are in soft snow watch how much snow comes over the corner of the nose near the contact point. The billowing snow coming out from behind the tip means you are plowing through it which is obviously slowing you down. By adding a blunt nose you get the float benefits of a much longer nose without the ‘snow plow’ rounded tip and it’s extra swing weight. - Jeremy Jones
Directional flex pattern
Off set tip-to-tail flex pattern that is designed for directional freeride boards. The nose, center of board and tail are slightly different stiffnesses to help lift the nose, sink the tail and improve stability at speed.
Profile
Directional Rocker
A hybrid rocker/camber flex pattern defined by more tip rocker then tail rocker and camber between the bindings. The rockered tip floats the board’s nose and improves maneuverability while the camber underfoot provides edge hold and response. A slightly rockered tail maintains the power and stability of a traditional board but helps keep the tail catch-free initiating turns and landing switch.
"My experience is that most falls in freeriding start from the nose of the board – you either go over the bars in powder, the nose gets caught under a weird crust and tosses you, or you hit a hard tranny at the contact point of the tip and get bucked. Directional Rocker eliminates most of these falls." - Jeremy Jones