The Landscape Collection is a pinnacle range of freeride snowboards from K2 designed to enable riders to tackle any terrain the mountain has to offer with confidence. They are mindfully manufactured, precision-engineered, and built to enhance the rider’s end-to-end experience. All of the boards in the Landscape Collection have a sharp focus on specific riding styles and types of terrain and have been designed from a gender-neutral perspective. Your snowboard doesn’t know what gender you are, and it doesn’t matter. This is simply an assemblage of high-performing all-mountain snowboards for riders who want to rip the mountain their way.
The Manifest is the most freestyle-oriented board in the Landscape Collection. It’s geared for freestyle-driven riders who want equal opportunity access to the entire mountain. The Manifest is a mid-flexing directional twin—it has a symmetrical twin-tip shape, with a directional core and a stance that is setback ever so slightly. The single-board quiver sports K2’s Combination Camber Profile, which underscores its freestyle focus and adds to its versatility. Combination Camber utilizes traditional camber between the inserts for stability, response, and power alongside an early-rise rocker in the board’s nose and tail to ease turn initiation and support float in powder. It’s your favorite park board with an injection of all-mountain mechanics.
K2’s David Djité is a freerider based in Switzerland who spends his season riding deep powder and natural terrain while filming with the world-famous Beyond Medals crew. David’s approach to riding is flowy and flawless, with an emphasis on aesthetics: “The style aspect is definitely more important to me than doing technical tricks. I put more focus on everything being flowy and a bit more surfy and steezy rather than throwing tens across 100-foot backcountry jumps.” David grew up riding at Switzerland’s iconic Laax resort, a popular destination for all-mountain enthusiasts. Due to the quality and quantity of its snow and easily accessible world-class freeride terrain, Laax has played host to countless snowboard filming crews, serving as the backdrop for some of the most celebrated segments of all time. David talked about the mountain he calls home, “Laax has it all, but mainly for me, it has really amazing sidecountry. You can access so much stuff, and you're not dependent on a sled or a heli or anything. You can go really, really far out within the resort, and it's a big resort. It's really, really big. So that's what makes it so nice. There is a lot of terrain, and you can always find good spots to ride.”
The Manifest is Djité’s go-to shred sled because of its ability to adapt: “That board is the go-to. It doesn't matter if it's groomers or slush, powder or park; it works for any terrain and in all conditions. It has good pop and control, and it works for everything; that’s what I love about it.”
“I would recommend the Manifest to people who like riding the sidecountry around the resort for sure, but also riding park. The Manifest does both 100%; you can shred it all. For that type of rider, that’s the most all-around board you can get—200% [laughter].”
K2’s Carbon Darkweb stringers, placed in the Manifest, aid in energy transfer, stability, control, and speed up edge-to-edge transitions. K2’s Development Engineer Justin Clark elaborated on the benefit of the signature stringers: “The Carbon Darkweb stringers extend from the inserts to the contact points at a 45-degree angle. They increase the board's response and help it hold a better edge at higher speeds. Also, with the Carbon Darkweb, the board isn’t going to be able to twist as much torsionally in the tip and tail, giving it a more stable and consistent edge feel.”In addition to the Carbon Darkweb, the Manifest uses K2’s torsionally stiffer and more responsive ICG 20 Triax Glass. This calculated addition, which includes twenty inset carbon stringers from the tip to the tail, makes the board more aggressive and high-performing, with a stronger edge hold. Justin Clark added, “This increases the board’s liveliness and pop as well as the longevity of its flex.” The Manifest’s A1 core integrates three types of renewable wood. The majority of the core is made up of K2’s FSC-certified aspen, which is chosen for snap and response. Bamboo is placed underfoot at a 30-degree angle toward the edges to enhance strength and ensure even pressure distribution. Paulownia, employed in the tip and tail, contributes exceptional lightweight strength, durability, and consistent, balanced flex.
A unique signature design detail found on the Manifest and all K2 snowboards is the Hybritech construction, which uses proven cap construction in the board’s tip and tail that transitions into modern sidewall construction along the board’s effective edge. By combining these two construction techniques, the board gains torsional flexibility, resulting in improved edge hold. Additional benefits of the Hybritech approach include reduced weight, enhanced durability, and an overall smoother ride. The cap construction portion of Hybritech also allows the board’s sustainable wood core to extend right to the ends of the tip and tail, which are then capped. Unlike other manufacturers who use a tip fill—large plastic inserts under the topsheet—K2 avoids this by leveraging the Hybritech method, eliminating the need for additional plastic. In the end, Hybritech delivers a superior snowboard that excels in performance and durability while setting a new standard for riding enjoyment and environmental responsibility.
While positively impacting a rider’s ability to have the best possible time exploring the mountains, the manufacture of snowboards has an inherently negative impact on the environment in which these same mountains exist. Environmental sustainability is a responsibility that K2 does not take lightly. The team is working passionately and diligently to raise its standards and the standards of an industry, with a focus on collective change and the greater good. Justin Clark expanded on some of the steps that the brand is taking within the manufacturing process, “For the Landscape Collection, we developed our own Bio-Resin with Entropy Resin, which is at the forefront of bio-friendly epoxy resins—the epoxy is what adheres all the materials of the snowboard together. We wanted to make sure that the new Bio Resin was as good as our current epoxy or better. From a durability standpoint, it would be pointless if the resin wasn’t as good and the board ended up de-lamming and needing to be replaced.”
Justin continued, diving into more detail on the development of the resin as well as underscoring other moves the brand is making to reduce its overall impact, “We looked at our snowboard manufacturing as a whole to pinpoint the number one contributor to our CO2 emissions, and it was our resin, so we went after that first. We have recycled edges on all of our snowboards. With Hybritech, we’re using full wood cores through the whole board, so you don’t have the plastic tip fill, which in itself is a massive sustainability benefit. Then, anywhere we can use FSC-certified wood in our cores, we do—that’s more sustainably grown, quickly regenerative wood. We’re trying to do as much as possible and be transparent with the consumer and the industry. But the resin was the biggest culprit, so over a two-year span, we were able to come up with a Bio-Resin that exceeded our previous standards and resulted in a 33% reduction in our CO2 emissions; so with that, we’re raising the bar from a product standpoint and from a sustainability standpoint which is always going to be our goal. All the boards in the Landscape Collection are now using Bio-Resin, and by 2025, all K2 snowboards will be using Bio-Resin, so that’s been a big win and probably our most significant impact yet.”
Another rider mounting up the Manifest is Matt Belzile, a BC-based shredder known for churning out epic part after epic part, alongside the best to do it in the legendary Whistler backcountry: “As soon I started riding it, I loved it. I was coming from a pretty aggressive directional board, and I wanted something more freestyle-friendly. When the Manifest came out, that was it—directional twin, camber between the feet, and the early rise nose and tail to help land in powder. I’m not a big quiver guy either; I like to get comfortable on one board and ride it everywhere, and with the Manifest, I can ride the same board in the park and filming in the backcountry, which is ideal.” Belzile dove deeper into his preference for one board that rules it all, “When I’m filming, I want to be super confident on the board that I'm riding; I want it to feel really familiar. More time on one board really helps. When you’re pushing your snowboarding, and especially filming, it’s so mental, so when you have that comfort and familiarity with a board, it instills more confidence, and every bit you can get is beneficial.”
The Manifest’s freestyle familiarity and directional twin shape paired with K2’s Combination Camber profile is a big reason why the board performs at the levels a rider like Belizle needs it to, “The camber between the feet just feels right in the park; it’s solid on jumps and stable when you're going faster and landing at high speeds, and it helps the board track straight. It feels like it has a pre-loaded flex that gives you that extra pop. Then, the early rise in the nose and tail really helps the board float, and that’s what you need for riding and landing in deep snow. It feels like a park board that rides really well in powder. Belzile also spoke about the shift away from more park-focused boards for freestyle riding in the backcountry, “I think a driving force behind the slightly directional, more all-mountain type of boards is people getting into natural terrain more and not necessarily going out to build a wedge to hit like a park jump into a powder landing, where a park board or a true twin could be fine for that. The focus is shifting; people are using the more natural terrain and doing freestyle tricks, and boards like this, with a twin shape but a slightly set-back stance and a directional core, have really adapted to that style of riding. It’s the perfect blend of freestyle and freeride.”
One of the most celebrated and prolific street-centric riders to ever strap in, Jake Kuzyk is well known for his exploits on inner-city architecture. But outside of the metropolis, Jake still spends plenty of time in the mountains, and that’s where the Manifest comes into play, “One thing is that I really don't like changing boards very much. I tend to fixate on one. I want it to be diverse in its capabilities, and I don't want it to be aesthetically overbearing. So when I’m not on the Medium [Jake’s signature board with K2], I’m on the Manifest. It’s all-mountain, and it’s good for everything, but more than anything, I love it on days when there's going to be snow, and I'm catching air. I also love that I can utilize it really quickly. It's nimble and responsive. It’s fast from edge to edge, but at the same time, it's very supportive. It reacts aggressively and makes me feel stable.” Kuzyk continues highlighting the board’s Combination Camber profile, “Camber between the feet is what keeps it so stable, but I do love the gentle early-rise because when you're riding on flat, it's not that recognizable, but when you do get into powder it really benefits the way that it rides in that environment. For me, that’s perfect. I don't want to sacrifice any stability when I'm on hardpack because that's when you’re moving fast, and I really like to feel my board against the snow. The Combination Camber is a great balance; you get the benefits of both without sacrificing.”
From his spot and trick selection to the gear he rides and the way he presents himself and his snowboarding to the world, Kuzyk is meticulous. Everything is consciously considered and serves a purpose. “I like how much trust I can put into the Manifest. I can reach for it and know it's going to function exactly the way I want it to. I don't have to think twice. I look for that in anything I’m using; I do the research, understand it, appreciate it, and never think about it again because I fully trust it. That's how I pick everything in my life. I want a board that I can get under my feet and know that it's going to perform so that I can forget about it and move forward naturally, the way my body wants to move, knowing that the board is going to be responding to me rather than riding me. I'm scared to try anything else now because I’m like, damn, this thing works [laughter]. And it’s a clean board. I look down, and I'm feeling it.”