(This review was written in 2020, before JJA and Coiler started making wide titanal/rubber boards.  I had been carving in hard boots before I got these wide soft boot carvers.  The review was published elsewhere originally and is reposted here today with my own permission.)

To the best of my knowledge, Exegi and Donek are the only two snowboard manufacturers who can make a board wider than 30cm in the waist.  So, of course, I got one of each...

I pretty much asked Sean (Donek) and Carl (Exegi) for the same thing, but the boards they delivered are really quite different.  I wanted something fun to ride on those in between days: too much fresh snow for an alpine board but not enough for a real powder board.  We get a lot of those in Revelstoke.  I told them both I wouldn't be riding ice or off piste, but I would be carving steep, challenging terrain on soft days with increasing chop, and that I wanted a fast board that I really had to push hard into to keep it turning tight.

Exegi DoubleWide: 168cm long, 30cm waist, 14m scr, carbon/S-glass hybrid construction

Donek Sabre SRT: 164cm long, 31cm waist, 12m scr, secret construction, p-tex topsheet

The Donek came in way too soft.  The thing is kind of like a noodle with very little torsional stiffness.  When I read that the Sabre SRT was the winningest BX board in North America, I assumed that was the one for me, only wider.  What Sean made me is more like an overpriced Knapton Twin: floppy, good for buttering and tail spins, fun on green runs but limited in its capacity to hold high speed turns on steeps.  

I figure that when you add width to a board you increase the leverage with which the rider applies force so it needs to be tortionally stiffer to compensate.  Maybe Sean disagrees, maybe his primary wide board developer (Ryan Knapton) likes them soft, I don't know.

I've had this board two seasons now, it's been fun and I've had some great runs on the Sabre SRT.  I kind of figured that this was the limit for soft boot carving.  The Exegi changed my perspective on that.  It's been a very snowy month and I've ridden the DoubleWide more than any other board this season.  About five days I brought them both up the gondi for some back-to-back testing.  The results are clear; I'm now accepting offers on the Donek.

I have to admit, the DoubleWide was somewhat intimidating at first.  It's a lot of board and very stiff.  It doesn't want to turn at slow speeds and you have to fully commit to finish a turn on steeps.  It's not a board that you can just tip over and see what it does (what it does is accelerate!).  My first few days riding it were last spring when only the upper mountain was open (challenging black diamond groomers in Revelstoke) and the fresh snow was never enough to bury all the death cookies.  It was intense; I loved the experience but I wasn't sure I liked the board.  Only in the past few weeks have the more mellow mid mountain blues been in condition and I've finally had a chance to properly feel out the Exegi, get comfortable and find its limits without risking my safety.  Now it's my go-to board for soft carving days and I'm finally inspired to get out of bed early when there's 5-10cm fresh!

It's a mitten killer.  It's stable and fast, holds every turn.  Very forgiving too, by which I mean that you don't need perfect form to keep it turning.  I'm stretching out my toesides now like a surfer; I can feel the extension from the toes of my back foot right through my spine and up my neck.  On heelside my butt is dragging and I'm getting both hands down on the steeps.  Very satisfying turns.

In terms of direct comparison, the Exegi is the faster board and the better carver for sure.  It's also somehow less fatiguing and it doesn't require me to over tighten my bindings or max out the forward lean.  The Exegi is better in soft chop and funner off piste too with much better capabilities in trees and moguls, though neither board is really recommended for this purpose.

The Donek is better for buttering tricks and carving 360s.  I can come in slower and finish with a tail spin Dredman style on the Donek; the Exegi needs more speed and more space, and the tail isn't soft enough to get up on on so it's more of a flat spin exit or a straight ride out.  (I'm working on a kind of spiral finish where I can dig in the tail on the toeside edge only and whip the nose around.)  I don't do any other tricks or switch riding.

Bottom line?  The Exegi is recommended over the Donek for pure hard charging directional carving.  It's better, cheaper, and probably more durable too.  Presumably, Carl can make you a softer one with a more civilized radius.  If you aim to ride like Ryan Knapton, switching, tricking and spinning all over the green runs, then Donek has your ride but probably buy the Knapton Twin because it's a lot cheaper than the Sabre SRT.  If you have tiny feet or you're not carving hard enough to really need a super wide board, then you have many options from many manufacturers.