It’s no small undertaking to go out and actively ride a sizeable portion of the snowboards available on the market. Every year I say to myself, “I’m going to cut back, I’m going to do less.” And every year that’s a lie that I tell myself so I can muscle my way through a 150 plus day season of riding all kinds of snowboards for product reviews.
Some might think I’m a bit insane, others have no clue why I do it, and it definitely isn’t profitable (hence why if you shop online you should buy it through one of our listed affiliates). The truth is as someone that has worked in a snowboard shop and was an early adopter of the Internet being a fundamental game changer in snowboarding, I do it because I personally can’t stand seeing fucking idiots that have no tech, sales, or even snowboarding background talk about something they don’t understand. There’s something to be said about knowing the difference between how the various factories build their products as well as knowing that company X and company Y share molds, but that company Y’s board is the better bang for the buck. This is what differentiates the reviews on this site from some of the others you’ll see out there. We don’t make claims about being real riders or being upset with having too much down time so we decided to make a review site. We just snowboard a lot, have a love of snowboarding, and have the industry knowledge to back up what we’re saying. You can see it in our reviews and you can see it in the products that we’ve helped innovate over the years. Without further ado here’s a breakdown of all the boards we reviewed for this past season organized with our picks from best to worst. Do you agree? Do you want to argue? If so leave a comment below.
Beginner Boards: Because you have to start somewhere. Some people, mainly those inside the industry laugh when I ask to review these decks. The truth is these are the first hit that get people hooked and if someone is dropping even $349 for a new board they should have someone say, “yeah it’s not a pile of suck and you can progress on it”.
Salomon Pulse
DC Focus
K2 Raygun
Arbor Formula
Salomon Sight
Flow Merc
Yes Basic
Flow Viper
Rossignol Circuit
All Mountain Freestyle Boards: The broadest category of snowboards. When a company doesn’t know how to tell you it can freeride and freestyle they shove it here. The truth is this is the dumping grounds for a lot of great decks that get lumped into the middle somewhere.
Capita Mercury
Jones Mountain Twin
Rome Mod Rocker
K2 Party Platter
Endeavor High Five
Rome Mod Stale
Marhar Regent
Yes Typo
Arbor Element
Yes The Greats
Ride Warpig
Dinosaurs Will Die Wizard Stick
K2 Happy Hour
Ride Machete
Smokin Awesymmetrical
Niche Aether
Arbor Coda Camber
Dinosaurs Will Die Maet
Rossignol Angus
Niche Theme
Flow Blackout
K2 Turbo Dream
Sims Blade
Monument Tragedy
Capita DOA
DC Space Echo
Marhar Archaic
Salomon Official
Dinosaurs Will Die Kwon
Flow Rush
K2 Subculture
Smokin Buck Ferton
Endeavor Clout
Smoking Big Wig
Burton Custom Flying V
Venture Paragon
Capita Outerspace Living
Ride Helix
Capita X Volcom Pat Moore
Burton Trick Pony
Dinosaurs Will Die Geeves
Jones Ultra Mountain Twin
DC Mega
Slash Spectrum
Salomon Ultimate Ride
Ride Machete GT
All Mountain Freeride Boards: While not as broad as the All Mountain Freestyle category, it’s still a vast swooping category that has room to encompass a large spectrum of the boards out there. When they’re less freestyle and more hard charging this is where they go.
Arbor Sin Nombré
Jones Flagship
K2 Carve Air
Rossignol The One
Burton Custom X
Flow Drifter
Arbor Bryan Iguchi Pro Camber
Flow Maverick
Ride Berzerker
Niche Story
Rome Sawtooth
Jones Explorer
Burton Custom Mystery
Jones Project X
Rossignol Krypto
Smokin KT-22
Venture Zelix
Yes PYL
Flow Solitude
K2 Joydriver
Jones Carbon Flagship
Ride Timeless
Slash Nahual
Monument Repeater
Park Boards: Freestyle is what changed snowboarding from being a bunch of lame asses in a one piece speed suit into a cultural revolution. It’s also what adds another fun factor to snowboarding. Plus you don’t really want to hit a rail on a swallow tail… well maybe you do, I don’t know.
Springbreak Twin
DC Ply
Dinosaurs Will Die Larson
Interior Plain Project Honalee
Rossignol Retox
K2 Bottle Rocket
Arbor Westmark Rocker
Smokin Team LTD
Rossignol Jibsaw
Smokin AnNIALator
Interior Plain Project Harrow
Capita The Outsiders
Sims Juice
Flow Era
Rossignol Jibsaw HD
Lago Double Barrel
Burton Easy Living
Endeavor Live
Bataleon Global Warmer
Niche Knew
Arbor Relapse
Endeavor BOD
Yes Public
Sims Dealers Choice
Rome Gang Plank
Arbor Zygote Twin
K2 World Wide Weapon
Burton Process Flying V
Capita Horrorscope
Endeavor Vice
Yes Jackpot
Rome Agent
Rocker
DC PBJ
Monument F.V.K.
Rome Agent Alek
Flow Whiteout
Capita Ultrafear
Marhar Half Breed
K2 Fastplant
Arbor Draft
Dinosaurs Will Die The Rat
Flow Verve
Marhar Liftem
Endeavor KTV
Rome Reverb Rocker
Endeavor Color
Smokin Lane Knack
Marhar Axiom
Capita Indoor Survival
Burton Process Off-Axis
Ride Kink
Smokin MIP
Rome Artifact
Dinosaurs Will Die Brewster
Bataleon Evil Twin
Rome Buckshot
Arbor Westmark Camber
Ride Burnout
Burton Name Dropper
Salomon Huck Knife
Degenerati
Smokin Shomo LTD
Slash Happy Place
DC Media Blitz
Directional Powder Boards: A directional powder board it has its place in your quiver. Some are short and fat, while others are long and skinny. Their varying characteristics help or hinder them depending on what you’re looking for, but one thing is undeniable their ability to make snowboarding more enjoyable.
Burton Branch Manager
Arbor Cosa Nostra
Flow Darwin
Venture Euphoria
Jones Hovercraft
Dinosaurs Will Die Pow Reaper
Lago Open Road
Yes 420 Powderhull
K2 Cool Bean
Spring Break Slush Slasher
United Shapes Orbit
Rome Blur
Arbor Clovis
Jones Storm Chaser
Rossignol XV Magtek
Salomon Super 8
Burton Gatekeeper
Venture Storm
Rider Alter Ego
Jones Ultracraft
Burton Skipjack
Twinish Powder Boards: The rise of the powder twin shows the prevalence that freestyle has in the future of snowboarding. Plus it’s always fun to make switch pow turn here or there.
Yes Optimistic
Marhar Lumberjack
Bataleon Magic Carpet
Smokin Jetson
Snoplanks Snoday
DC Supernatant
Yes 20/20
K2 Ultra Dream
Yes 420
Marhar Bohemian
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