Brand Test - Nidecker Legacy, Advanced and NDK Random Snowboards Reviewed

With their recent alliances with the YES. crew and Mr Jeremy Jones, Nidecker Snowboards have exploded back into the public conciousness. Snowboard Review’s head of testing Tom Ewbank took out three of Nideckers big releases for 2010, to see if they live up to the hype surrounding Switzerland’s favourite snowboard factory.

You may have noticed on the website that not many Nidecker boards have been tested, and with so many new brands developing boards at the Nidecker factory SB-R wanted to see what all the hype was about. Being the inquisitive people we are we loaded the car with a small crew of riders and SB-R’s resident photographer Jimbo, and headed to the Nidecker board test at Le Crosets in the Portes De Soliel. An afternoon spent sessioning the park and making the most of the previous days deposit of fresh powder made for perfect test conditions; even though the light was a bit flat at times. Six hours, three boards and five Snickers bars later the test was over, below are our findings:

Nidecker Random 154

The guys at Nidecker are very proud of the Random’s green credentials, and so they should be; made from recycled plastics and environmentally friendly reinforcement materials this board is how all snowboards should be manufactured in the future. Unfortunately for Nidecker the Random is a very strange snowboard to ride; marketed as a park board for large transitions and the occasional rail this board unfortunately misses the mark. Firstly, it’s ridiculously stiff both laterally and longitudinally; I honestly couldn’t press the nose or tail and I even found ollying on the flat difficult. I’m used to riding boards a few centimetres longer so this rigidity came as a real surprise to me. In fact the board is so stiff laterally that trying to get any torsional flex with your feet is practically impossible which means that carving this board isn’t anywhere as stable as it should be and initiating turns has to be made by lateral movements of the body every time. I found that this lack of lateral forgiveness also caused the board to jump-out when I hit a small bump or mound of snow when in mid-carve.

Over the kickers and in the quarterpipe the Random wasn’t a great deal of fun either. The stiffness of the board made the transitions of the kickers I was hitting feel fairly abrupt and it only really relaxed when the jump transition was longer than seven or eight meters but landings were severely compromised by the boards’ lack of forgiveness. In the off-piste the Random, although short, rode reasonably well and took heavy/flat landings with a pinch of salt.

If you’re looking for a board that does what the Random is marketed to do then don’t waste your time by buying this board, I’d advise looking at the Nidecker Advanced which kills all areas of the park and even performs far better on the piste. If on the other hand you like ridiculously stiff park-orientated boards then don’t write-off your decision based on my review.

Nidecker Advanced 157

The Advanced is a great park board. Nidecker market it as a very jib-focussed board but in all honesty it tackles the whole mountain competently and leaves you with a big smile across your face. I found the Advanced soft enough both longitudinally and laterally to jib around and make the most of rails but it had a surprising amount of pop at low speeds. A strong pop combined with a smooth demeanour when hitting large kickers and quarterpipes makes this board the perfect choice for taking your park riding to the next level; you’ll also be glad to hear that the Advanced feels very stable when approaching jumps at speed.

Due to a fairly mellow longitudinal flex pattern the Advanced floats surprisingly well in fresh snow and when you take it on the piste the although it doesn’t carve like it’s on rails it still holds a clean edge and is much more responsive than a lot of other boards in the park board category. My only criticism of this board is that there are only 8 inserts at each binging position as opposed to the usual 12 that most manufacturers use. This means that your stance is either; wide, centred, small or directional. Other than the stance options the Advanced is a very fun, smooth and playful deck that is very well priced; so if you’re looking for a park board that will help give you that silky smooth style you’ve been looking for then the Advanced is definitely worth checking-out.

Nidecker Legacy 158

The Nidecker Legacy has been designed for those riders looking for a freeride specific deck that is comfortable on the piste, being thrown off of backcountry booters and dealing with the occasional switch landing. A directional shape coupled with a Camrock profile and full wood core, with carbon stringers and Kevlar reinforcements, means that this board has been designed with some serious riding in-mind.

When I first strapped on the Legacy I immediately noticed how rockered the board felt; in all honestly I felt the board pivoting in the very middle like a conventional rockered profile rather than under the bindings like a Camrock profile would suggest. In fact the board felt so rockered that I could ride down the hill shiftying my feet, pivoting in the centre, with the board completely flat on the ground. This looseness meant that the board didn’t feel quite as stable as I would have liked and meant that the run-ins to kickers were a little sketchy…..but I’m sure I would have got used to it had I been riding it for a couple of days. Nevertheless the Legacy’s pitfalls don’t stop with the rocker; it doesn’t really hold an edge like I expected it to and when compared to a board like the Rossignol Experience, which I could trust in the iciest of conditions, the Legacy washed-out a bit too much on icier pistes and didn’t feel as grippy on short turns. I’m a bit confused as to why Nidecker haven’t loaded the Legacy with Ultimate Grip, their version of Magnetraction.

In fairness the Legacy has been designed to add a freestyle element to freeriding rather than being a big-mountain destroyer like the Experience; but rather than buying a freeride specific deck designed specifically for deep powder doesn’t it make more sense to buy a longer twin/freestyle specific deck with a slightly rockered nose and tail? Although the Legacy floats beautifully in powder and glides along the deep stuff on even the shallowest gradients it finds itself in a very strange position in the market. Unfortunately it isn’t a serious big-mountain snowboard due to a couple of compromises and it isn’t a freestyle deck due to its directional shape and stiffer flex pattern. Although I had a lot of fun on this deck I think you’re better off buying a Nidecker Advanced for the park and backcountry kickers then getting your hands on a serious big-mountain board if you’re looking to take your backcountry riding to the next level.

Posted by Tom Ewbank in Features.

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