Snowboard Review Features

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:

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

There are plenty of old favourites and new editions alike in the 2011 Burton Snowboards line-up. From the flying-V version of the ever faithful Custom to the ‘so now’ release of the reggae styled limited edition Damien Marley Whammy Bar and the all new retro shaped soul surfing powder shredder the Steller.

There nothing like the Burton stand at Ispo. For one, it’s enormous, dwarfing the next biggest including the likes of the Ride and K2 setups. Secondly it’s right at the centre of the snowboarding hall and the main focal point of the show. And thirdly, it doesn’t half make the boards look good. Enough about the stand, I’m sure you just want to know about next years boards.. well Burton are notoriously good at keeping their boards under wraps until the start of the season. As a result, I can only talk you through the range from a broad perspective; what decks are looking tight, which 2010 boards are missing from the 2011 range and then leave you to browse through some pics of the highlights.

Continue reading ISPO Preview - Burton Snowboards 2011.

Polish new boys Contract Snowboards have been attracting a lot of interest in their boards no doubt due to their unique Snake Transition technolgy. I managed to get hold of two of next seasons boards and caught a ride to Westendorf Austria to see if the radical designs live up to the hype.

Munich’s a fantastic city; friendly people, more pork than a pig sty, a historic Bavarian beer haus on every corner and the beautiful snow laden mountains of the Austrian alps within an hours drive. Flying into Munich on the Friday evening I had a day to kill on Saturday before the start of ISPO, Europe’s biggest winter sports trade fair. Fortunately this snowboarding lark makes you friends in all sorts of places, so I hooked up with my main man Phil, arranged to pick up some test boards from Magic at Contract Snowboards and we drove down to the Austrian border in Phil’s Chevy gas guzzler to spend the day shredding in Westendorf.

Westendorf packs a punch for a small resort, plenty of vertical, an efficient lift system some nice tree runs and a well shaped park with some nice features. Throw in some untimely whiteout conditions and enough fresh snow to close the big jumps and you’ve got a good excuse to tear of the shrink wrapping and test some new boards.

Continue reading Brand Test - Contract 3D Swell and Cobra Snowboards Reviewed.

Rich, the editor of Snowboard-Review.com, has always been a massive fan of Rossignol snowboards, due to their solid construction and great value for money. As a consequence, when the opportunity arose to test three of this seasons most impressive Rossi decks, Rich thought it be best that somebody without a biased opinion should put the aforementioned boards through their paces. One week in Verbier, three brand spanking new decks courtesy of Rossignol Europe, a nice dump of powder and a freshly shaped Thyon park… good times indeed!

Rossignol Angus 157

The Angus is currently Rossignol’s only freestyle specific board with an Amptek (rocker/camber) profile. Before taking the Angus out for a spin I’d heard a lot of positive things about it, including being recognised at the 2009 Transworld Goodwood awards as the best deck for under $400. So, what were my first impressions of this highly commended shred stick? Well, I’m not going to mince my words because if the truth be told ‘I absolutely loved it’.

This is a board of impossible contradictions, it shouldn’t make sense but it does; it’s playful and flexible yet poppy and powerful; it’ll press and bend like a jib specific board but carve and hold an edge like an all-mountain board. Torsionally and longitudinally it’s pretty stiff and powerful thanks to carbon/kevlar reinforcements and camber between the bindings, but because of a slightly softer nose and rockered ends this board is fun to jib.

One of the things that I loved most about this board was the ridiculous amount of pop when riding kickers, I’m sure this is thanks to the Amptek profile. The pop wasn’t particularly noticeable at low speeds but when I cranked-up the pace and started spinning off the bigger kickers in the park it seemed to send me a lot higher than I was used to.

If there is anything that this board slightly falters on its rails. Having ridden a zero camber board for the past season it seemed like the Angus didn’t lock on to rails quite as well when in a boardslide. In fairness it performed similarly on rails to any cambered board I’ve ridden but had the added bonus of allowing me to press very easily. Despite this small criticism the Angus is a great board that performs exceptionally well all over the mountain; it carves surprisingly well and is probably the best performing board I’ve ridden over red and black kickers. So, if you’re looking for a board to hit big jumps at mach 10 on this board is definitely worth a look…….I want one!

Continue reading Brand Test - Rossignol Angus, One and Experience snowboards reviewed.

Smuggled out of Rossignol HQ on the back of a remote control pigeon, Snowboard Review managed to steal a preview of next season’s Taipan and Circus snowboards. Aimed at the intermediate rider we reckon these boards are going to clear up the progressive snowboard market place over the winter of 2010/11.

Continue reading Exclusive Preview - Rossignol Snowboards 2010/11.

Snowboard Review brings you an exclusive interview with one of the snowboarding world’s true treasures. Lib Tech and GNU are renowned world wide for wacky designs and for pioneering futuristic materials, Mike Olson is the driving force behind these ideas and Mervin, the most exciting snowboard factory on the planet. Think Willy Wonka for snowboarding and you’ve got Mike.

Continue reading Industry Interview - Lib Tech founder Mike Olson.

So what does the future of Snowboarding look like? Snowboard Review picked four boards with technology pushing the boundaries of current design and materials. Don’t panic if you’re name is Sarah Connor, Skynet didn’t send these boards, and the only thing these boards will be killing is the shred! From Head’s reactive Intellifibres to Contract’s 3D Snake Transition technology, snowboard design has evolved considerably since Sherman Poppen’s legendary Snurfer.

Continue reading Four Snowboards from the Future.

Waxing is ridiculously easy to do and essential if you want to get the most out of your equipment. Use our step-by-step guide and save yourself tons of cash by waxing your own board.

Continue reading How to hot wax a Snowboard.

Snowboard Review pulled together the YES 154, Signal Omni, Signal Park, Bataleon Evil Twin, Dinosaurs Will Die Maet, Artec Gabe Taylor and Rome Graft for the ultimate urban jib test. With rainbow rails, corrugated pipes and boxes a plenty the Snowboard Review crew hit the Milton Keynes Xscape for an intensive evening of jibbing and bonking (the snowboard variety).

Continue reading The Jib Snowboard Test.

YES. Snowboards are an absolute phenomenon! The fact that the YES 156.5 is the most visited review on Snowboard Review is testament to the guys behind the brand. When JP Solberg, Romain De Marchi and DCP found themselves left out in the cold by Burton, they grabbed the opportunity to work with Nidecker to create their own brand. YES. was born and the 2009/10 season has seen the guys release their first range of boards. Tom from Snowboard Review managed to grab an hour with founding member JP Solberg, to find out a bit more about YES. and the trials and tribulations of starting a brand from scratch.

Continue reading Brand Focus - YES. Snowboards.