The Jib Snowboard Test

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).

If urban and park rails, wall rides and barrel jibs are your thing and pressing that double kink is more important than laying down a rooster tail in neck deep powder, then Jib boards are for you. Characterised by a soft longitudinal and torsional flex, jib boards are extremely manoeuvrable at slow speeds, forgiving on landings and poppy at slow speeds. I squeezed the lousy Snowboard Review testing squad into the back of my Ford Fiesta and drove through London’s rush hour up to the freezing oasis that is the Milton Keynes Xscape. On arrival at the Xscape I found my contact Paul at The Snowboard Asylum, he had picked out a number of boards for us to test, we grabbed the decks and headed to the slope.

If you’ve never been to an indoor ski slope before, you’re probably in the majority, but for UK and Dutch snowboarding, they’re the lifeblood of the national scenes. The setup for our visit was fairly standard for a Thursday evening, 2 corrugated pipes with side on kickers, a 5ft high rainbow rail and a steel buttering pad. Once Joe, Rob, Als and Jack had attached their bindings they were off in a shot to start a busy evening of testing. In all we managed to test 7 boards below are the team’s thoughts.

YES. – 154

Yes, Yes, Yes! Not only a sicker than sick board but also from a core rider owned company. Responsive but forgiving, poppy but butters on request, a world of contradictions but spot on - Alec Hussain

A playful freestyle stick. The buttery rockered nose and tail with a stiffer cambered centre (Rich - sounds like a chocolate bar Joe) means that every type of terrain on the mountain is turned into a big snowboard park, great for jibbing, rails and jumps. Also tons fun just cruising the slopes. – Joe McIlroy

Bataleon - Evil Twin – 151

JP Cronin’s board of choice (Rich - In Jack language this means it’s the dog’s bollocks). Iller than Joe Wicks! (Rich - Not the most in-depth analysis from Jack, but on his review card, Jack rated the Battaleon highly on Pop, stability and forgiveness, but not so highly for edge hold. On the drive back in the car, he also mentioned that he though the DWD Maet was pretty good until he rode the Evil Twin which in his opinion put it to shame) – Jack Corby

A great all-rounder and a seriously fun deck to ride. The triple base technology makes spinning easy and reduced edge catches for simple take-offs and forgiving landings. – Rob Moore

Signal - Omni – 156

There is one serious Gangster stance on this bad boy, we are talking seriously wide! Soft and forgiving for landings but a bit more torsional stiffness and pop than the Park to help you ride out bumpy landings. Had a nice loose underfoot feel and felt really poppy, especially considering it’s a rocker camber hybrid. The Wavelength profile makes the Omni look a little weird but the medium-soft longitudinal flex and liveliness make it a perfect choice for jibbers who want to ride more than just jibs and rails, not to be underestimated! – Rich Ewbank

Signal - Park – 152

Not the most lively board but incredibly soft and buttery and sooo smooth on rails, perfect for taking indoor or on the mini-shred but far too soft to ride big jumps or all over the mountain. – Rich Ewbank

A great Jib board, really forgiving and unbelievably soft though the length of the board and torsionally, making it perfect for rails and boxes. On the flip side, this board has got less pop than an empty Pringles packet! – Rob Moore

Dinosaurs Will Die - Maet – 155

Softer than Billy Mitchell and less edge than Patrick Trueman – Jack Corby (Rich – another useless reference to forgettable British Soap characters, I think what Jack is trying to get across is that the Maet was really soft and not particularly responsive.)

Artec - Gabe Taylor – 155

A no-nonsense stiff-ish freestyle snowboard, great for solid landings on big jumps and for freestyling in the backcountry. Unfortunately a bit of a let-down on rails and jibbing. – Joe McIlroy

Rome - Graft – 155

Fun and forgiving with plenty of edge hold, and still handled rails A-ok. Not particularly exciting but dealt with everything thrown at it. – Alec Hussain

Big thanks to Paul and Brendan from Milton Keynes Sno!zone and Paul, Jeremy and the super helpful staff at The Snowboard Asylum Milton Keynes. And thanks to Duncan from ski-review.com who popped down to shoot some photos.

Posted by Rich Ewbank in Features.

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