Womens advanced freeride board

Posted: 20 January 2012 03:56 PM

Hi,

I’m a lady - I’ve been riding for over 10 years and shopping around for a new board to replace my trusty Ride Vista. I like charging around the mountain so looking for one which will be stable at speed, float nicely on powder and hold an edge on ice, plus have some pop for hitting kickers. I don’t really go in the park much.
So far I’ve been looking at the Arbor Push, Nitro Fate and have been recommended the Flow Myriad and Forum Superstar. K2 Ecopop looks pretty nice too.

I don’t have a chance to demo before I buy so any thoughts on these boards would be most welcome!

Cheers

Posted: 20 January 2012 08:29 PM

I’d definitely consider the medium flexing, directional, zero camber snowboards on that list i.e. the Nitro Fate. I’ve been riding a similar board for the last 3 weeks of epic snow in the alps and it’s got almost as much float as my 164cm freeride board with 20mm taper.

Posted: 23 January 2012 02:28 PM

Hi

I have the Ecopop as my all mountain board. It’s great for charging, holds an edge really well and is pretty poppy. However, the way K2 have made the rocker profile means that for some reason its a bit catchy on the tail when you’re flat boarding a long straight, or going more slowly. I found you really have to keep it on edge for it to feel completely stable. I guess it would depend on what length board you buy in relation to your height/weight, but my experience is that this board is only OK in powder. Definitely not floaty enough for anything more than 6” as the nose starts to bury itself without leaning back significantly.

The Ecopop is a lot stiffer than the Niro Fate. The Ecopop is one of the stiffest women’s boards out there at the moment - the only board I found that was a bit stiffer than it was the Nitro Carrara, and there wasn’t that much difference between them. From memory, the Fate is more of a go-everywhere-do-everything board, which means it’s going to have a softer flex to appeal to wider range of riders.

Your Ride Vista sounds like a very similar spec to my Ride Fever. While I love the board and do ride it all-mountain occasionally, it usually gets saved for good conditions as the edge hold on all Ride boards I’ve tried isn’t that great. The base is quick though, and I love the pop they get into their boards.

I don’t know much about the Flow or Forum options you’ve mentioned as I’ve never had the chance to try them, but it might also be worth considering the Never Summer Lotus. NS’s boards are getting rave reviews, and my b/f has a Proto, which although is supposed to a softer flex, has been consistently great all over the mountain. It floats really well in pow and has a really fast base, and has excellent edge hold. The Lotus is the stiffer women’s board, but there is also the Infinity if you fancy something a little more playful.

In my opinion, the only thing to stay clear of is a complete rocker profile - personally I find them more unstable and twitchy at speed and edge hold hasn’t been as good as regular camber or dual camber models. A good example is the Burton Feelgood - they go a Flying V version and a camber version. The camber version is a lot more stable.

Posted: 08 May 2014 07:28 PM

Which board did you end up choosing?

I’ve crushed my current Burton Feelgood ES and am in need of a new board. I didn’t like the way it performed in deep powder, was quite the sinker, so I need a more freeride board. I’ve been riding aggressively for over 10 years and want a board that’s great for trees, backcountry and powder but can also do well on morning groomers and hard carving.