Burton 2012 Snowboard Reviews

We liked the Custom Flying V last year but on the whole opinion was divided as to whether the Custom Flying V lived up to expectation. With the addition of the Squeezebox core profile the Custom Flying V will be receiving tons and awards and accolades this season because it’s a belter. Fun to ride, responsive and lively with stability and sure footed grip the Custom is King once again.

Read full review of the Burton Custom Flying V 2012 Snowboard.

Burton has really got their graphics spot-on on their Restricted range of boards this season. The Mr Nice Guy is a twin shaped, cambered freestyle stick designed with the input of Keegan Valaika. It’s a responsive mid-flexing slopestyle board equally happy in the park as it is taking steep powder laden landings at mach10.

Read full review of the Burton Mr Nice Guy 2012 Snowboard.

After riding the Custom X last year I would have said that improving on it would have been next to impossible. It kicked out of turns like a Jackass on steroids and the grip on the slickest of hardback was mind blowing. For the 2011/12 season little change has been made to the Custom X, however the change that has been made is significant. Last year the Custom X had a positive core profile which meant that a constant core thickness was maintain between the bindings giving the board immense torsional stiffness, essential for vice-like edge hold. With the move to a Squeezebox profile the ride will have changed, but by how much… well you’ll have to read the review!

Read full review of the Burton Custom X 2012 Snowboard.

Enjoy some of Burton’s top of the range features in a snowboard that you can afford without phoning the bank manager and increasing your overdraft facilities first. The board has a V-rocker profile for playfulness and uses Burton’s frostbite edges to make sure there’s no unintentional sliding happening. Biaxial fibreglass is complimented with Jumper Cables for extra life and a rail ready tune and extruded base round of a competitively priced park and rail slayer that’ll satisfy beginner and intermediate freestylers.

Read full review of the Burton Blunt 2012 Snowboard.

The Burton Ration Restricted might not be the highest tech snowboard, actually it’s verging on being the least tech but damn is it cool. Dialled for rail riding everything is kept to absolute basics; there’s a low camber profile, biaxial glass and an extruded base… yep that’s not exactly inspiring or cool. What is however are the Flat Kicks which can be cut down into any shape you like and the edges are rail ready tuned so you can take the Ration out of the wrapper straight down the handrail outside the shop you bought it from.

Read full review of the Burton Ration Restricted 2012 Snowboard.

The Custom Restricted is a difficult snowboard to explain, but essentially it fits between the cambered and Flying V Customs. The Camber Humps profile is pretty much camber with a slight area of rocker between the feet creating contact points before and after the bindings, but spring loaded suspension under the feet. The rest of the Custom Restricted is pretty familiar because it shares all the materials and features that make their way into the other Customs. Even if you’re not sold on Camber Humps you’ve got to give it to the Custom Restricted, the graphics are amazing!

Read full review of the Burton Custom Restricted 2012 Snowboard.

The Burton Hate is the affordable twin jib stick for those that want something a little more restricted than your average Burton. With a super soft flex, V Rocker profile, Flat Kicks and a rail ready tune the hate is built to grind, slide or grate down anything and everything.

Read full review of the Burton Hate Restricted 2012 Snowboard.

Ok so if the name doesn’t give the game away, the Nug Directional is 5mm tapered, set-back version of the Nug. Size down 8-10am and enjoy a powder filled mini-shred.

Read full review of the Burton Nug Directional Restricted 2012 Snowboard.

From V-Rocker to Flying V to Camber Humps, the Easy Livin drifts closer to becoming a fully cambered snowboard again every season, but perhaps this time Danny Davis has found his perfect match. With its signature Elliptical tips and forgiving flex, the Easy Livin is a fun to ride and versatile twin snowboard with immense slopestyle, halfpipe and backcountry kicker performance on tap.

Read full review of the Burton Easy Livin Restricted 2012 Snowboard.

So last year Jeremy Jones’ pro model had an easy rider style biker on the graphic and Jeremy dressed appropriately with black outerwear and plenty of accessories that would have looked the part on Denis Hopper 40 years ago. Now Jeremy’s board the Monkey Wrench has a pizza box on the graphic I really hope we get Jeremy dressing in the whole pizza delivery boy’s get-up. The Monkey wrench is the all-out snowboard for jib fiends that like camber and don’t like noodles. There’s Spoon tech in the tips to loosen up the ride and Mid-Spoon tech to make board-sliding through those down-flat kinks a little easier. Triaxial glass gets used through the length of the Wrench and Burton have loaded it with Side Effects too so there’s plenty of edge hold. To add to that there’s a rail ready tune making this quite possibly the least catchy rail and urban board on the planet.

Read full review of the Burton Monkey Wrench Restricted 2012 Snowboard.

The smash hit of last season returns triumphant. You can preach the world over about how the perfect freestyle snowboard length should reach to just below your chin, but when Burton comes along and says take 10cms off that length with the new Nug, well it all goes out the window. If snowboarding for you is about pottering around, throwing 720s off moguls or underflips off cat-tracks then the Nug is a winner. Snowboarders who demand a little more all-mountain performance might want to consider other boards. Of course the Nug would make a nice little addition to anybody’s quiver and is the perfect board for when you’ve got to go out riding with newbies.

Read full review of the Burton Nug 2012 Snowboard.

Funny, you’ve seen this board before somewhere. Well yes you almost certainly have, this do it all directional twin comes in camber and Flying V which you no doubt read about further up the page.

Read full review of the Burton Deja Vu 2012 Snowboard.

Do you remember the Feelgood when Burton hadn’t messed around with ridiculous hybrid cambers and whatnot? Well even if you don’t but you believe camber is the only way to ride, you can enjoy all of the Feelgood features with the snap and precision that only camber gives you.

Read full review of the Burton Feelgood 2012 Snowboard.

If you are really struggling with picking up the basics it’s probably time you gave the Genie a rub. If your three wishes are to learn to turn, feel more comfortable traveling in a straight line and to stop catching edges and planting yourself head first into the snow then it’s likely this Genie will grant them.

Read full review of the Burton Genie 2012 Snowboard.

Legendary for its progressive design, the Burton Feather is the beginners board of choice for a large proportion of the world’s female snowboarders. It’s EZ-Rocker (continuous rocker) profile makes initiating a turn as easy as committing to the fall-line and the slightly tapered directional shape will make your first adventures into powder riding a little more successful than they otherwise might beÖ although guaranteed you’ll still end up with snow in places you didn’t know existed.

Read full review of the Burton Feather 2012 Snowboard.

Ok I’ve pawed over the Burton catalogue and this is what I know about the Deja vu Flying V. It’s a directional twin shape with the Flying V rocker/camber hybrid profile; it has triaxial fibreglass and Jumper Cables in the tail for extra pop. Unlike the Feelgood Flying V and Lipstick it has Burton’s Smooth Ride dampening system but it is a little softer than both of those boards. Essentially it’s an all-mountain snowboard for intermediate riders who want one snowboard to ride everything from powder to park, pipe to piste.

Read full review of the Burton Deja Vu Flying V 2012 Snowboard.

Take the original Feelgood Flying V, make it shorter and narrower for little people and replace all of the expensive materials with more affordable features so that it doesn’t feel like your shelling-out a small fortune at the start of every season and you’ve got the Feelgood Smalls Flying V. A versatile all-mountain snowboard for young female shredders.

Read full review of the Burton Feelgood Smalls Flying V 2012 Snowboard.

What better than a board ridden by the original super grom turned best freestyler in the world, Shaun White to inspire your kid to become the next big thing in snowboarding? And if it doesn’t work out there’s always accounting, sales or the circus.

Read full review of the Burton TWC Smalls 2012 Snowboard.

Based on the legendary Custom Flying V, the Smalls version comes in shorter lengths, has a twin shape instead of the Adult Custom’s directional shape, it has a softer biaxial fibreglass and runs on an extruded base instead of the expensive WFO sintered base . Other than that it looks the same and carries the same kudos, it just costs a lot less, because from what I’m told by folks being a parent is expensive enough without having to factor in snowboarding.

Read full review of the Burton Custom Smalls Flying V 2012 Snowboard.

All the features of the Process Flying V but with camber instead of a hybrid profile.

Read full review of the Burton Process 2012 Snowboard.

The TWC Pro has been test piloted by the best halfpipe rider on the planet Shaun White in the biggest halfpipes the world has ever seen. There is no better proof that this board can handle anything you can throw at it… providing you’re not 200lbs.

Read full review of the Burton TWC Pro 2012 Snowboard.

Based on the principle that riding small boards amplifies fun, the Burton Nugget is an even smaller version of the now infamous Nug. The Nugget supplies all the spin to win fun and general piste-bashing madness of the orginal Nug for female riders with less weight and smaller feet.

Read full review of the Burton Nugget 2012 Snowboard.

If you want to stay with women specific snowboards, the Burton Fortress is as serious as it gets. Every step has been taken to keep weight down but increase response and power while retaining a manageable feel. The Fortress has a Vaporskin topsheet to keep weight down and boost pop and there’s a specially profiled Dragonfly core which uses varying grain orientations to focus pressure along the Frostbite edges, this is also aided by Lightning Bolts which are Carbon strips that run from under the bindings to the edge. To top it off, Carbon I-Beam reinforcement runs the length of the board for extra return out of carves and ollies and Smooth Ride dampening will keep the board well-mannered under your feet even when the going gets rought.

Read full review of the Burton Fortress 2012 Snowboard.

The ultimate women’s jib specific twin. The Social is the softest board in the women’s range, it has a V-rocker profile and Scooped tips to make it loose and buttery and an easy to maintain extruded base. So that it isn’t a complete soggy noodle the Social has Jumper Cables (carbon stringers) in the nose and tail for additional pop and life.

Read full review of the Burton Social 2012 Snowboard.

Not every snowboard needs to come with a spec that reads like the user manual of the Starship Enterprise. The Lux V-Rocker has a rocker profile, soft biaxial fibreglass, a directional twin shape, extruded base and the intermediate and jib friendly Cruise Control tune, what more do you need to progress your riding?

Read full review of the Burton Lux V Rocker 2012 Snowboard.

The Blender is another Burton snowboard loaded with more features than a top spec Ferrari. It has a V-Rocker profile to give it a loose playful feel, the tips have been Scooped to exaggerate the loose feel, but there’s triaxial fibreglass, Burton’s elongated contact points called Side Effects and Frostbite edges to make sure that edge hold isn’t compromised. The Blender is twin shaped and has a twin flex to satisfy the needs of park purists.

Read full review of the Burton Blender 2012 Snowboard.

By now you are probably seeing the parallels between Burton’s line of boards for men and those designed for women. On that principle the Lipstick is the Process Flying V tweaked in all the right places to fit female snowboarders. It’s a park focused board that is also designed to be no less adept at cruising down resort runs or making missions into the sidecountry.

Read full review of the Burton Lipstick 2012 Snowboard.

The best way to describe the Feelgood Flying V is as the women’s version of the Custom Flying V. It’s a directional all-mountain, all condition charger loaded with features like the Flying V hybrid camber profile designed to improve float and playfulness while at the same time combining with the Frostbite edges and triaxial fibreglass to deliver edge hold on corduroy and icy pipe walls. To top off the spec, the core has been profiled to create the perfect flex for female riders.

Read full review of the Burton Feelgood Flying V 2012 Snowboard.

The After School Special is a complete snowboard set-up including boots, bindings and a board for your little grom. Get them starting a lifelong obsession as soon as you can, because who knows, their pro career might be paying your groceries bill years down the line.

Read full review of the Burton AfterSchoolSpecial 2012 Snowboard.

The Burton Chicklet has the same features as the boys chopper it just has hearts all over the topsheet and base graphics instead of monsters. Why is it that girls like hearts and boys like monsters?

Read full review of the Burton Chicklet 2012 Snowboard.

The Burton Chopper is the longest running kids snowboard on this earth, even the Flying Tomato rode a Chopper when he was a grom. This year the Chopper becomes even easier to ride than ever before which will make your kids first turns on snow more fun than pain. The Zero camber and Easy Rider base means that pressure is taken off the edges when the board is on a flat base meaning fewer winding toe edge catches and whiplash inducing heel edge catches.

Read full review of the Burton Chopper 2012 Snowboard.

Whereas the Custom Flying V smalls is the all-mountain snowboard for kids, the Hero Smalls is the uncompromising freestyle board. With scooped (slightly bowled) tips and a V-Rocker profile the Hero with have your kid buttering and jibbing better than you in a matter of hours, fortunately you can blame it on age and bad joints.

Read full review of the Burton Hero Smalls 2012 Snowboard.

The Honcho is a twin shaped, cambered profiled snowboard with a soft directional flex aimed at intermediates who will enjoy the benefits of a sintered base, low spin weight profiled tips and Burton’s lightweight Superfly core, but don’t need all the added gimmicks found in Burton’s more expensive rides.

Read full review of the Burton Honcho 2012 Snowboard.

Having seen Marco Grilc throw huge double corks on the Aftermath at the Dachstein Pleasure Jam and then again nailing monstrous 1080s and double backflips at the Flachauwinkl Spring Battle on the Aftermath I can safely vouch for the Aftermath as a serious piece of hardware. In many respects it’s extremely similar to the cambered Custom, it has the Squeezebox core profile, triaxial glass, a middle of the road directional flex and it even has the same sidecut radius. However the Aftermath is a little narrower and has a more twin-like shape to make it more switch friendly. This is a freestyle snowboard with performance on tap.

Read full review of the Burton Aftermath 2012 Snowboard.

There are those that will never ride anything other than camber. For these riders the edge control, response, stability and pop that they get from camber isn’t matched by any other profile. The Burton Custom comes in camber too because Burton know the Custom’s fan base was built from the days when camber was the only option and that a lot of these fans still demand camber. There’s all of the features that get packed into the Flying V version, like Frostbite Edges, Carbon I-Beam, the Squeezebox core profile and Lightning Bolts reinforcement, it’s just cambered instead.

Read full review of the Burton Custom 2012 Snowboard.

The Vapor is Burton’s highest performance and lightest cambered snowboard. The thing is, just because a board is high performance it doesn’t mean it has to be a stiff plank to ride, the Vapor verges on being forgiving. As far as construction goes, the Vapor is the tits! There’s more carbon in the Vapor with its Carbon I-Beam and carbon Vaporskin topsheet than in all of Saudi Arabia’s oil fields (to be repeated in a kids homework essay on snowboarding very soon). The WFO sintered base ably takes care of speed and if it wasn’t light enough already the Ultrafly core gets borrowed from the impossibly light Method. The Multizone EGD core/grain arrangement and Frostbite edges make sure that the Vapor grips like Sly Stallone grips his casino chips

Read full review of the Burton Vapor 2012 Snowboard.

Shaun’s snowboards come in two flavours, the TWC Pro which is the board you’ll see Shaun dominating the halfpipe on and the TWC Standard which is a beginners board aimed at getting newbies stoked on the sport. With EZ-Rocker, a soft flex and a direction tapered shape it’s unlikely you or even Shaun will be busting 30ft McTwists out of the Olympic halfpipe on the TWC Standard, but who knows how good you’ll be riding in five years time and TWC standard is a great board to start your riding career on.

Read full review of the Burton TWC Standard 2012 Snowboard.

The Burton Bullet takes the Clash’s features and shape, but increases the width a little to mid-wide status so that those gifted in the boot department can enjoy a fast learning snowboard experience too. The Bullet compliments the EZ-Rocker with 5mm of taper to make your first powder turns that little bit easier.

Read full review of the Burton Bullet 2012 Snowboard.

It won’t win any awards for performance but the Clash has always been held dear by the millions of people who have learnt to snowboard on one. Everything about the Clash is designed to make snowboarding easy for beginners, from the continuous rocker profile to the catch free Cruise Control factory tune and the versatile directional shape. If you can’t learn to snowboard on a Burton Clash you might have better luck with skiing.

Read full review of the Burton Clash 2012 Snowboard.

The Whammy Bar is Burton’s jib and rail thoroughbred. Everything about it is designed to make rail tricks and jibs easier, or shall we say less risky. The tips are slightly scooped (bowled) to keep them from catching on the snow when you’re buttering and the middle of the board is scooped to prevent rail hook-ups. The Whammy Bar is V-Rockered to improve slow speed pop, help exaggerate those presses and make under-rotated landings butter through clean. Then there’s the torsionally soft biaxial glass and rail ready tune that will guarantee you safe passage through all kinds of kinks should all of the above fail. You get the picture; this board is for serious jibbers who don’t like slams.

Read full review of the Burton Whammy Bar 2012 Snowboard.

In many respects the Burton Hero is pretty similar to its slightly higher spec brother, the Joystick. Like the Joystick, the Hero has Triax glass, Scoop Tech, Jumper Cables, Frostbite edges and the Squeezebox core. Unlike the Joystick the Hero doesn’t have Carbon I-Beam reinforcement, it is completely twin shaped and the flex is twin too. So although they are closely related, the Hero is a little softer flexing and rides switch identically to regular, making it more suitable to park specific snowboarders.

Read full review of the Burton Hero 2012 Snowboard.

V-Rocker is Burton’s most playful and buttery camber profile. The V-Rocker profile is rockered between the feet and just before the tips but remains flat under the bindings. The Joystick is the snappiest and most responsive V-Rockered board in the Burton range. Everything about the Joystick is about taking a fun and playful reverse camber profile and directional twin shaped snowboard with the looseness of Scoop technology and ramming it full of explosive C4 pop, there’s triaxial fibreglass, Carbon I-Beam reinforcement, Jumper Cables Hi-Voltage and the Squeezbox core profile all sandwiched together to increase the snappy feel and make your ollies enormous!

Read full review of the Burton Joystick 2012 Snowboard.

The Process Flying V is a medium/soft directional twin freestyle snowboard absolutely loaded with features giving it all-mountain capability. The Flying V profile is accompanied with Frostbite edges and triaxial glass for improved edge hold and Jumper Cables (Carbon stringers to you and I) in the cambered tail for extra pop as well as Burton’s Smooth Ride dampening system to mellow out an potentially bone shaking chunder.

Read full review of the Burton Process Flying V 2012 Snowboard.

Burton’s Side Effects won’t be everybody’s cup of tea because on hardpack and ice it can feel a little sketchy (in our opinion) but the medium soft flex and V-Rocker profile make the Burton Sherlock a very poppy snowboard and the extra volume at the nose and tail make the Sherlock extremely floaty in powder while the tight sidecut increases nimbleness even if you size up a good few centimetres.

Read full review of the Burton Sherlock 2012 Snowboard.

Designed to run on the Voile Split Decision touring package, the Freebird is Burtons only splitboard. Unlike a lot of split boards it is designed to be ridden at your standard all mountain length which is why it comes in the relatively short lengths of 158 and 162 cms. Features on the board include an extremely tight radius sidecut with Burton’s Side effects (elongated contact points) at the start and end of the effective edge. The Freebird also features S-Rocker for fluid, effortless powder riding with zero back leg burn.

Read full review of the Burton Freebird 2012 Snowboard.

The Burton Barracuda is a fusion of the Supermodel and the Malolo, two classic boards that had perhaps passed their glory days. The Barracuda’s 15mm of taper, 50mm setback stance and S-Rocker will keep the Barracuda afloat even in the deepest drifts and the triax glass, Carbon I-Beam and directional flex will make the tail firm and stompy for big powder landings and endless pillow lines. Finally Burton have realised that big guys like to freeride too, sizes go up to 169cm with a 25.9cm waist which is designed for riders in the 210lbs+ weight range.

Read full review of the Burton Barracuda 2012 Snowboard.

The Burton Fish is the original tapered freeride snowboard and quite possibly still numero uno. Designed by big transition guru turned freeride legend Terje Haakonson and Burton’s head shaper JG at the start of the last decade, the Fish has stood the test of time because it’s such a classic shape and it works so damn well in deep powder where agility, float and acceleration are key. This year the topsheet is metallic gold!

Read full review of the Burton Fish 2012 Snowboard.