Burton Family Tree Fish Split - 2016

User Snowboard Reviews

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Tyson Chambers on January 19, 2024 at 05:54 AM

2016 156cm split fish with spark R&D bindings

A little late for this review, but there seems to be a surprising lack of info out there for a pretty common work horse of a board.

I’m not going to pretend to be a touring expert here, but I consider myself a full time hobbiest, student to the mountains and experienced snowboarder.

My resort board is a 152 salomon dancehaul pro Ltd, which in short is a medium stiff, centered stance, volume shift board with a 20mm taper. I’m 176cm tall, 155lbs with a US10 boot.

RIDING THE FISH: First impressions of the fish were stable, damp, stiffer than I was used to and a pleasure to turn! I felt I needed to ride with more power In general to keep the board from riding me. The 30mm taper makes turn initiation super natural and surfy. It reignited my love of the simple joy of drawing wide S’s down a slope. I’m sure there are boards that rail an edge harder, but for pure feel and enjoyment of the turn, big fun. As to be expected from a stiffer, directional board, skid turns aren’t super natural. If your form goes to shit, the stick won’t kill you but it’ll let you know. The board feels a bit heavy. If you’re coming from a super playful, jibby, buttery style, id say there are probably lighter, more flexible options that’ll make your intro to touring more enjoyable, but if you’re happy pointing the nose down in the deep stuff, you’ll be happy on the fish. The one place I don’t like this board, particularly in the Canadian Rockies, is the bushwack. I tour for big, wide open, steep untouched slopes, but unfortunately in the Rockies, that’s never without a good stint in dense forest. Because it’s heavy, and torsionally stiff, the slower, tighter riding can be hard work. Your ski friends may be watching you struggle thinking “geez what happened, they WERE riding well..” but nothing you can’t overcome with skill and time on the board.

SKINNING: there are a lot of modern shapes coming out, Inspired by the volume shift rush like the K2 splitbean that offer a shorter, softer intro to touring, but from what I’ve seen out touring with friends, especially in softer snowboard boots, keeping an edge in while traversing windblown slopes is a much easier experience with a more traditional board, and the fish does it well! And let’s be honest, kick turns on a 156 aren’t hard, skiers ride like 3m twigs or something… Skin grip is good, the camber helps keep nice pressure throughout the skin when your weight is pressing the binding. Finding a skin tail clip that works well with the fishtail can be tricky, but my universal G3s have had no trouble.

DURABILITY: Dude, it’s a 2016 model, I’m writing this in 2024 after years of abuse in the Rockies, and there’s hardly any Ptex on my base, top sheet has no chips, no delaminating. A little heavy sure, but waaaay more durable than most of the modern offerings, and it’s still stiff!

SUMMERY: There’s no true one board that rules it all. If you lay awake at night thinking of double corks off Backcountry kickers, there are more freestyle oriented split boards for you. If you lay awake thinking of zipping in and out of super dense trees, there are better boards.. But if you’re normal and just want a durable board that floats great for pointing down an open slope, surfing powder and getting giddy for the feeling of turning again, the fish is for you!

If you have any questions about the board or sizing etc, feel free to email me .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)/*= 0)out += unescape(l[i].replace(/^\s\s*/, '&#'));while (--j >= 0)if (el[j].getAttribute('data-eeEncEmail_zHYurVqBwq'))el[j].innerHTML = out;/*]]>*/