biscuitfarmer's Full Review: Burton Custom Snowboard
I have been snowboarding for somewhere around 10 or so years. I started out in the state of Washington at Stephen's Pass, Whistler Blackcomb, and a variety of other off the trail hills. Through that time I have gone through a large number of boards, generally 2-3 per season, in an attempt to find the perfect board for each riding style.
I generally run each season with three active boards and two passive boards. This means that I have three boards always ready to go and I have another two that I have sitting just in case, I need to do a swap out. I know this sounds ridiculous to anyone that does any boarding, but it's practical in my mind for a few reasons:
1. I have a different board for each type of riding that I do, which is why I have three boards. I have one board for each style, one for big air, one for trick/style, and one for all mountain. I don't really have a speed board, but that's because I just can't get the feel for the larger boards.
2. Another reason that I have multiple boards setup at all times and two passive boards, is because I change up my stance from standard to goofy depending upon how I feel that day. For example if I went huge the day before and my lead leg is feeling a little bit tender, which it often is, then I will swap leads. A lot of people can't do this all that easily, but I've been doing it for so long, that this has become normal practice.
I generally go boarding five days a week during the season, sometimes upwards of seven in the beginning and at the very end of the season. I generally ride away from slopes, because I don't particularly like the predictability of the slopes. I want something that I have to react to at a moment's notice, it truly makes the ride, and keeps you from becoming complacent.
Burton Custom X Snowboard
Not sure how this board got classified as a freestyle board, because it is undoubtably an all mountain board. The board is probably weaker in the freestyle arena than it is in freeride, so it seems that it should be more classified freeride than anything. Regardless, this is one hell of an awesome all mountain board.
The Burton Custom X, is probably my favorite all mountain board. It offers virtually everything that you could want out of an all mountain board, which a price tag that really isn't that high considering what you are getting. The board is super lightweight and is made with a wood core, so it has one of the most natural feels of any snowboard on the market. The wood core truly gives a quality response that you can count on time and time again. You know what to expect with a wooden core.
The board itself is a little bit smaller than a lot of the wider Burton boards, but that gives the board a little bit of an edge in freestyle. A freestyle board is much more difficult to operate when it's long and wide. This makes the board much more likely to slam into obstacles while setting up tricks, and it makes it that much more difficult to ride rails and such, when you have substantially more board to throw around. This board definitely takes care of that issue, by making it smaller, but so lightweight that it can still glide over the top of fresh powder with ease.
The board has excellent spring, so that you can get air, almost as close to the level you could achieve with a freestyle board. If the board was just a little bit lighter and smaller, it could definitely be obtained. The board is super lightweight, so it's easy to whip it around for tricks, landings are quality, thanks to a very responsive flex, which is just about perfect for an all mountain board in terms of versatility.
The board is definitely one of the best freeride boards I've ever been on. The board can pick up speed extremely fast, has the ability to cut through powder for effective cornering and has the ability to glide over the top of fresh powder with relative ease, despite it's small size.
Durability
This board is damn near industructable. You aren't going to break it from riding alone, you aren't going to crack it regardless of how hard you slam into something, and you aren't going to notice it warping either... The only issues that you might ever have, and this is true with any Burton board is the delamination issues that they tend to have with their boards, where the top surfaces began to come off after a few hard hits. This I guess could be resolved by applying extra layers of wax around the edges of the board in hopes that the board would simply just skim off the wax, rather than the lamination itself. This isn't a huge issue with the board and is a big problem throughout the market, but it does happen, regardless of how expensive this board is. The only companies that I have seen without these major issues are the Arbor and Ride boards.
Another big issue that should be watched carefully is the tendency for Burton boards to chip at the sidewalls, while I've never seen it happen with this particular board, it is always a possibility as their other boards do it. If you have this issue, try to sand the edges down to smooth out your cutting surface for a smoother ride. It shouldn't have any real effect on your ability to ride ultimately, but if it gets bad enough it could mean the difference whether or not you make a perfect turn going super fast, or whether you stumble on it.
Cost
This is probably the biggest issue with this board, but even with a high cost, generally in the neighborhood of $650-$750, you have to take into consideration what you are getting. This board is better than most freeride boards, and is just as good as a lot of the mediocre or better freestyle boards, so you are technically getting two boards in one. If you do the math, two $450 boards is $900, if you get a separate set of bindings for each board, which I assume you would, then you will find yourself paying in the neighborhood of $1200-$1500 compared to the full cost of $900-$1,000 for this all mountain board. But if you have the money to spend, definitely go with the two separate, but more focused boards, you'll end up with a higher quality ride altogether.
This is the best board on the market, all around. It is the most versatile, and has the same abilities that most of the best freeride boards do on the mountain, while at the same time it is capable of hitting the park and the pipe hard as well. You can't find a better all mountain board anywhere.
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