A Simply Amazing Freestyle Snowboard
Written: Dec 19 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Incredible Response, Very Lightweight
Cons: Too Much Flex for Advanced Free Riding
The Bottom Line: Up your freestyle ante.
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| rancid1993's Full Review: Burton Shaun Snowboard |
There really isn't much Shaun White hasn't accomplished in the snowboarding contest world. It's obvious that he has a ton of natural talent, but how much of it could be the equipment he uses? I know he has a signature model boot that I've never used, and I have the same model of bindings he uses (which are excellent by the way), so I had a desire to see if his signature model board is the magic source of his power. Okay, that's a little much to expect from any piece of equipment, but I expected it to be a pretty solid board. This board lived up to the expectations I had for it, unfortunately, it just didn't dazzle enough for me to pay the extravagant price tag to own one.
Looking at the specs of the board and the nature of the rider that designed it, I knew this board was going to be an advanced freestyle board. When testing the flex of the board I found that it is fairly stiff, and that equals to great pop off jumps and other snow conditions that will get you into the air. The White also has some other features that aid it in the freestyle aspect of snowboarding. The board responds very quickly with its Carbon I-beam construction, which is an interior feature that I believe features a beam of carbon up the center of the board. The core is what Burton calls Super Fly II, which references its light weight.
So on the hill, the SW did about everything I expected it to. Riding around the hill was fun on the board because its shape and pop allowed me to do some stuff like manuals and the like while cruising around. There happened to be some small jumps from snowmaking crews making piles of snow and not having the time to flatten them. The board was at its best then, which the board popping off the bump very effortlessly and the landing feeling very stable and controlled. I also took this board to the park for a while, but because there were no big jumps at the time I don't know how well the board performs on those, however. The board is pretty good on rails, nothing taking it down and nothing too spectacular.
When freeriding, the SW does a fairly good job, but not sufficient for me because it's the type of riding I do the most. It has a sintered base which is pretty fast and not too difficult to maintain. The board felt pretty stable when just riding down most of the trails of the mountain, but when ever the path got bumpy or I gain a lot of speed the SW had some troubles. The board just seemed hard to recover on when you hit some sort of big imperfection in the snow. Also, it began to feel pretty unstable when you really reached high speeds.
After riding the board for a few days, I decided that I liked it but it just didn't impress me enough to spend the $500 it costs to own one. It might be a good board for hardcore park and pipe riders, but advanced freeriders will find the SW just isn't quite for them.
Final Thoughts
The Burton Shaun White is good enough for the almost undisputed best freestyle rider in the world and it impressed me. However it just didn't suit my style of riding and I had to pass. I think you should give it a try if you are into freestyle because this board could be an asset to you.
Recommended:
Yes
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