We check out some of the snowboard best buys for the current season in our 2012 freestyle board review

Looking to buy a new snowboard for those upcoming trips and expeditions? Help is at hand: we’ve picked out five of the best new freestyle boards on the market.

We rode all of these models at this year’s UK board test in Kaunertal, Austria, and also at The Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead. There is no order of preference, and the market is flooded with top-class boards, but we’ve picked five that we feel are particularly hot for this season.

A word of advice to anyone buying a new snowboard: where possible, always try to test for yourself before you buy, because what feels amazing for someone else may not necessarily feel right to you.

DC PLY
Retail price: £250

New for this winter, the DC PLY is designed to ride like a skateboard on snow. Everything about the PLY is designed to simulate that feel of popping an ollie on a seven-ply maple deck, or cruising around a bowl with loose trucks.

This board is a true twin under the feet, with a 30 per cent lighter nose and tail to reduce swing weight, which is designed to make spinning easier. The nose is also slightly longer to help keep you afloat in powder. The all-new Lock & Load camber profile – normal camber between the feet and to the outside of the bindings, and flat at the contact points – helps provides that ollie-on-a-skateboard type feel.

This board is amazing – particularly at this affordable price point. It’s no wonder they’re selling fast all over the world. The PLY gives plenty of pop, and it’s a good all-rounder, although it’s not recommended for the beginner. This is an intermediate to advanced board, and is perfect for both park and kickers. It’s endorsed by team riders Aaron Bittner and Torstein Horgmo, and if it’s good enough for these guys, then you can work out the rest…

Ride Crush
Retail price: £300

This board is a park monkey’s dream, and is perfectly suited to endless laps through the park and rail sessions. The LowRize rocker – the contact points are raised at nose and tail – offers a mellow, forgiving and catch-free ride. The Cleave Edges and Slimewalls make the Crush amazingly durable for rail riding, and help absorb heavy impacts.

Riding rockered boards on big jumps isn’t for everyone, so we don’t recommend the Crush to anyone who likes hitting large kickers or drops. The flex is relatively soft, and doesn’t offer much resistance on hard landings and drops. But if smaller jumps, and lines consisting of rails, boxes and bonks, are what you prefer, then the Crush could be a perfect board for you.

Suitable for riders of all levels, the board’s tapered tip and tail reduce the swing weight, helping make it easier to spin. Because the sidewalls run past the effective edge, you can drop a board size, which means the Crush becomes even more playful and easier to throw around. Like all park-specific boards, the Crush is also available in wide widths for those with bigger feet.

K2 Happy Hour
Retail price: £390

New for this season, and designed by the K2 pro team, the twintip Happy Hour fills the void left by the discontinued Believer. At first glance, you think, “What is going on here?” It’s a pretty mean-looking board, with a pointed nose and tail, and you wouldn’t want to plough into someone or, worst-case scenario, someone plough into you!

K2’s award-winning and pioneering Flatline technology makes the Happy Hour incredibly well balanced and solid to ride. The preload gives it a huge amount of pop, and the stabby nose and tail make charging through the crud, regular or switch, easy and fun. Nose jams, tail blocks and surfing powder also benefit from the sharp nose and tail. A sintered base means that this board holds wax well and rides super-quick.

It might look a bit odd, but don’t knock it until you try it, because it’s a lot of fun to ride. And as it’s the brainchild of the K2 International snowboard team – with the likes of Wille Yli-Luoma, Jordan Mendenhall, Danny Larsen and Travis Parker at the helm – you can imagine how good it is.

This is an intermediate to advanced rider’s board, and is best suited to riding the park and hitting jumps.

Neversummer Evo
Retail price: £495

After riding the 2010/11 Evo for a good part of last season, we have to say that this is a favourite. It’s so easy to ride, and the flex is extremely playful, meaning that anyone should get along well on this board.

The new tweaked sidecut makes this season’s Evo carve a lot more aggressively and hold an edge better. The extra laminate rods in the tail give the board a little extra pop, too. It’s suited to riders of all abilities, due to its forgiving flex, and it proved to be a lot fun all over the mountain. The rocker profile makes pressing effortless, but still offers a bit of support on the nose and tail if you land slightly end-heavy. However, there’s still not enough resistance in our opinion for really big jumps and drops. The new blunted nose and tail reduces swing weight, which makes it easier to spin, and an extended effective edge means you can drop a board size. And thanks to the EDS dampening system, the true twin Evo is surprisingly stable at high speeds, despite its soft flex.

In summary, the Evo is a freestyle rider’s dream board. However, if launching off massive jumps and drops is your thing, then you’d be better off opting for the Proto CTX, which is a stiffer version of the Evo.

Lib Tech Attack Banana
Retail price: £529.99

The Attack Banana boasts a lot of technology, as well as a hefty price tag. It blends rocker between the feet, and elliptical camber at the contact points. This results in better edge hold, by focusing pressure under the bindings, while maintaining float for powder and catch-free edges for rails and boxes.

Wavy Magne-Traction edges, which act like a serrated knife, help the Attack Banana to grip strongly in icy and hard pack conditions. It transforms what would be a sketchy morning on concrete-like snow into a fun and carefree session, giving you great confidence to carve, turn and stop even when the conditions are bullet-proof. Durable sidewalls and a light swing weight, for easy spinning, complete the package.

This really is a go anywhere, do anything board, and at this price, we’d hope so too. We really enjoyed the Attack Banana; it performs wherever you take it, and lives up to its billing. It’s a superb all-round, all-mountain freestyle board, suitable for riders of all ability levels.

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Jenny Jones

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Snowboarding

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“Man who waits for roast duck to fly into mouth must wait very very long time.”

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