canbc

First a bit of background. I've been snowboarding for about 12 seasons. Get in about 25 days each season. I used to love bombing big mountain runs at Whistler on my Custom X but in the last couple years I've completely mellowed out and mainly ride a smaller local mountain. Now I'm mostly dorking around, doing ground tricks, 180s and boardslides. Last year I bought a Rome Postermania 153 which was really soft, playful and had nice pop. It felt slightly large for me though and I wanted to size down.

This season I bought a 2012 Never Summer Evo 150 paired with 2013 Burton Malavitas. I was looking for a pure park board for jibs, jumps and buttering around. Rode it for the first time today and it feels quite a bit stiffer than I was expecting. Buttering around felt like a chore. Tail manuals weren't effortless and I barely could get nose manuals going. It was the first day of my season so I could just be rusty. Maybe the board needs more time to break in. Maybe my expectations were too high. Not entirely sure.

I actually took a lift up with another guy who had an identical board. He told me he loved his and he found it soft and flexy.

Other first impressions: The build quality is great and I love the blue base with the green eagle. It felt smooth and catch-free on the boxes that were set up. No decent jumps were available so I didn't get a good feel for the pop but it only felt so-so popping over rollers. It's a twin so of course riding switch feels great.

It's last years board so I'm probably not telling you guys anything new but I would be interested if anyone else found the 2012 Evo a bit stiff.

canbc

Added a photo because everyone loves photos

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readimag

You need to break it in more do some good tail blocks or a BA board flex like in his logo it will help.

lonerider

Absolutely not. I rode the 2012 Evo 153 when I was around 150 lbs (how much do you weigh?). While it is not ridiculuously noodlely like a Ride Kink or Burton Dominant ... it is still a pretty soft board, especially compared to something like the Custom X (what length were you riding?). I'm not familiar with the Postermania, but according to the Rome website... that isn't a jib board either.

With your experience and background, I think it is a lot more to do with rust and the fact that you might not have found the sweet spots on the flex for the Evo 150 yet.

Another thought: it kind of sound like while you are an experience freerider... you are relatively new to jibbing (i.e. started it last year). Is that true?

canbc

I weigh 140 to 145. The custom X was a 152. On paper, the postermania doesn't look like a jib board but I found it softer than my friend's WWW.

It definitely could have been some rust and not being used to the board. I only got about 7 or 8 runs in this morning. I've never ridden an RC board either. The postermania is rocker/flat and it didn't take more than a few runs for me to 'feel the board' if you can understand what I'm trying to say.

Yup what you're saying is true. The majority of my snowboarding experience is freeriding. I started to mellow out two maybe three seasons ago. Last season was when I started to spend more than 50% of my time in the park. I plateaued for a while when freeriding and now focusing in the park has made snowboarding fun all over again in a new way.

lonerider

Really... I thought the WWW would be softer ... oh well

Yea... its going to take a little time to get used to the flex/press points of a RC board. I went from a camber SL 155 to a RC SL 155 and it wasn't more than a day for me.

I'm 33 myself and I've swing back and forth between park and freeriding, depend on which group of friends I've been riding with. Right now I'm the middle of a park phase... but I'm pretty sure this will be the last as my body is simply not recovering as fast as it used to... although air bag technology and foam pits have given me a little extension.

canbc

I hear you. I'm around your age and wear upper and lower body protection when riding now. I do a lot of night riding and it comes in handy in the park.

Just to clarify, I didn't mean that the Evo is stiff compared to a Custom X. I just I find it on the stiff side from what I was expecting for a park board. I'm still planning to ride it for this season so hopefully it will grow on me soon. To be honest, with all the hype these boards get I did have high expectations that it was going to blow away my old Rome board. I was expecting more soft, buttery, poppy goodness. It's still early and I'm keeping an open mind though. I really want to like this board.

On the other hand, I'm liking the Malavitas. No complaints on the first day with them.

lonerider

Never Summer started out making freeride snowboards and that heritage continues on in that they don't make a true buttery noodle jibstick and all of these board can handle some level of freeriding.

I really like my Never Summer boards, but to be honest, they are not head above shoulders (is that the phrase?) better than every other board in the market for every rider. I think Never Summer gets pretty overhyped on this forum. Never Summer boards just currently happen to match the style of riding I want to do really well. BTW, I used to own a Rome Agent 152 and that thing was one of my favorite boards - but I gave it to my friend after his board got stolen at Northstar. I really should go back and see what they've been cooking in the last couple of years (a few years ago it didn't sound like they had their rocker shapes quite dialed in).

hikeswithdogs

No doubt they make great boards but all the "hype" is a major turn off for me not to mention how often they are stolen.

I'd rather ride a K2, Saloman, Arbor or something like that as I hate nothing more than the "me too" syndrome.

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lonerider

I know what you mean... but I feel like if I say that I'll sound like an old man complaining about how he's been there "before it was cool" and now the neighborhood is all full of annoying hipsters who are ruining the whole reason everyone moved their in the first place.

My first NS board was a 2003 Never Summer Evo - I actually found that board to be mediocre. In 2008 I got a SL 155 and liked it, but I just had to try out the 2009 RC SL 155... I tried the Lib Tech Jamie Lynn Phoenix as well to compare different company hybrid camber models but it still rode too much like a Skate Banana)

In the past I rode a bunch of boards made by small companies (a few are one-man operations)... Donek, Rome back in like 2005, Prior, then Madd Snowboards (with two 'd's, I think they are out of business), Coiler, Rad Air - but I'm getting old and I don't have the time as much to find and try obscure brands as I used to. It's funny... because one of my friends always complains that Burton is ruining the snowboarding industry and destroying small snowboard store by overproducing snowboards that invariably need to be sold at 50% discount. Then I point to out the snowboard he has owned - Burton Twin (bought 50% off), second Burton Twin (warranty replacement), Burton Dragon (50% off), Ride Kink, Burton Dominant (75% off), Burton X8 (50% off), Burton X8 (50% off... he literally picked up a second one because he like the first one so much, but has core shot the base and didn't repair it in time), Burton X8 V-rocker (50% off). Now he's been moving slightly away from the megacorp Burton... to Gnu with a Park Pickle and he's even considering Thrive (he's friends with the founders) but I doubt he'll get one unless they give it to him for free.

I was thinking about going to buy a Heritage or Cobra this season to replace my aging 2009 SL just based on my past experience with NS and from talking to a bunch of people who has ridden a Cobra/Heritage... but I've decided instead to try out some other brands some more. At the very least I'm going to probably wait until I demo the Cobra/Heritage when Never Summer swings by this spring before buying.