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Flow Jewel First Impressions

12K views 12 replies 8 participants last post by  snowsam17 
#1 ·
Due to the complete lack of women's hard good reviews, I wanted to give a quick first impression of the Flow Jewel 152 I just got in the mail!! (This is my first review, be nice). I will be riding the board this weekend so there will be more to come. My stats: 5'8", 160 lb, size 7.5 burton boots, this will be my 6th season riding and I would consider myself an intermediate/advanced all mtn rider and a beginner park rider. Im on the ice coast so i ride a ton of groomers but I like to dip into the trees whenever possible and I would really like to progress more in the park this season. I have been riding a NS circuit 148 (mens board) which I actually loved but was just too small and totally flexed out after 3 seasons.

So, first impressions: The Jewel is of average weight, the graphics are really impressive, and it had wider tips than I had expected. It seems to be pretty beefy and I hope it can take a beating (my NS was a tank, I have no idea how Flow's durability stacks up). It's a true twin, and at 5'8" I used the second widest twin stance option, so taller girls could definitely ride this. The I-Rock camber is not very noticeable to the eye, but if you lie the board down and really get down next to it you can see the camber sections underfoot. The RC in my NS was much more pronounced visually, but the circuit is a softer board so that might have something to do with it.

I strapped in to the Jewel in my basement and did some carpet boarding. I was instantly in love! It is torsionally soft and presses are easy, but I can really feel the carbon in the tips stop me mid-press and allow me to pop the thing to the moon. Much poppier than the NS, and definitely stiffer. I will report back after riding this board, but it seems to be the freestyle oriented, all-mtn slayer I was looking for. Feel free to ask me any questions, there will be more to come for sure.
 
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#2 ·
UPDATE: I rode the Jewel this weekend, at Mount Snow on groomers covered by primarily man-made snow with a few ice patches. I loved it! It was not overly soft, which made it fun for speed laps down groomers and I felt it was decently stable (disclaimer: this is coming from someone who likes soft boards). It handled chop a lot better than my NS circuit, as multiple times I thought I was about to get bucked by a snowpile or something and the Jewel plowed through it. However, it is certainly not a stiff board and was definitely a lot of fun to play around on. It was harder to press than the circuit but not by much, and had much snappier pop. You can really boost off of rollers on the Jewel. I suck at park riding, but it felt great on the 10-15 foot booters I took it off and I had no problems on boxes. Overall, it rode excellently. For a $380 board it was well worth the price and I would highly recommend it for a girl looking for a freestyle-oriented board that is not a jib stick.
 
#3 ·
My friend just picked up the board on saturday, she absolutely loves it. She rode it on crunchy 4 day old utah snow (which is still kinda nice) and then on two pow days she was thrilled with it, for the price point of the board I am not sure it can be beaten.
 
#6 ·
Thanks! And yeah I had to use reviews of men's boards to figure out what I wanted, and just hope the women's counterpart would be comparable and just as good... Not fun. Hopefully we can get more girls to start doing reviews, and I think AngrySnowboarder is going to start women's reviews so that will help a ton.
 
#7 ·
One other thing in case girls are reading this and care. The board is listed on flow's website as having a 2000 extruded base, in reality it has thier 4000 sintered base. (at least that is what the board says it has and when i waxed it, it "looked" like most sintered bases do as you wax them.)
 
#9 ·
Ive been riding a flow jewel for the last 2 years.....i absolutely love the board....i love Flow and their customer service is off the hook!

I ride mostly park and groomers and little pow.....im from philly so i take what is already here and use it with the snow! Hahahaha

Sweet review!:yahoo:
 
#11 ·
Construction wise? Not really... Although women tend to have smaller feet for the same weight person as a guy, so they tend to be more narrow, and available in shorter sizes.

Nothing wrong with a girl riding a mens board, and a smaller guy riding a womens board.

I believe they also tend to make them a little softer than their male equivalent. Here's Priors comments on the Brandywine, their female version of a freeride board:

"The Brandywine, Prior’s high performance, directional freeride board for women, draws a smooth, stable and fast line through all snow conditions. With a narrow waist and softer flex than the Men’s Freeride, the Brandywine allows women to drive the board harder and maximize energy transfer for the best ride possible."
 
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