Snowboard Review: 08-09 Burton Vapor

Location: Keystone, Colorado

Snow Conditions: Snowing with soft packed groomed runs and some powder on the sides of runs.

Setup: I rode the Burton Vapor with Burton Lexa bindings and my Rome Vamp boots.

First Impression: I don’t even want to think about the price tag on this board and how I can’t afford it.

Size: 159cm

Weight: light

Flex:  Longitudinally it felt a lot stiffer towards the tail of the board and torsionally stiffer than I expected but not to say it’s a stiff beast…it’s not.   The lightness definitely plays into how the board rides. For just freeriding groomers I didn’t find it exceptional or a dream on snow, it rode and was light, easy to move around and quick edge to edging. 

Turning: It felt the best on really long S turns, I had to work for the shorter radius turns and didn’t like how it transitioned into them.  The long S turns made the board ride fine on the groomers, just taking it easy and using up the whole run was no issue.  When I needed quick response the board has it, but the bindings weren’t as quick as the board (wasn’t the best combo together in my opinion).

Stable: On charging and going fast, it didn’t feel as stable as other boards from Burton I’ve rode.  I had a couple moments where the bindings were a little more soft than I needed and didn’t get the quick response but that was from the bindings.  The board over some cruddy bumps, didn’t absorb them as well as I thought it would have.  The lighter tech definitely played into that.  I did notice that the board needed wax, it wasn’t as fast as I thought it should have been on the snow.

Pop:  I only played with the pop in the halfpipe on the icy walls, it had decent pop off the tail.  In terms of pressing the board, it’s stiffer in the tail and I didn’t find it easy to butter the tail with.

Halfpipe:  Obviously this board is made for halfpipe, lightweight and a lot of tech invested into it for that reason.  I rode the halfpipe with it when the pipe conditions weren’t that great, new snow at the transitions and flat and the walls were icy with flat light.  But I did my best to ride it up to the vert and pop a couple 180’s with it.  It handled and was easy to swing around.

Overall Impression:  I wouldn’t buy this board to ride the mountain with, maybe if I rode only superpipes and wanted to fly with barely any board weight but just for groomers I didn’t find it anything to rave about.  It was another snowboard with a high price tag because of the tech involved.

Shay’s Honesty Box: I can’t imagine why this board sells for $999.95 and that people buy it for that price.  I can see why it’s a halfpipe killer and on the groomer it’s not a bad ride, the tech is the price but that doesn’t make it the best board for the rider.