Snowboard Review: 08-09 Salomon Official

Location: Loveland, Colorado

Snow Conditions: Bluebird with hardpacked groomers to icy groomers.

Setup: I rode the Salomon Official with my Raiden Tigre bindings and my Vans Omni Focus boots.

First Impression: This board is plain fun joy.

Size: 155cm

Weight: Didn’t notice at the time.

Flex: It’s a softer flexing board, very soft torsionally so it really is easy to initiate turns and get quick response from toeside or heelside turns. I had no problem just making easy turns on it and getting the board to go into each turn. The nose was softer than the tail.

Turning: It was easy to maneuver and initiate turns. It was a very predictable ride and the equalizer sidecut really holds an edge during turning which was surprising on such a softer board. I didn’t have any vibrations or issues with the board not holding on edge and chattering out. Short radius turns felt the best on the official, longer radius were okay but short radius felt more natural.

Stable: I was just riding it on groomers, on icy spots the edge held through it and didn’t chatter out. The nose was softer so I noticed if I really picked up speed, it wiggled but I didn’t have any chatter from it.

Pop: It had really good playful pop to it, definitely easy to pop off the tail and ollie with. I played around with 180’s and tail presses on the sides of cat tracks.

Switch: I had no problems with riding switch, it was easy to maneuver around into switch and was fun to ride either way.

Overall Impression: I was expecting a more aggressive ride from David Benedek’s pro model but the Official was a really easy predictable ride, good to maneuver into switch riding and capable of holding an edge and just freeriding with. It still had good pop and play for in the park.

Shay’s Honesty Box: It was a fun board and rideable outside of park, held an edge and another board I’d consider all mountain as your park board.

Salomon Official Description
For more information on the Salomon Sanchez go to Salomon’s website.