Snowboard Review: 09-10 Ride Crush

Location: Keystone, Colorado

Snow Conditions: Overcast with hardpacked groomers to a mixture of conditions.

Setup: I rode the Ride Crush with Ride Bandita bindings and my Rome Vamps size 8.

First Impression: Easy rocker to ride…not insane rocker, but mellow and easy to cruise with.

Size: 155cm

Weight: lighter than average

Flex: The crush had a really forgiving flex on it, medium flex longitudinally and torsionally without too much stiffness to make a difficult ride but not soft enough to make it an entirely park ride. It handled freeriding the groomers and was a relatively easy mellow ride. It was the first time being on Ride’s lowrize rocker and it’s definitely a rocker that isn’t very noticeable, flat between the bindings and then rockers out towards the tip and tail. It’s just enough to lift the contact points up and make it less catchy.

Turning: It was easy to initiate turns and hold on edge, the radial blenz sidecut and made for a smooth ride, and predictable. I handled both short radius and long radius turns well and easy to hold the edge without feeling it give out or want to make a sharper turn than I needed to make. On the hardpacked groomers it held an edge and felt in control on some icy spots without washing out, definitely my big test for Ride boards to go through.

Stable: It was the last board of the day so I was going slower on it, on the groomers I didn’t encounter any speed wobbles but I also wasn’t trying as hard. The afternoon was a lot of chop and bumps and the crush absorbed them fairly well. My biggest issue with Ride boards is how they grip the snow on edge and the Crushwith radial blenz held an edge for the conditions which was good to see, it was getting icy in spots and I still felt in control on it.

Pop: I just played with popping off the same roller on it and it had good pop without needing to adjust to the landing, just a couple tail presses and butters on the snow where it was not catchy and okay to press.

Switch: Even thought it’s a twin board, it rode a little off when I went to switch riding. Could have been me at the end of the day, but something I noticed and wrote down was it didn’t ride exactly the same switch.

Overall Impression: Of all the reverse cambers, I think Ride’s is the most entry level progressing one. It’s not enough rocker to make the ride completely different, you can still hold an edge and carve but also be a little playful with it and it won’t catch…good progressing board because it’s easy to ride.

I highly give props to Ride on the graphics, it’s cool to see it change and the collaboration with a art class of kids.

Shay’s Honesty Box: I think it’s a good step in the right direction, but still not investing fully in the reverse camber so it’ll be interesting to see how it’s received. I can see a lot of people liking it because it’s not crazy reverse to get used to and you can progress on it. I probably wouldn’t pair the Bandita’s with it again, too soft of a binding for that board.

*This Review was done in February 2009, please be aware that products may change.

Ready to buy? Head over to evo for the 2011 version of the Ride Crush or shop their full line of Ride snowboards