Location: Whistler, BC
Snow Conditions: Bluebird with hardpacked ice in the morning turning to softer snow throughout the day. The Ivy was the first board of the day and got the hardpacked icy conditions.
Setup: I rode the Salomon Ivy with Union Forces and my Rome Vamps size 8.
First Impression: Riding my size board, go Salomon! Very stable fast ride.
Size: 156cm
Weight: average
Flex: Right off the bat I noticed it was a stiffer flexing women’s board both torsionally and longitudinally and wasn’t as responsive from edge to edge as I was expecting it to be. With the stiffer flex, it did guarantee stability, through going fast or some choppy bumpy snow and I never worried about it when it came to gripping the hardpacked icy conditions of the morning.
Turning: With the ivy being the first board of the morning, it got the groomed corduroy snow with some ice in spots. For turning, it held an edge on the icy spots but going from edge to edge I thought it was a bit sluggish when I first took it out and take more effort to get into each turn. The best turns were long S turns when you could just draw out the turns and really push the board into each turn. Shorter turns just required more response from the rider and took a bit longer to get used to.
Stable: There are some days where a stiff stable ride is great and the ivy reminded me of a cadillac in that sense, it was very stable and smooth when handling speeds, turning and I never felt like it wouldn’t hold up. It’s a fast board which makes it a lot of fun when charging with.
Pop: I took it over the rollers and it wasn’t hard to ollie and get some pop out of it but it wasn’t insanely poppy.
Switch: The ivy is the directional twin and it was easy to maneuver to switch without any hangups and it didn’t feel off when riding, easy to make turns and still aggressive switch.
Overall Impression: Hands down a very solid women’s freeride board, stable and good for charging with. I would have liked to try it on a powder day but riding at Whistler was a good test for it. I wouldn’t recommend it for beginners, definitely intermediate to advanced women riders that mostly freeride. For 09-10 the ivy is part of the G.I.F.T project with ABC wrapper and greenlight core but since I hadn’t rode the previous models I couldn’t compare the difference.
Shay’s Honesty Box: Even though I called it a cadillac which it did remind me of, it was a very stable and fast ride. I never had to worry about the board not handling the early morning at Whistler. It was a board to keep up with the boys on and go faster than them. I liked that Salomon had a women’s 156 there to ride, definitely appreciated.
*This Review was done in April 2009, please be aware that products may change.
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Kristi
July 5, 2009 at 8:22 pmI really don’t like the graphic this year…while that’s not important relatively, its always nice to have a ride that makes you stoked to look at it.
I demoed last year’s ivy (the 08) and found that my opinion of it was fairly close to yours of this year’s model, however I always ride the smallest possible size board for me whereas you seem to like to ride longer boards. The smaller board didn’t handle chop too well though 🙁 Booo.
Shay
July 5, 2009 at 8:27 pmGood to hear your input on it Kristi, definitely not a board for everyone. I like the base graphic more than the topsheet, teal and white are fun colors.
Jack
December 13, 2009 at 6:27 amI ride the Burner which I understand is meant to be the blokes equivalent board and I find it rides pretty much as you described it above. My missus is looking for her own board [means we are going on more snow holidays!] and your review was helpful. Thanks!