Snowboard Review: 09-10 Burton Easy Livin Flying V

Location: Timberline, Oregon

Snow Conditions: Summer slush to hardpacked salted snow

Setup: I rode the Burton Easy Livin Flying V with Burton Escapades and Bonfire Geo boots size 8.

First Impression: It’s definitely not the uninc but I like some of the ride.

Size: 155cm

Weight: average

Flex: One of the first things I noticed was the stiffer tail on the easy livin and a softer torsional flex between the bindings.  I didn’t play too much with the nose flex to see if it was softer than the tail. The stiffer tail made it less easy to press.  The medium flex was more suitable for the mountain freeriding and riding halfpipe than on rails.  The easy livin is Flying V rocker, so a mix of camber and rocker which I found made it a lot less flexible and fun.

Turning: The turning on the Easy Livin surprised me the most, it really did handle the mountain when it came to carving and handling some choppy/slushy conditions with good absorption.  It was predictable in each turn and I didn’t encounter the midwide being an issue with getting quick edge to edge response from it. I’ve liked the ICS/EST system with just feeling very connected to the board and having good response from the bindings to the board.

Stable: The easy livin is a midwide which I found great for being more stable through bumps and choppy because there was more board underneath me but I didn’t feel like it was too wide that I didn’t have control edge to edge.  Despite the snow conditions being slushier, in the halfpipe the easy living held an edge through the more hardpacked snow.  It’s got PDE and that was an improvement from the uninc series.

Pop: Good pop in the tail of the board, which I found great for halfpipe and ollie’ing.  With the stiffer tail it was more difficult to press and butter on the box.  The rocker helped when it came to not catching an edge on boardslides on the box.

Switch: The shape is a true twin but with a directional flex but I didn’t notice a difference when riding switch but I also just took it switch in the halfpipe and for a couple turns so not enough to pick up subtle differences.

Overall Impression: The Easy Livin is the replacement for the uninc board in 09-10 with some added bonuses like PDE giving it better edgehold.  The Easy Livin had it’s ups and downs, I enjoyed how it handled freeriding with it being stable, good edgehold and overall solid for just cruising and bombing runs with.  In the park, with the stiffer tip/tail it made buttering & pressing more difficult but in the halfpipe those downsides were the upsides for charging the pipe walls and feeling good pop and consistent lines.  Is it the uninc, no…is it better or worse? depends on what you want.

Shay’s Honesty Box: I was a fan of the uninc series, I thought they were some of the most fun boards out there to ride and enjoyed riding them every time at demos but I’m on the fence with the easy livin.  It didn’t win me over as much as the uninc had, but I still liked it and want to ride it again.

Ready to buy? Head over to evo for the 2011 version of the Burton Easy Livin Flying V or shop their full line of Burton snowboards