Location: Winter Park, CO
Snow Conditions: Hardpacked to icy conditions on the mountain, flat-light riding conditions.
Setup: I rode the Stepchild Salary Man with Ride Bandita Contraband bindings and Vans Veil Boots size 8.
Size: 155cm.
First Impression: This board is the sucks model (powder sucks, everything sucks) and while some stuff might suck…this board makes the mountain not suck when you ride it.
Weight: average
Flex: The stepchild sucks was middle of the road for the flex, it wasn’t stiff but it wasn’t soft. It could handle the playful fun riding on the mountain but also charge freeriding. It was a very ideal middle of the road for an all mountain board and I could still play with it on butters and presses. The flex was consistent throughout the board, never felt like the tail or nose was stiffer than the other and underfoot a tad stiffer to absorb rougher landings. Overall it was a fairly forgiving ride on the mountain with no surprises in how it handled.
Turning: It was a very predictable ride down the mountain, easy to transition into turns and you felt the board hold the carve each turn whether it was short or long radius it handled both equally well on the mountain. I was really impressed with how it turned, held the edge and in those rough icy spot I felt really stable on it.
Stable: This is where the salary man (sucks board) impressed me the most. The conditions were icy hardpacked to choppy death and the salary man rode it like it was powder. I had no problems with handling the icy spots, it gripped the snow very well and charged through cruddy bumpy spots absorbing them better than expected.
Pop: I just played around with the salary man on flat terrain with some basic tricks, nose and tail presses which were pretty easy on the salary man. The ollies were normal typical ollies and good pop to them. On the boxes the board didn’t catch and wasn’t too stiff to play around with.
Switch: The salary man is a true twin with a centered stance and sidecut and rides exactly like a true twin when switch. I found it handled the same switch or regular with no problems.
Overall Impression: I can see why the salary man/everything sucks/powder sucks collection is popular it’s a great price for a all mountain board that isn’t limited to just one section of the mountain. It really made my demo day end on a high note and I found that I could have kept riding it longer except I needed to return it to the rep. Overall a really solid ride and a great board that will be available in reverse camber or camber.
Shay’s Honesty Box: I said this in the Ride bandita review and I’ll say it in this review, the combination of the salary man and Ride bandita bindings was the best matched setup of the demo. I took them out at the last runs of the day and because of them, kept wanting to ride despite the crappy conditions and being sick. It was such a fun all mountain ride that didn’t require any adjustment, it just made the mountain a blast and I kept taking laps on them.
Ready to buy? Head over to evo for the Stepchild Salary Man or shop their full line of StepChild snowboards
On Snow Photo
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Stepchild Salary Man description
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Review Disclosure: I rode this board at a demo day.
Quezz
March 22, 2010 at 5:09 pmWow, this is the first new board I’ve seen in a while that I’m dying to buy. Love the graphics too.
mattie
March 24, 2010 at 8:38 amI’ve been riding this board from last year. By far the best board ive ever had. It´s good in pow, on big kickers and on rails. Presses are easy on this thing, and you can still go for a day of straight lining slopes with all the control you need. Love it
Shay
March 24, 2010 at 5:16 pmQuezz, the graphics are rad. I didn’t know what the base said until a friend pointed out that when I walked by he could see the “you suck!” staring at him. I like that.
Mattie, Awesome you’ve been riding it as well! It was a fav at the demo, hell I could have ridden it all night and never gave it up but I felt bad making the rep wait around for the last board of the day that went out. Def a fav.
Winny
March 26, 2010 at 7:27 amDid you ride the camber or rocker version?
Winny
April 1, 2010 at 8:02 amShe’s ignoring me! *crywhinesob* 😉
JP
May 6, 2010 at 8:08 pmHi Shay,
Great site, and awesome review, was just wonderin if u knew the difference between this and the chiborg….i read the description and specs for both, and they seemed identical in every aspect, unless i missed something?
thanks!
jp
Shay
May 8, 2010 at 3:29 pmWow my apologies for missing this one, Winny. I rode the camber version. I’ll usually put in the flex the rocker information if it was rocker. Sorry I wasn’t more clear.
JP, good question. The shape is what differentiates them. I’ve ridden both and they aren’t the same board despite the catalog seeming similiar. The chi borg is a more blunted nose/tail and a tad more expensive so I believe the wood core might be different. Also before this year the everything sucks/salary man was camber and chi borg rocker
Chris Kim
March 9, 2011 at 3:35 pmhey shay does the 149 come with the rc too? or does the reverse camber start with the 152?
Shay
March 9, 2011 at 3:46 pmChris, it looks like the rc starts at the 152cm size for the salary man.
Chris Kim
March 9, 2011 at 4:34 pmso the 149 is a camber?
Shay
March 9, 2011 at 4:41 pmChris, if you google stepchild salary man 149cm you’ll see it come up in shops as camber but it looks like some european shops say reverse camber.
To be on the safe side, contact Stepchild in their contact form and ask
http://www.stepchildsnowboards.com/contact/
Chris Kim
March 9, 2011 at 4:42 pmalrite .. thanks shay