Snowboard Review: 10-11 Arbor Draft

Location: Steamboat, CO & Timberline, OR

Snow Conditions: Mixture of hardpacked to slushy groomers to powder days.

Setup: I rode the Arbor Draft with my Union bastardized bindings and Vans Veil Boots size 8.

Size: 155cm.

First Impression: Soft buttery goodness for park laps

Weight: average

Flex: The draft is the soft buttery flexing board in the arbor line, it’s meant for park and street snowboarding so it’s on the softer side for overall flex. The nose/tail are especially soft, tad stiffer under the bindings but quick edge to edge with the softer torsional flex. The The draft features the jib system which has parabolic rocker which has more rocker in the center of the board and decreases the rocker to the tip and tail of the board.

Turning: Definitely for a softer board it actually turns and holds an edge very good on the mountain, the tri-radial sidecut gives you a good amount of options for turning whether you want quick shorter turns or longer drawn out turns you can decide how it’ll turn down the mountain.  With the softer flex, it felt more comfortable on the shorter turns than longer speed friendly turns where the flex didn’t feel as comfortable.   The grip tech definitely helps on the hardpacked days on the mountain.  I didn’t notice the bronze edges impacting the riding other than just a bonus on boxes/rails.

Stable: One of the surprises with the Draft was taking it out on a powder day at Steamboat and finding out how much reverse camber does help in pow.  This softer jib board could actually handle the conditions and floated quite nicely in the soft stuff.  In the harder packed snow it got tossed around a bit more and not as charging as a stiffer flexing board but still a lot of fun.

Pop: The blunt shape of the nose and tail make butters feel more locked in and can really just butter the board left and right.  I liked playing with the butters and presses the most on this board, it made them possible and a lot of fun.  The pop was good, seemed normal for a snowboard and didn’t seem to hard to pop into ollies.

Switch: The draft is a true twin and felt like a true twin on the mountain, no changes when riding switch.

Overall Impression: For those wanting a softer jib board this can make the mountain and park a lot of fun.  If you happen to get a powder day the rocker will give you float and keep you happy until the park is back open.  It was definitely the perfect board for park laps on the rails/boxes but a little too soft for pipe laps that I went through with it.

Shay’s Honesty Box: The draft was a good overall feeling board, the softer flex made it a really fun ride for just playing around on the mountain.  The 155cm is my normal size to ride which came in handy for the powder turns but it would have been fun to play with it in the smaller size as well.

Ready to buy? Head over to evo for the Arbor Draft or shop their full line of Arbor snowboards

On Snow Photo

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Arbor Draft description

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Review Disclosure: This board was given to me by Arbor Snowboards.