Snowboard Review: 10-11 Arbor Eden

Location: Mammoth, CA

Snow Conditions: Mixture of hardpacked to icy to softpacked powder.

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

Size: 152cm.

First Impression: Its been a while since I rode camber but it didn’t require any adjustment and was just solid. The first day on the eden was icy death and camber held an edge no problem.

Weight: average

Flex: The eden is right in the middle of the road, it didn’t feel like the cadence which has the park rocker but it wasn’t as stiff as the push.  Overall it was middle of the road, medium flex from tip to tail.  Torsionally it was really easy to get on edge and initiate the board into turns.  The eden is a camber board so nothing crazy in terms of tech but camber has proven to be long lasting.

Turning: Really easy to initiate the board into each turn and features a blended tri-radial sidecut that makes turning super easy on the board without throwing you off balance or bucking you into a turn.  The eden handled both short and long radius turns, holding an edge just fine and making it a very consistent ride down the mountain.

Stable: The first day I took out the eden, it was icy death on the mountain.  Seriously the runs were just that screeching sound you have come to hate.  Luckily the eden held it’s own and reminded me why I do love camber, it holds an edge on the icy death days.  I found that it remained stable, never washing out on those conditions.  When I took it out on more groomed normal days, it was stable at faster speeds and on better snow.  In some powder, I definitely leaned back to ride through but it charged through some pow sections just fine.  The smaller size did better than I thought and overall was a consistently good ride when it came to stability.

Pop: I hit one of the smaller jumps in the park but nothing crazy big, the pop was fun and typical camber pop.  Its focus is more on the park and mountain which made the board a lot of fun just playing around with, even though it wasn’t reverse camber the camber gave it the stability and good pop.

Switch: The eden is a directional board but I didn’t find it too much of an adjustment when it came to switch riding.  It handled quite nicely switch and I felt just as comfortable on it switch as regular.

Overall Impression: The eden was impressive, it was such a good all around board that I could ride it all the time and feel comfortable on it no matter what the conditions were.  It was great to be back on camber and nice to have edgehold on the icy day but also be able to charge on the powder day.

Shay’s Honesty Box: It was a really refreshing ride. Not sure if it was the camber or just the overall feel of the eden but it was fun to get out on the mountain with both and enjoy the ride.  It handled the whole mountain and I gotta say it’s one of my favorite graphics of the year.  It never felt like a 152cm when I rode it either, felt like a bigger board.

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

On Snow Photo

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Arbor Eden description

Review Disclosure: I borrowed this board from Arbor Snowboards.