Snowboard Review: 11-12 Never Summer Premier F1

Location: Mammoth, CA

Snow Conditions: Mixture of hardpacked icy conditions to soft packed slushy conditions.

Setup: I rode the Never Summer Premier F1 with my Union Team bindings and Vans Veil Boots size 8.

Size: 159cm.

First Impression: The Premier has always been that board for freeriders to the core.

Weight: Average.

Flex: The Premier F1 is on the stiffer side for flex and comparable to the Raptor in the line-up.  It’s a tad softer on the nose, with a stiffer powerful tail that delivers up more response from the tail end of the board.  Between the bindings there’s a softer torsional flex so it still delivers up response from edge to edge. It’s pretty good on the dampening, most stuff you throw its way it won’t let you get bumped around.  The Premier F1 features RC technology which is reverse camber, rocker and camber, rocker between the feet and camber just outside of the bindings.

Turning: There are many types of turns a board can make depending on the sidecut and effective edge.  While the Raptor gives you quick aggressive turns that are less forgiving, the Premier F1 is the board that delivers a consistent carve with no surprises and it’s for the most part more forgiving than the Raptor.  The Premier F1 still has decent edge to edge response, it handles and holds an edge on the icy spots.  This board does fine on the shorter turns and the longer turns, it just lets you ride it without worrying about too much pressure or effing up.

Stable: Overall good dampness to absorb the softer slushy terrain I encountered.  On the hardpacked icy steeper terrain it did really good, just held an edge and was a comfortable stable ride. Definitely easy to compare this board to the Raptor for flex but noticeably different on carving handling and dampening.  The Premier still holds its own, it’s a board for those who just want to carve, turn, carve, turn.

Pop: I took the Premier F1 through some limited jumps and pipe on the mountain and mostly played with it up top on the harder more challenging terrain.  It did fine on jumps and really impressive on the edgehold especially in the pipe/icy conditions.

Switch: The Premier F1 is a directional freeride board so riding switch will take some adjustment but it’s not impossible. I’ve ridden the board with a more forward stance and felt fine when switching around.

Overall Impression: The Premier F1 is Never Summer’s freeride specific board. It offers a stable ride with good dampening to handle the iffy conditions, it floats in powder with the shape and it’s that board that continues to work for those who call themselves pure freeriders.

Shay’s Honesty Box: Before the Lotus arrived, this was my freeride board from NS. It is consistently been the same board with minor tweaks, built for freeriding and built to handle the mountain. In the scheme of boards, it’s not as nimble edge to edge as the Raptor (or as dampening), it’s not as playful as the evo or proto and it definitely isn’t the SL, built for all mountain.  The Premier is the freeride board, it’s consistent, it carves and it just works just how it is.

Ready to buy? Head over to evo for the Never Summer Premier F1 or shop their full line of Never Summer snowboards

On Snow Photo

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Never Summer Premier F1 description

Review Disclosure: This board was given to me by Never Summer Snowboards.