Shayboarder’s 2013 Top Picks

Each year hundreds of snowboard products are reviewed on Shayboarder.com but how do you know which ones stood out from the rest? That’s where the Top Picks come into play.

Last year after much demand, I created the Shayboarder.com Top Picks in order to showcase the gear that ranks the highest out of reviews. On the right corner of a review, if you see this logo with the subhead underneath you’ll know that this board was a Top Pick and to be recognized for being AWESOME!

Here are the 2013 Top Picks for Men’s and Women’s Snowboards.

Jones Hovercraft

The Hovercraft is Jones Snowboards powder board. The blunt nose and directional rocker keep you floating without having to ride the backseat, the camber underfoot and stiffer rear flex allow for the board to ride the groomers and harder conditions. But in all honestly, you just want to surf the pow with this board. It’s meant to ride open freshies with only its trail left behind. When I knew I was going to BC and AK, I immediately asked to bring the Hovercraft with me. It didn’t underestimate, it loved the powder and floated, surfed and made me smile a lot. Click here for the full review.

Capita DBX

The Capita DBX is Dan Brisse’s pro model/Volcom collab board with Capita. It’s designed to be all-mountain, all-handling just like Dan rides. The freeride FK camber profile gives it the stabilty of the mountain and the Totally FK’n awesome shape gives it playfulness but it is also packed with pop. The last day of the demo was the Chinese Downhill race so I decided to try the DBX out on the last runs of the day and use it during the race. It was a good choice, I was last out of the start of the race but the DBX could definitely handle the charging, bumpy, chopped up snow without eating it. The only downside of this board is it only comes in one size, the 157cm.Click here for the full review.

Ride Buckwild

The Buckwild offers up a park ride with the stability of the flat zone with Ride’s technology. It’s a good all-around snowboard, whether you want to ride the park or lap the groomers. The stiffer flex combined with the twin rocker and slimewalls, helped give it a really good stable ride down the mountain. The Buckwild did a good job of standing out from the crowd at the demo and it received quite a bit of ride time because I didn’t want to get off of it. It was memorable, it was fun and it was one of my favorite boards of the Mission Ridge demo.  Click here for the full review.

Rome Hammerhead

The Hammerhead is Rome’s latest freestyle snowboard with influence from the classic Hosoi skate influence shape. It’s insanely fun and the shape gets so much attention on the mountain, it’s just weird looking but you still have a very capable board underneath to play on. I wasn’t sure what to think about the Rome Hammerhead when I first saw it but it looked fun and crazy…which can be a good combo. At the on-snow it was probably the funnest board I rode during the demos, super playful and softer with a crazy fun design to it. Props to Rome. Click here for the full review.

K2 Highlite

The Highlite is new for women riders for 2013 and definitely one of my favorite women’s boards from the demo. It was lighter but handled with an aggressive charging attitude. I really liked the flex, the shape of the board and a great start for stepping up women riders. Over the years I’ve watched companies limit the amount of boards an aggressive woman can ride and make it more likely that women will switch to men’s boards. So it was good to see K2 come out with a women’s board built for aggressive all mountain riding.Click here for the full review.

GNU Ladies Choice

The Ladies Choice is an all mountain destroyer, it’s Jamie Anderson’s pro model and totally capable of whatever you throw its way. It’s a good all around medium flex, totally capable of riding the park with playfulness or handling any cruising. I liked that at the end of the day, the MTX gripped the snow and the asymmetrical was awesome for heelside turns. This was one of the highly anticipated women’s boards I wanted to try. Mostly because Jamie Anderson rips and because any board underneath her better be as playful and as charging as she rides. It’s the best of both worlds and a great choice for GNU women to have a board that is meant for the entire mountain. Click here for the full review.

Endeavor Diamond

The Diamond is Endeavor’s higher end women’s all mountain board that can ride anything you want. It’s slightly stiffer in the right spots to make sure it can handle the mountain without getting bumped around. The zero camber gives you the board good grip on the hardpacked and it still has a fun flare to how it handles. The Diamond is completely redesigned for 2013 but it still keeps up that Endeavor formula for riding. It’s built and designed to be more mountain riding than the Boyfriend (which I loved last year). Having never ridden the Diamond, I thought it rode pretty damn good, handled the mountain and still had some playfulness to it that I wasn’t expecting.Click here for the full review.

Jones Mothership

The Mothership impressed and I ended up loving it during the demos. It could charge just as hard as any of the men’s boards but there was still a feminine touch to the board where it was quick, responsive and could just float from turn to turn. It was a smooth ride and built for riding with the boys or girls when you wanna cruise.Click here for the full review.