Location: Keystone, CO
Snow Conditions: Softpacked corduroy to hard packed night riding.
Setup: I rode the Never Summer Pandora with Burton Escapade bindings and Ride Cadence Focus boots.
Size: 149
First Impression: The Pandora carries on the freestyle flare of the evo but built for women.
Weight: Average.
Flex: The Pandora is on the softer side but it’s a park board meant to be more playful. The softer flex is between the bindings with a torsional softness to it. It makes it really quick response torsionally. Then underfoot there is a stiffer flex to help with freeriding moments and landings. The Pandora features RC Technology which is a mix of rocker and camber, rocker between the feet and camber just outside both of the bindings.
Turning: The Pandora is a really quick snappy board on edge. I even took a picture of my carves on corduroy to show just how responsive the board can be with shorter turns. The longer radius turns weren’t as stable but I also take into account the smaller size board.
Stable: The softer freestyle flex of the Pandora holds up for riding the mountain but it’s not as stable as the Infinity or Lotus. It doesn’t have as much dampening so you do get bounced around on the choppy terrain. On the hardpacked night riding, it held an edge thanks to the vario grip but even on the ice it can slip out.
Pop: The pandora has good pop to it, easy to ollie and responsive for playing around on. I took it directly from the box into the park and it didn’t catch on boxes. Super playful and can flex easily from nose to tail.
Switch: The Pandora rides just like a true twin, easy to switch around and rides the same.
Overall Impression: The Never Summer Pandora is Never Summer’s female specific true twin park/freestyle board. It’s softer than the Infinity but still capable of freeriding the mountain. It offers less dampening than the other woman’s boards but it meant for a park board and playing around on.
Shay’s Honesty Box: I had only ridden the evo previously so it was good to finally get on the women’s version, the Pandora. Definitely had the same capabilities as the men’s version except softer, narrower and smaller in sizes. Definitely for my weight and style, I prefer something bigger than a 149cm but it did the job for early season park and groomer laps.
Review Disclosure: Never Summer sent me this board to test and review.
