Bataleon Evil Twin Asymetrical 2016 Review by The Good Ride

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The Bataleon Evil Twin Asymmetrical/ETA is an asymmetrical board with a strong lift on the sides of tip/tail that then tapers off a good bit past the effective edge.  If you look at the tip or tail head on it looks like a smile.  It’s a very catch-free ride with a med/soft to med mountain friendly flex.  So if you keep it to jibbing and buttering in the park it’s pretty fun but we weren’t fans of how it turned compared to many of its peers.

Ethics Statement: We don’t get paid by the manufacturer to write these reviews.  We do make money from the “Where To Buy” links, but this is our best attempt at an honest and objective review from an average riders’ perspective.

Size: 156

Days:   1
Conditions:  Not great but pretty good.  Some harder snow but mostly medium spring-like conditions that we have fun riding on.
Riders: James, Jimbo, Peter,
Boots: Burton SLX, Burton Imperial, Nike Kaiju’s
Bindings: Switchback
Set Up:  Centered, about 23″ wide 15 front -15 back

Approximate Weight: Felt normal maybe bordering on light.

Flex: Mediumish but more on the med/soft side.

Sizing: 156 felt just right for Peter and me with our 8.5-9 boots but too narrow for Jimbo with his 11’s. It’s heel/toe drag time for him and not really for anyone 10+.

On Snow Feel: The Bataleon ETA has a feel that is tricky and hard for us to get used to on the few runs we had at the demo.  It’s got this feel underfoot similar to camber when flat basing but as you put it on edge it starts to act more like its continuous rocker.  Our first impression is we felt tricked into thinking we are on camber but then nothing happens when you pressure the edges for a turn.  The more I kept the pressure between the feet like a rocker board the more control I felt. This is something that I feel takes time to adjust too and we didn’t have the time to adjust.  The initial take was a bit unsettling though. So it feels stable and doesn’t auto spin as most rocker or hybrid rocker boards can but it does feel washy.

Edge Hold: This was a demo board so the edges might have been de-tuned but the edge hold was really limited.  Even in the snow that allowed us lot’s of grip with other boards this let go almost instantly.  The turns at the beginning of the vid above I made were as hard as I could go without the Bataleon ETA washing out on me.

Turn Initiation: Nice and quick edge to edge and the board could easily negotiate through any tight spot or thick tree run.

Turning Experience: Like we said above the Bataleon ETA has two personalities.  A camber personalty flat basing and then a rocker personality turning.  That makes it hard to get used to immediately.  I tried to adjust but I kept getting a washy feeling on anything semi-committed.  I wouldn’t say this board is for those that like to make all kinds of turns all over the mountain.

Carving:  Not a good carver and the more we committed to the edge the more it let go.  I really had to keep the pressure between the feet and try to keep it on the part that wasn’t lifted in the middle but I could not lay out a hard turn without it washing out on us.

Skidded Turns: Very easy to skid turns and the TBT has that same super forgiving catch-free feel as a continuous rocker ride.

Speed: It’s got decent mountain speed and it felt on par to a little better than you would think for its flex but what Peter didn’t like about it was the board’s ability to break with the limited edge hold.

Uneven Terrain: The Bataleon ETA can handle uneven snow very well.

Powder: No powder to speak of but based on some experience with other TBT boards with similar TBT we found it to float well and it’s similar to many hybrid rocker and hybrid camber boards.

Buttering: Super easy to butter and you could butter the ETA all day.

Switch: Perfect either way.  Wasn’t sure about Asymm TBT but it seemed to work well and we didn’t feel anything off about an Asymmetrical board.  That being said you could if you aren’t perfectly centered and perfectly duck.  That’s key with riding any Asymm board.

Jumps: The Bataleon ETA has lot’s of pop and if you ollie off the camber portion from the center when flat basing it pops well.  I felt that when you tried to load it off an edge it didn’t respond right and felt like a rocker board there.  I think the flex is well done and the board has dynamic pop but the TBT was tricky to figure out.

Jibbing: Really good for jibbing and we felt this and buttering was it’s stronger attributes.

Pipe: Due to it being a shitty season we couldn’t take it in the pipe cuz there wasn’t one available to the public.  If there was a pipe available I would not want to go due to the lack of edge hold. I’m not a strong pipe rider but the boards feel underfoot would not inspire confidence.  I’d much rather jib with this board.

So, all in all, it buttered super well, jibbed well and had good snap from certain angles on the TBT camber profile.  However, for us, we couldn’t get around its dual personality when turning which is important for us when riding the mountain. If you keep this mostly in the park, love to butter and jib then this might work.