Ride Manic 2014 - 2012 Review by The Good Ride

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The Ride Manic has the same kind of all mountain to freeride ride as the old flat to rocker Highlife but it’s mellowed out for the entry level snowboarder. The Manic is going to be a great board for an aspiring freerider or mostly mountain rider that wants to learn how to go fast and get the basics of turning down. Not much has changed from 2013 to 2014.

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: 158
Days:  1
Conditions: Good snow with some harder areas here and there.
Riders: James
Boots: Burton Ion
Bindings: Burton Cartel
Set Up: Set back some but not all the way.  23″ wide 15 front -6 back

On Snow Feel: Very stable and forgiving but at the same time has a get aggressive if you want to feel. It’s a pretty stiff board but the directional flat to rocker camber profile keeps the ride a lot more consequence-free that it would be with a hybrid camber or camber profile. Most of Ride’s non-UL boards have that ultra-damp feeling that some love and others call dull.  This has that feeling that has been growing on me over the years. This is a pretty good aggressive all mountain training board.  If you are more of an advanced rider the Bezerker and even more so the Highlife UL would be the call.

Powder: There was some off-piste play with this board in thicker soft snow but I did not experience a true powder day.  From what I experienced in the thick not so fun snow in the trees I could tell it’s going to have an easy float in the powder that is closer to the excellent side of great.  It will treat the beginning to intermediate rider well when learning the art of keeping afloat on deep days.  There is also a decent set back of -20mm so that will help you keep that nose up in thick deep powder.

Turn Initiation and Carving:  It requires you to think about turning but it’s not technically hard to turn. It’s not super quick or super slow but just somewhere in the middle.  So, in other words, the board is easy for its flex but hard if you compare it to a medium flexing hybrid rocker or continuous rocker twin. Short to wide radius turns didn’t have any magic going on but its fun enough.  Carving is much better with the Bezerker and much much better with the Highlife UL.  This board was missing a little spring out of the turn that is a common characteristic when it comes to flat to rocker rides.

Speed: The base isn’t super fast but the Board is pretty damp so it will teach you how to straight line well without that out the quick acceleration that many higher end boards have. For the price, the speed is excellent but compared to it’s older brothers it’s not.

Uneven Terrain: Rides ultra damp feeling is in this board so you really feel like you have an extra layer of protection (insert joke here) between you and the snow.  It’s a little dull but you can pound the shit out of it.

Edge Hold: It holds a pretty good edge but it’s not a board to buy if you mainly ride in harder conditions. When I hit icy patches it didn’t just give way.  It held but not with utter surety. You could go out on a medium to hard day and lay into a hard turn.

Flex: Pretty much medium/stiff and not the easiest to butter or press with but you could do it

Switch:   There is a difference in rocker between the nose and tail.  There is also a directional-ish shape going on here so it’s not the same switch or regular.  That being said you could get used to it if you wanted to ride switch with it.

Jibbing:  No jibbing was attempted.  I’m not a good jibber and this felt a little too much for me to want to go hit a jib park with.

Pipe: Only a lap or 2 in the pipe and it was ok but I’d rather be on the Machete GT or the DH instead of this board.

Jumps:  You can get the board to ollie pretty well and it’s not bad approaching a kicker but it’s more of a natural feature kind of board on the mountain. It snaps well enough into the air but I liked the board better when it was on the snow…

All in all the Ride Manic is a good entry level board for someone that wants to get into the groomer, powder and higher speed game. It’s missing a little on a carve but other than that it’s a solid entry level all mountain board.