Salomon Drift Snowboard

Salomon Drift In Depth Review

The Salomon Drift Review by The Good Ride

Riders 3
Bindings- Salomon Hologram
Boots- Burton Ion, Nike Kaiju, DC Judge 

The Drift will be loose and playful but a little more stable in flat sections and on harder snow.  The Drift also has the same sidecut as the Salomon Grip which makes for better edge hold than a regular side cut, but it’s lacking when it comes to ice.  Flat rocker boards have their design against them when it comes to generating pop so they have to create extra tech to make it spring.  The Drift Rocker doesn’t have the spring that some flat/rocker boards do. This is a great butter around the mountain kind of board and it isn’t made for higher speeds and carves like some boards of this design can. Still for the price it’s hard to be too picky.  If you like to butter around the mountain and are on a limited budget the Drift Rocker might work. If you are looking for more stability, better edge hold and more pop try the Drift Camber.  It won’t be as playful as the Drift Rocker or float as well in powder though.

Soo much  buttery playful fun that could also handle moderate speed.  The Drift is one of those forgiving  and playful freestyle boards that all of us liked a lot.  For some reason it never really shined over a lot of boards in one category but it always was fun to play around on.  It’s stable, forgiving and all around easy ride made it a Good Ride Favorite for those who like to butter and ride in everything except ice.

Groomers- This isn’t an ideal groomer board but it can do pretty well especially if you are going slow and trying to turn the natural features on the sides or even the groomer itself into a park.  You can pick up a little speed.

Powder- This has some pretty decent rocker so for a twin it’s pretty easy there.  It has a nice float and if you ride switch with a centered stance a lot in powder it’s one of the better twins out there for it.

Turn Initiation/Carving- This was borderline super easy and we never felt like we had to work for anything.  The flat between the feet is minimal had Kyle and Peter feeling like it was continuous rocker.  Still there is more stability here between the feet than most continuous rocker boards.  It’s not that much fun to carve but it’s wash out point is later than you would think.  This is all about short to medium radius turns.

Speed- Nothing to boast about here but look at it from this perspective.  This is a soft board in the same realm as something like the skate banana so for it to get a good rating is pretty impressive.  It’s just on the border of average to good but we’ll give it a good because it’s one of the faster boards in it’s class.

Weight- Didn’t feel like a problem on the chair or on the mountain.  Just a down the middle kind of board.

Edge Hold- Now we like this side cut and it’s borderline great but it’s not how Salomon Markets it.  We hit many snowment patches (step up from pure ice but pretty hard) and had no problem with keeping an edge.  Still we felt it didn’t grip as well as other boards like the Sabotage or Villain.  Still it’s a good all around hold that can work with most conditions you want to ride in.  I wouldn’t hesitate going out on the mountain when it’s hard.  If it’s icy like the east coast I’d rather have something else.

Flex- This is a soft and playful flex throughout the entire board. We loved the feel.  You can butter with ease and it’s a blast to play around on.

Switch- Very easy like all true twins.

Rails/Jibs- We don’t destroy the jib park but this gave us a confidence booster. We had a fun time anywhere in the jib park and it was easy to bonk around anywhere.

Pipe- This doesn’t have the drive between pipe walls to really shine here but the edge hold is pretty good and the ride is forgiving.  If you like the pipe but aren’t obsessed with it the Drift will do well.

Jumps- Some of us felt it was average pop and others felt it was springy.  It’s pretty easy to ollie but we all unanimously felt it couldn’t spring with boards like the Salomon Sabotage. Going off a kicker was easy and forgiving.  It felt easier to spin with this than most boards out there.

All in all we had a great time on the Drift and it’s one of those solid do anything in the park kind of boards that many will like.

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