Thrive Relentless Snowboard Video and Written Review Review by The Good Ride

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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 &155
Days: 4
Conditions: Hard in the morning turning to soft and then slush both days.
Riders: James and Jimbo
Boots: Burton Imperial, Burton Hail, Burton SLX
Bindings: Burton Cartel, Union Factory, Burton Diode
Set Up: Centered 23″ wide 15 front -15 back

Approximate Weight: Felt normal.

On Snow Feel:  Very stable, fast aggressive, wide waist feel to it and I felt like my size 9’s couldn’t quite get this board to do exactly what I want when I want it to.  Slow edge to edge, not loose between the feet but not catchy either. Very stable and fast. It’s got a good feel to and a healthy personality.

Powder:  No powder but I’d much rather be on the Renegade in pow here because this is pretty flat. I actually thought this was flat camber at first but there is a mellow camber in it. I’ve never had an easy floating experience with a completely flat board or camber. If you are a good rider it will plane well and you won’t have issues but if you are someone who is into the easy floating feel in powder this will most likely tax your back leg.

Turn Initiation and Carving: At first I thought this was a flat camber board but it turns out it has a mellow camber which makes more sense.  I kept thinking wow this carves well for a flat camber board and what did they do to make it feel like camber.  Quick edge to edge transitioning was not happening and I realized I’d be happier with a smaller size. The 158 was just too much board for my size 9 feet. It’ was pretty much medium to wide turns only and it required more effort than I thought to even skid a turn into a stop or spray snow. The carving took some work for me to just get the board from one side of the groomer to another and I could not get it to go back uphill no matter how hard I leaned into it but again this board isn’t made for my size 9 boot. Despite that, the carve felt pretty good and I bet a bigger foot like a size 11 would have a lot of fun laying hard into a turn and be able to throw this around pretty well. Despite being out of my element size wise you could feel a nice lively spring to the board from turn to turn.

Speed: Pretty fast and it felt pretty comfortable and stable picking up speed. It liked to build momentum and it felt pretty stable at speed for a twin.  It also had a decent glide to it. So this is a fast twin.

Uneven Terrain:  In the bumpy snow on the bottom of the mountain the Relentless had a good feel to it and although I couldn’t turn it super quick through ruts it didn’t punish you in tracked up snow.

Edge Hold:  Nice middle ground edge hold that held well enough in the medium to harder snow in the morning.  There is no special thing going on in the sidecut but it does hold better than I expected. I always took out another board on the same day with something going on with the edge hold to see if there was a difference and usually they were better but not by as much as I thought.

Flex:  The board felt medium to bordering on med/stiff. Buttering and pressing were not too hard but you could feel the board not want to get to butter crazy.

Switch:   Same either way.  It’s twin.

Jibbing:  This board felt too stiff and too much work for me to handle in the jib park so I didn’t even bother to do so.  It was better to pick up some speed regular or switch on the mountain for me. I’m not as strong jibber and this was not a confidence inspiring ride for the jib park.

Pipe:  No pipe but like the jib park I would not want to have to make a quick adjustment on the wall and this board did not feel easy to throw around.

Jumps:  Pretty snappy when it comes to an ollie and I could pop pretty easy off little hits around the mountain. In the park, I only hit some small kickers but it felt like a lot of work to spin.  I’d much rather be on their 155 here as it’s smaller waist size would be easier to throw around.

So all in all this is a good board and while camber doesn’t usually have a complete ride this could do well for the mid/wide rider that likes to ride switch, fast, get a wider radius carve and ollie. I’d be more interested in trying the 155 the next time as it’s a pretty fun ride.