Vew-Do Indy 2013 - 2012 Review by The Good Ride

• User Reviews
• Product Specs
• Product Images
• Questions?

So there are two major Balance Board companies that we have encountered and extensively demoed.  There are The Indo Boards and the VooDoo Boards.  Both offer good balance training but the Vewdo Indy we have seems to work better when it comes to retaining muscle memory for snowboarding.

Ethics Statement: We don’t get paid by the manufacturer to write these reviews.  No one is perfect and we do make money from the “Where To Buy” links below, but this is our best attempt at an honest and objective review from an average riders’ perspective.

In addition to snowboarding a lot of our crew surfs and some skate. For some reason, the Indo Board has been what we came across and used but I only encountered a Vewdo board once.  So one of The Good Ride readers (Nicolas) felt it was strange that the Indo Board was up but the Vewdo wasn’t.  He connected me with someone from Vewdo, a board was sent and Voila!  Now we have both and actually prefer the Vewdo Indy for keeping our snowboard muscle memory.

Now there are many boards in the Vewdo line and this is a little more advanced than others.  If you are just getting into this you might want to consider the Pickle Nub or Butter Nub because if you aren’t familiar with this type of training it could end in a fall or two.

Design
The Vew-Do Indy’s board is smaller like the size of a skateboard and about the width of a normal snowboard stance.  The wood feels solid and the board looks nice. The tip/tail turn up just like a skateboard and the flat between them is about 23″ which is about the average snowboarders’ stance which is good.  Below the board is a plastic track that feels very sturdy and is attached very well so it looks like it won’t break.  The Track connects to a groove in the middle of the one piece roller. The one-piece roller tapers at each end so it looks like a cylinder with 2 Cones at each end.

Training from a snowboarders perspective
The VewDo Indy’s wood roller is fast and much faster underfoot than the plastic with rubberized tracks roller that the Indo board offered. On carpet it’s fine but when it’s wood on wood (insert joke here) it’s very fast back and forth.  The plastic track has stoppers so you just don’t shoot out of the groove and fall on your ass.  Rocking back and forth takes some getting used to for a novice but if you are familiar with balance boards then it’s going to be the same as the others in terms of getting proficient. Rocking back and forth on the Indy or holding it still seems to fire almost all the muscles as when you snowboard.  On a good winter, my back leg gets stronger than my front so its not too hard to isolate one leg on the trainer and give it a little more of a work out than the other.

So because of the tapered roller and the track you can lean into it similar to how you do when transitioning from edge to edge on a snowboard.  It seems to keep your muscles in the arches of your feet, calves, and shins that are used when snowboarding.  It keeps you in better shape than the other balance trainers we have encountered when using the cylinder.  It accomplishes the same thing that the inflatable accessory would do for the Indo-board when simulating edge to edge transitioning but at a lower price.

You can Ollie with this board but landing back in the track for an average rider like myself and the other Good Riders is very difficult. This is probably our only complaint.  When it comes to spinning around it’s easier and more fun than the indoboard here too.  It kind of simulates how you would butter a snowboard which is good training too.

Summary
So all in all the Vew-Do Indy is a pretty solid board for keeping your balance and snowboard strength up in the summer or downtime. It’s not a perfect snowboard simulator but it’s as good as it gets and it’s really fun. Thanks, Nicolas for recommending this board to us and getting us in touch with Vew-Do.