Summary

The Arbor Cadence Rocker is a friendly freestyle board. It has a continuous rocker profile, a softer flex and a playful attitude. This review is on the 2022 Arbor Cadence Rocker, but it is still accurate for the 2024 season. Nothing much has changed except for the top sheet.
Riding Style Freestyle
Riding Level Beginner - Advanced
Fits Boot size (US) Women's, < 8, 8-10
Manufactured in Dubai by SWS
Shape True Twin
Camber Profile Continuous Rocker
Stance Centered
Approx. Weight Feels Normal
Split No
Powder Great
Base Glide Average
Carving Average
Speed Good
Uneven Snow Good
Switch Great
Jumps Good
Jibbing Great
Pipe Average
On Snow Feel

Loose

Turn Initiation

Fast

Skidded Turns

Easy

Flex

Medium/Soft

Buttering

Semi-Easy

Edge Hold

Medium Snow

Arbor Cadence Rocker Snowboard Video And Written Review Review by The Good Ride

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 rider’s perspective. 

How This Review Happened:  We borrowed this for an extended demo and then returned it.

Size: 148

Days: 3

Conditions: Spring conditions here in CA, icy mornings with slushy afternoons.

Riders: Steph

Boots: Vans Ferra Pro

Bindings: Union Milan

Set Up: 20″ Centered 15 front -15 back

Board Sizing: 139, 143, 147, 151

Camber Profile

Continuous rocker. The rocker is more prominent in the center and it slowly mellows out towards the nose and the tail.

Flex

3/10 flex. But just like the Cadence Camber, the flex felt a little stiffer than I was imagining it to be. It is flexible but not in an unstable way. It isn’t a super flex jib board feeling, but it is a forgiving flex that allows for butters and easy manipulation of the board.

On Snow Feel

The rocker profile keeps the Cadence Rocker feeling loose on the snow. It is more stable than some other full rocker boards I’ve tried. When riding flat based on the snow or skating it sometimes likes to spin on its own. This takes a little getting used to if you aren’t used to this feeling.

Edge Hold

For being a rocker board, it has a decent edge hold. But it won’t stand up to a board with some positive camber in there. The Cadence Rocker comes with Grip Tech. 4 added points of contact under the toes and heels placed near the bindings. This adds some extra edge hold in harder snow.

Powder

The Cadence Rocker should float really well in powder. Especially for being a true twin. The rocker profile helps the nose to stay above the snow. It won’t float as well as a board with a more directional ride, but it should do pretty well in most powder conditions for being a true twin board.

Steeps

Does ok in steeps. Not a high performance camber profile. Can make small skidded turns in almost any condition of snow or terrain. Will ride steeps, but in a more mellow and care free way. Not a hard charging steeps board.

Turn Initiation and Carving

The rocker profile keeps the Cadence Rocker tuning quickly. It is easy to initiate a turn. The soft flex allows torsional twist that makes it very maneuverable. However, there is less performance with the Cadence Rocker in turns when compared to the Cadence Camber. It likes more surfy, slashy turns. It doesn’t like to carve really and prefers a nice skidded turn.

Speed

It does pretty well being a softer flexing board, and having a rocker profile. Again, the 3/10 flex felt much more stable to me than I imaged it to be. It also has a sintered base that will keep it gliding fast as long as you keep the wax coming too.

Off Piste

Fast to turn off piste. Easy to turn in tight spots. Lacking a little in performance but good for someone who wants a quick turning board off piste.

Switch

A true twin. Riding switch feel the same as riding normal. Also a good choice for learning switch because it is so catch free and easy to turn.

Rails/Jibs

Would be a good choice for jibbing. It has a friendly flex, and the rocker profile lets you throw butter tricks on boxes and spin out of rails with minimal consequence. Although the pop is lacking a bit when jumping onto features.

Pipe

Not ideal for the pipe. The Cadence Camber would be a better choice if you’re looking for a pipe board.

Jumps

Ok on smaller jumps. It would be a good learning to jump board. Good for learning tricks as well. The rocker profile will keep it catch free for spins. Again, lacking a bit in the amount of pop and energy off of jumps.

Who Is This For?

The Arbor Cadence Rocker could be a good fit for a high beginner to intermediate/advanced rider. If you are looking for a playful true twin board and you want something friendly enough to learn in the park, ride all mountain and float in powder.

If this review helped, we’d appreciate if you:

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Arbor Cadence Rocker Past Reviews

2016

The continuous rocker shape of the Arbor Cadence usually is reserved for more of a pure freestyle board but the Arbor Cadence offers more of an all mountain freestyle ride. This is a really fun all conditions snowboard and will perform well on just about any type of snow.

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 rider’s perspective. 
How This Review Happened:  
We borrowed this for an extended demo and then returned it.

In 2011 the Arbor Cadence went from camber to continuous rocker.  It’s not the kind of continuous rocker that is super washy and performs better all over the mountain than almost any other type of continuous rocker board we have come across.  The 2013 Arbor Cadence is going to be pretty close to the 2012 model except for a few minor refinements. The 2014- 2016 Arbor Cadence didn’t change much either.  There is a new manufacturer but many of the people who worked at the old manufacturer are making the 2014 so there shouldn’t be too much of a change flex wise.

The 2018-2019 Arbor Cadence seems to be very similar to previous seasons as well.

On Snow Feel: Some Arbor boards offer a semi-stable ride but this is more on the loose between the feet kind of feel. The only problem is the rocker can feel a bit like a skateboard with loose trucks when riding on hard snow. It’s a typical continuous rocker kind of feel that is fun for freestyle riding.

Powder: This is a continuous rocker twin so if you love to ride switch in powder then you will love this board.  It has a good float that is very easy. It’s no directional ride but it’s about as good as twin’s with a centered stance can get.

Turn Initiation and Carving: The continuous rocker shape is easy to turn where most are super easy and we like that.  It’s easy edge to edge for short radius turns as well as wider radius turns. The grip tech seems to give the continuous rocker shape a better grip when laying into a carve but it’s still tenuous. If you don’t keep the turn between the feet it gets pretty washy but it’s better than you would think.

Speed: Pretty fast for how it’s built but it’s no Arbor Push. You can experience a little chatter when passing the moderate speed barrier and it can be a little loose between the feet when you do as well.

Uneven Terrain: So the Arbor Cadence can handle bumps no problem. If you have to slow down and deal with ruts, whoops, bumps and all kind of uneven snow it absorbs shock well and bounces through things. It’s a nice balance of speed and shock absorption on the poor terrain.

Edge Hold: The side-cut that they have is excellent and holds an edge just like Lib Tech, Roxy and Gnu.

Flex: This is a medium to maybe a touch on the stiffer side of medium.  Still, you can butter and press very well with this board.

Switch: Very easy either way like all true twins.

Rails/Jibs– Pretty easy on most jib’s but the more technical and bigger the Jibs/rails get the more you might or might not feel comfortable here.  We usually like softer here but some find this just right.

Pipe: Pretty fun but the drive is kind of missing from wall to wall. Still the edge hold is great so you won’t have any issues climbing the walls.

Jumps: The Arbor Cadence is also very poppy and easy to spring into the air off of even the smallest kicker or natural terrain. The ollie power is kind of the most fun part of this board and it’s very springy between the feet when you want to pop.

All in all, the Arbor Cadence is a very fun board and it will make many riders happy in or out of the park.

 
Arbor Cadence Rocker Specs

 
Arbor Cadence Rocker Images

We try to get as many images of the Arbor Cadence Rocker, but forgive us if they're not all there.

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Arbor Cadence Rocker User Reviews

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