Arbor Coda 2016 - 2010 Review by The Good Ride

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

Size: 160
Days:  20+
Conditions: Loose light Rockies snow with some pretty hard spots in places.  Soft perfect Sierra snow.
Riders: James, Peter, Mary, and a few others.
Boots: Burton Ion, Nike Kaiju, Burton Ruler, Salomon Synapse, Burton Imperial, Burton Hail,
Bindings:  Burton Cartel, Burton Genesis, Flux SF, Flux DS, Flux TT, Union Contact Pro, Burton Malavita, Burton Cartel Limited,
Set Up: 23″ Wide 15 front -15 back Centered Stance

The 2014 and 2015 Arbor Coda’s nose was extended making the size 1cm longer than the older models and the effective edge was shortened but the general ride is very similar.  Now it’s just a more playful and one of the better centered stance twins when it comes to powder play.

On Snow Feel: So even with the new shape the Coda offers the same loose almost semi-stable between the foot kind of ride. The soft flexing core with bamboo in it is very distinct and unique. It is soft but very springy at the same time. It’s got this kind of bouncy ride that seems like you wouldn’t like it until you ollie.  Then you really like it. Arbor describes this as an all mountain to freeride board but to us it doesn’t feel at all like an a typical all mountain board.  Instead it feels like a big loose freestyle board for the mountain.

Powder: The change to the nose is pretty significant. The Arbor Coda went from a traditional round nose in 2013 to a pretty massive shovel nose in 2014.  You loose a little contact with the snow but you gain a lot more float. We had no powder with the 2014 Arbor Coda but based on our powder experience with the 2013 combined with the potential of the new shovel tip/tail in deep thick powder. Even if you are more of a directional rider (like me) you can still have a great time in deep thick powder with a centered stance and even have a bit of a surfy experience.  This is an excellent powder board for those that take a switch/freestyle experience to powder and a great board for those that like to ride set back/surfy and directional in powder.  Nice upgrade here.

Turn Initiation and Carving: Short radius turns are very quick and loose edge to edge.  You don’t have that stable groomer board feel when making turns but it still has a fun turning personality.  It’s just different than what you expect.  It’s not a board to carve with and this is one area where I’d love to see some improvement. The edge grips more than fine but there is no tip/tail there to help you spring out of a turn. Instead of a butter, ollie, carve all over the mountain kind of ride you have more of a butter and ollie kind of board that can make moderate but not really carvy turns.

Speed:  The 2014 Arbor Coda has the same speed issues as the old Coda. The same springy flexy core that allows you to ollie so well makes speed not that ideal. It feels like car with soft bouncy shocks as you pick up speed.  You can still go fast like Peter does but it’s just not the kind of stability you are use to.  Some won’t mind and others might find this less than ideal.  For me I didn’t mind the lack of speed because all I wanted to do was find something for my beat up old body to Ollie off.

Uneven Terrain: So this isn’t ideal at speed but dealing with a bumpy end of the day groomer is about as good as it gets.  The soft shock feel combined with the somewhat narrow waist makes this incredibly easy to deal with bumpy uneven snow.  It’s not a chunder buster like the Steepwater but instead it’s an incredibly slower speed mogul negotiator.

Edge Hold: The Arbor System technology provides in my opinion the perfect amount of grip for those that ride in a wide variety of conditions. If you see ice most of the time something like Magnetraction is better but if you see thick powder one day, soft to medium groomer snow and hard to icy snow the next the Coda is a great board for keeping the ride fun.  It holds an edge very well between the feet but doesn’t give you that overly grippy feel that some aggressive magnetraction side cuts offer.

Flex: Pretty soft and playful.  The bamboo in the core allows the board to just keep flexing and then it springs back.  Great for playing around and big board buttering all over the mountain.

Switch: Same feel either way.

Jibbing: The length of the board is the only thing that makes this not a great jib board.  Still it can be very fun in the jib park.

Pipe: Great easy grip in the pipe and most riders will really like this board here.  It’s just missing that wall to wall drive than many great to excellent pipe boards have.  It’s very forgiving though and many who aren’t that strong in the pipe will really like this forgiving good gripping ride.  So a good technical pipe rider will find this good but an average pipe rider might find this great to excellent.

Jumps:  Just pops and pops and pops. All the spring is right between your feet so it’s not like ollieng from a camber board. Once you figure that out you realize that this springs big. All we wanted to do on this board was find something on the mountain to ollie off. The lack of any camber in the tip tail does make it a little less ideal for a bad landing but with all that bouncy spring in the board it’s hard to really fault it.

So all in all the 2014 and 2015 Arbor Coda offers a big change and really emphasises the freestyle in all mountain freestyle. If you like speed and carving you will want another board but if you live to treat the mountain like a park in deep powder or on harder snow you will really like this playful springy ride.