Endeavor Archetype On The Table 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.

How This Review Happened:  We borrowed this for an extended demo and then returned it.
Size: 158
Days: 6+
Conditions:  Really good early morning groomers to messy snow to some pretty thick/deep powder to some light fluffy deep powder on an early morning slackountry run with Drift Boards.
Riders: James (Size 9, 5’10” 185-195lbs), Grant (Size 11 6’ 160lbs), Zobel (Size 11.5, 6’ 180lbs), Nick (Size 10, 160lbs, 5’8”)
Boots: Adidas Tactical ADV,
Insoles: Sandsole Custom Insoles,  Footprint Insole Technology Gameghangers Low Profile
Bindings: Union Atlas, Union Strata, Union Falcor

Similar Boards (but not the same) That We Compared This To:
Gentemstick Mantaray 156, Korua Dart, Korua Pencil, Endeavor Scout, Endeavor Maverick
Burton Flight Attendant, Elevated Redtail Hawk, Rome Powder Division

Set-Up: 22” Wide. 21 front 0 to -3 back. Close to Reference and Set all the way back.

Approximate Weight: Feels normal.

Sizing:  The 158 was perfect for my size 9 boots and I would not recommend going up past size 10 boots. This is not really a mid/wide even though the waist width could lead you to believe that. The taper in the tail makes the board less wide overall.

Flex/Buttering:  Such an energetic flex and there is lots of lively pop in the Endeavor Archetype. It is not too easy to butter but man it pops hard.

On Snow Feel/Ability Level/Skidded Turns: So looking at this board with around 20mm of taper, a big old swallowtail and this directional camber profile you would think super surfy and slashy. It can be a little of that and for sure is that way in comparison to the rest of Endeavors line but compared to it’s peers it feels like it has less taper than it does, ton’s of technical camber giving it a pretty locked-in feel and it has a fun but aggressive all-around feel to it. The Endeavor Archetype is not for intermediates and best for experts. It also has a ride that feels much more centered on board than you would think by looking at the specs.

Edge Hold: Very competent hard snow edge hold and while not amazing for harder turns in hard snow it doesn’t let go if you dial back your turns.

Turn Initiation: Pretty medium to med/fast when turning and it has a nice pop to it when making quick turns. I felt comfortable in tight spots and trying to slalom through trees on it.

Turning Experience/Carving: Such a fun powerful carver and I didn’t expect it with all that swallowtail but there is some surface area on those tails that really holds well on a carve. You do need more back foot weight like you would with most tapered rides like this but it didn’t feel like it was as much as some boards with as much taper and it does such a great job springing you out of a turn. It’s almost completely cambered and you can for sure feel it. This was the surprise highlight riding the Endeavor Archetype. It rips on groomers.

Powder: So I had a few powder days with the Endeavor Archetype. One was blower goodness that was pretty deep and it really handled itself well there.  The next powder day was messy and medium thick. It did fine there too and out floated all other boards in Endeavors line. Then the last was a pretty deep thigh high day in some pretty thick snow and it felt like a lot more work than some of its peers I rode on the same day and my back leg was getting a little burn going. Even when it’s set all the way back it still feels more centered on board than so many other swallow tails I have tried. What that also did was make it feel soo much better for getting air. So you sacrifice a little easy directional float for a much better board for air in powder. When setting it all the way back on the painted recommended stance area you can get almost 6 inches difference from nose to tail and around 7 if you go further past the painted area so that makes it 3 to 3.5” back on board if you get non-est bindings which we suggest doing. That is a good bit but not a massive amount of setback on board for a swallowtail.

Speed: Very fast and stable. The base had good glide to it as well.

Uneven Terrain: Very good for powering over things as well as not bad for turning around. It’s a stiffer board but it does very well at keeping what’s happening under the board from reverberating chatter into your joints. It’s a nice damp ride and it can handle uneven snow of all types pretty well.

Switch: More doable than you would think.

Jumps: A really snappy and poppy ride that ollies really well and can go as big as you want. Still going small to medium is far from awkward and it made me look for more places to launch off when I was on it.

Jibbing:  nope…

Pipe: It was pretty fun in a pipe as long as you don’t go switch and it drove really well from wall to wall.

All in all, the Endeavor Archetype was a powerful carving jump friendly kind of ride that I think could work for those that want a swallowtail but also don’t want to lose that air oriented more common freeride kind of ride.