Endeavor Pioneer 2020 Snowboard Review

Endeavor Pioneer On The Table and Written Review Review by The Good Ride

• User Reviews
• Product Specs
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• Questions?

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. We would love to have it in the quiver though.
Size: 156
Days: 6+
Conditions: Some hard uneven snow, some pretty good groomers, a little bit of powder, 1-2 feet of powder   and an early morning slackountry time with Drift Boards.
Riders: James (Size 9, 5’10” 185-195lbs),Grant (Size 11 6’ 160lbs),Nick (Size 10, 160lbs, 5’8”)
Boots: Adidas Tactical ADV, Burton Imperial
Insoles: Sandsole Custom Insoles,  Footprint Insole Technology Gameghangers Low Profile
Bindings: Union Atlas, Union Strata, Union Falcor, Union Superpro,

Similar Boards (but not the same) That We Compared This To:

Korua Otto, Loaded Algernon, Capita Mercury, Endeavor Ranger, Endeavor Live, Endeavor BOD, Endeavor Clout. Endeavor Scout, Endeavor Maverick (the last two mainly for pow float)

Set-Up: Approximately 22” Wide.15 Front -15 back, 18 to 21 front and 0 to -6 back. Close to reference and set all the way back.

Approximate Weight: Feels on the light side of normal but not too poppy

Sizing: The 154 worked well for my size 9’s and 185lbs but I think I might have had a little more fun on the 156. The 156 and 154 were wide enough for Nick with his size 10’s but not really for Grant and he had to dial back his turning pretty far. He would love the mid/wide.

Flex/Buttering: You can see from the On The Table Review of the Endeavor Pioneer above that it has a good bit of camber but not a massive amount. Still, it pops soo hard and really has a lively feel underfoot. The cool thing about this is we felt a lot of energy in the tip/tail where we usually don’t as much with other hybrid camber boards. It really snaps back well after a flex.

On Snow Feel/Ability Level/Skidded Turns: The Endeavor Pioneer is on the border of being semi-locked in but still more on the stable side and it has this consistent feel underfoot in all conditions. It can skid turns well but it’s not the most forgiving hybrid camber board we tried. In comparison to full camber, it’s super easy to skid turns but compared to many hybrid camber boards with a little less camber. Even though it is a little on the catchy side of stable it is a very confidence-inspiring ride for advanced to expert riders and not too much for intermediates who are committed to riding a lot.

Edge Hold: Really good grip for a more standard sidecut and the Edge held well in hards snow and although you had to dial back your turns a bit it never felt like it was just going to give you a surprise slip.

Turn Initiation: Pretty quick edge to edge and we were all comfortable in tight spots.

Turning Experience/Carving: There was a lot of good spring out of the turn and it was really fun to carve.

Powder: So even though the Endeavor Pioneer doesn’t have a super high rocker you can make up for that by setting it super far back for a directional twin. Even just using the last markers at a 22″ stance width you can get a difference between nose and tail of 4″ or 2″ back from the center of the board. If you go all the way back with non-Burton EST bindings (highly recommending not getting EST) you can get more like 5″ back on board and 2.5″ back from the center of sidecut. All specs aside, the Pioneer can float well when set all the way back and the only boards that were better than this were the Powder Quiver Series. Well, the Ranger was the same as the Pioneer because it’s a lower-cost version but these two boards really out floated the other twin/twinish rides in their line. This ride even hung in there with other all-mountain favorites of ours like the Loaded Algernon and Korua Otto which really surprised us.

Speed: The bases on all Endeavor boards, including the Pioneer, really kept their speed well and on top of that the Endeavor Pioneer did a really good job when it came time to point it. Even in a size 154.

Uneven Terrain: So we thought a board like this poppy lively energy underfoot, would buck and bounce us around but even the 154, which was slightly smaller, did a great job in uneven terrain. Usually a board this poppy can shit the bed in uneven snow but somehow they pull it off. It powered over chunder almost as well as it turned around bumps. Very well done here.

Switch: Almost exactly the same either way. Felt like a true twin to us.

Jumps: Such a poppy, stable air oriented board. In some ways, we liked the Clout and BOD better because they had more camber pop and in other ways, we liked how well this hybrid camber profile set an edge in comparison to their 3D camber profile. The BOD and Clout just took a little more time to get used to the lifted areas on the effective edge but they definitely had more pop. Still, the Endeavor Pioneer had more pop than most hybrid camber boards we have tried. That is often part of the compromise with a lifted nose/tail but with the Pioneer the compromise was minimal. Even I wanted to send my broken body into the air without care of the consequence associated.

Jibbing: Not the best jibber but it’s very doable.

Pipe: We all really enjoyed how this board rides pipe and it really drives well wall to wall. I could spend all day hiking the pipe with the Endeavor Pioneer.

So when you buy one board you compromise a good bit and this is one of those compromise boards that compromises very little across the board.