A Detailed Breakdown Of How The Garden Kazak Rides And Who Its For Review by The Good Ride

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Garden Kazak Written Review

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How This Garden Kazak Review Happened:

I borrowed this for an extended demo and sent it back.
Size: 166
Days: 4
Conditions: Windpacked powder, powder, clean & tracked out groomers
Riders: Davey (Size 12, 240lbs, 6’4”)
Boots: Burton Ion Boot
Bindings: Union Force
Jacket: Burton AK Cyclic Gore-tex Jacket

Pant: Volcom Rain Gore-tex Bib

Helmet: Smith Maze
Goggle: Smith 4D Mag
Gloves: Burton AK Clutch Mitt

Davey’s Set Up: 23” Wide. Stance Angles +18/+3. Set all the way back in powder.

Sizing

The Garden Kazak is 166cm. I am 6’3.5” 245 lbs. My size 12 boots fit this board perfectly. No toe drag, no heel drag. And I thought the length was about the perfect size as well. The playful personality allowed this board to feel stable and comfortable underfoot while still staying easy to control. 

Shape

The Garden Kazak is a slightly tapered directional board. There’s only 4mm of taper going on. So it basically feels like there’s not at all. 

Camber/On Snow Feel/Ability Level

There is a healthy bow of camber with a little bit of early rise. I think the on snow feel matches the camber profile of this board. This is more of a hard pack specialist. Not very set back. Not the best deep powder float. Fun and poppy for carving around and jumping off of features.

Edge Hold

The Garden Kazak does good for not having a disruption in the side cut. I would say it’s pretty middle of the pack. It’s not too grippy; it wasn’t washy. As long as you don’t need an ice specialist, this will do a great job.

Flex Personality

The Garden Kazak does a great job of being stiff and stable while remaining on the softer side of the spectrum for boards designed for bigger riders. Stiff enough to feel comfortable at high speeds but is also soft enough to be playful at lower speeds. However, this board doesn’t have a very turny side cut. It is still an enjoyable turning experience because it maintains that playful personality. 

Uneven Snow

The Kazak was a little more chattery than the Ragamuff, but not noticeably worse than other boards with a similar shape and price point. 

Speed

The 11.5m side cut allows this board to be a great straight liner. Very comfortable at speed. 

Base Glide

Middle of the pack base glide. Not noticeably slow, but also not noticeably fast either. Held onto wax well.

Turning Experience/Carving

As I wrote above, this board has an 11.5 sidecut. It is not as straight-liney as expected for such an aggressive Sidecut. I thought this board was fun. It felt really good when you got it on edge. It handled across-the-groomer carves, tighter turns, and medium turns equally.

Powder

Set all the way back with a full-sized desk and a 23-inch stance width; you get -3.25 inches back from the center of the board. That is not very much setback. You wouldn’t want this as a dedicated powder board. I noticed about an equal amount of back-leg burn from the Kazak in a half-foot of snow as I did with the Ragamuff in about a foot of snow.

Park/Freestyle

The Garden Kazak is poppy. I had a really good time ollie-ing off of stuff with this board, and I think this board would be a great park board. Unfortunately, the tide was too low on Mount Bachelor, so I didn’t have any real park features available at the time I was riding this. But I would love to get this out in the springtime. This would be a really good Peace Park board for me. I think this thing would handle jumps really well, and I think you could take it off some jibs if you can handle the camber dominant profile. I also think this board would charge in the pipe.

Final Thoughts

I am definitely impressed with Garden snowboards. I’m not sure how many young companies that produce as high-quality boards as they are with the Kazak and Ragamuff. I think the Kazak is a really good hard pack to slushy snowboard. The Kazak and Ragamuff are both really good options for bigger riders, especially people who don’t want something as stiff and aggressive as, let’s say, the Skunk Ape. I know a lot of people have ridden that in the past and say that it feels like that board is riding them. That is not what you’re going to get out of these Garden boards.