Gnu Hyperkyarve 2019 - 2017 Review by The Good Ride

• User Reviews
• Product Specs
• Product Images
• 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.

Size: 157
Days: 5
Conditions: Everything from good Sierra Powder and messy groomers to hard PNW snowment with some powdered sugar in places at Mt. Bachelor.
Riders: James, Peter, Jimbo, and Tim
Boots: Burton Almighty, Adidas Tactical ADV, Burton SLX,
Bindings: Union Atlas, Burton Genesis, Burton Genesis X
Set Up:  Set all the way back 22.5″ wide 18 front -9 back. We mainly rode it close to centered 15 front -15 back approximately 22.75″ wide

Sizing: The 154 and 157 are mainly for size 10 and under boots but the 160 could probably handle up to a size 11 boot.  Especially one with reduced toe/heel drag….aka a reduced footprint boot. Anything over 10.5 would be best with a wide though.

Approximate Weight: Felt normal

Flex: So it’s got an easy flex on snow that’s easy to butter and play around with.  It doesn’t feel like the flex you would think it is in the shop.  All of us could easily butter this board but it’s also stiff enough to easily ride the mountain.

On Snow Feel: Not catchy at all and very forgiving. It’s got a mountain freestyle personality in a freeride shape. It’s got that same loose feel underfoot in harder snow when one footing off a chair or flat basing as most hybrid rocker boards and it likes to be on edge. Some can get used to this and others prefer the stability of hybrid camber over this hybrid rocker profile.  The one thing is the XC2-BTX camber profile didn’t feel as camber heavy as the TRS’s we tried. We thought it was C2 or EC2 at first instead of XC2.  That being said the bends in all hybrid rocker profiles from all companies vary so we could have got one with more rocker and less camber than you might.

Edge Hold: Right up there with top boards and MTX and although mellowed out a bit over the years It still grips incredibly grippy. It doesn’t grab too much in softer powder like the old MTX use to but some might still not like the feel in powder or soft snow.

Turn Initiation: Really quick and easy edge to edge.  The rather pronounced rocker makes it turn faster than you would think.

Turning Experience:  Super fun to turn and it’s pretty fun making all kinds of turns. The rocker in the middle seems to hurry you through a turn more but it’s still pretty rewarding.

Skidded Turns: Super easy to skid turns and very forgiving for a freeride board of this shape.

Carving: So despite the weird spelling of carve (kyarve) it’s not an amazing carver but you can have a really fun day railing turnsnfor sure. It’s better in hard snow and really good for C2 but not as hard a carver as C3 boards like the Antigravity or Dynamo or other more camber dominant rides.  You have to put a little pressure on the tail to really make that camber on the back foot engage. If you try to make more of a center weighted turn it can get a little washy and hurry you up through the turn. You do get better float and a more forgiving ride than most C3 boards though so it’s a good trade off.

Speed: It’s not the kind of speed board that you would think you would find in the freeride category but it makes up for it by being pretty forgiving. It bombs ok but that loose feeling between the feet isn’t ideal for those that really like to point it.

Uneven Terrain: Very easy weaving in and out through bumps. Powering over small but consistently uneven bumps isn’t perfect but very doable. I had no problem keeping a line through moguls and liked doing it.

Powder: Very good float with the setback and nose that sits above the snow due to the rocker in the middle and camber that doesn’t come all the way back down. With approximately a 22.6″ stance width you can set this 2.75″ back from center of board which is really good for an all mountain board and ok for most freeride boards. That’s enough to handle the deep-deep you can get once or twice on an average season without struggling too much.

Switch: Better than we thought it would be.  It’s not as good as the TRS but it’s pretty fun for how set back and directional it would be. With a 1.5″ set back on sidecut as well as a longer nose you can’t get it truly centered on board but you can center it (or get very close to centering it) on the sidecut by moving it up 2 inserts. I think that’s what makes it ok switch when we tried to center it.

Jibbing: Doable but far from ideal.

Pipe: The edge hold, quick turn initiation, and pretty good carving ability make us think it would be good in the pipe but no pipe was built at the time of this review.  With all the snow it’s been slow going at Mammoth.

Jumps: Nice pop and great directional air.  It’s also ok to land switch so you can spin with this.

So, all in all, the Gnu Hyperkyarve has a lot of appeal to riders of all levels that like a forgiving easy ride that works in a wide variety of conditions. Especially in harder snow.