Jones Women's Hovercraft Snowboard Written Review Review by The Good Ride

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The Jones Women’s Hovercraft is a very damp fun take on a free-ride style board that can take you all over the mountain. It rides amazing in powder, but also is very fun to carve, and you can even take it through bumpy terrain and still have a good time. The Jones Women’s Hovercraft would be a nice choice for the advanced rider looking for a fun, hard charging, slashy board to send it in deep snow but also ride everywhere in between.

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 rider’s perspective.

Riders: Steph

Days: 3

Conditions: Spring conditions, slush, icy snow, mixed groomer snow

Bindings: Union Milan

Boots: Vans Ferra Pro

Set Up: 15 front, 15 back,  20″ wide

 

How This Review Happened: We borrowed this for an extended demo.

Sizes: 144, 146, 150

Because the Hovercraft is a volume shifted board, and should be ridden in a smaller size, I feel like there should be at least one more smaller size available. It rides well and isn’t too much board if you have to ride your actual board length. But it would be rad to have one smaller size available.

Camber Profile

The Women’s Hovercraft comes with what Jones calls a “directional rocker” profile. This means it has more rocker in the nose and less rocker in the tail. There is positive camber between the feet. It also has a 3D contour base 3.0. This means there is 7mm of spoon bevel in the nose and 7mm of bevel in the tail. This keeps it feeling catch free and quick to turn and helps immensely with floating in powder.

Base

The base is a 8000 Sintered Base which is super fast, absorbs a ton of wax, and is very durable.

Flex

The Hovercraft comes with a. 7/10 flex. It is stiff enough to provide a damp smooth ride, but soft enough to allow the board to turn quickly and not feel too hard charging.

On Snow Feel

This board feels nice and stable on the snow. It tracks nicely when riding flat based. It isn’t extremely locked in but you get nice control.

Turn Initiation

I’ve always liked how the Hovercraft feels in a turn. It is quick to turn but you know you are going to get some performance out of it when you do turn. You get options of what types of turns you want to make. It can make skidded and carve turns alike. Quick or drawn out turns. It likes to make small slashy turns, or you can cruise fast and make big open turns.

Edge Hold

It comes with Jones’ Traction Tech 3.0. This means it has 3 mellow bumps along the sidecut. The bump in the middle being the most prominent. This gives you a little extra help in icy conditions, just enough to add some connection to the snow when needed. The Hovercraft should hold a nice edge in most icy conditions.

Bumpy Snow

A cool thing about the Hovercraft, is it can be a hard charging freeride board, but you can still turn it through trees and bumpy, cruddy snow. It can maneuver in tight spots and you can either charge over bumpy snow, or turn through it.

Switch

This is a directional, tapered board. But riding switch isn’t so bad on it. It does feel backwards. But sometimes you need the option to ride switch when you get into a hairy situation, even on a very directional freeride board.  And it is possible on the Hovercraft.

Powder

The Hovercraft kills it in powder. It floats without effort. The wide waist width, the taper, the set back, the rocker, and the 3D Contour Base help to add float to this board. The tail stays stable when riding in deep snow. And it is quite maneuverable in open bowls and in tight terrain.

Off Piste / Trees

Love this board in trees. Especially if it is a powder day. It can turn quickly and isn’t too much of a board to make it through a sticky situation. It is still for the advanced rider, but way more maneuverable in trees and off piste than the Flagship.

Groomers

The Hovercraft is fun to turn. So riding around on groomers is a lot of fun. It loves to carve, make slashy turns, and just charge down the hill. You don’t need to have a powder day to enjoy the personality of this board.

Carving

I’ve always been surprised at how easy it is to get the Hovercraft on a high edge angle in a carve. The wide waist width allows for a really stable feel when laying it over. It is a fun, stable carving board that isn’t too aggressive. And for me, that has always made it a really fun board for carving up some nice corduroy.

Who Is This For?

The Jones Women’s Hovercraft would be good for an advanced to expert freeride snowboarder. Someone who wants a slightly shorter board, likes the feel of a shorter, fatter ride. Someone who likes to carve, ride off piste, in steeps, and loves a good floating board when the snow falls deep. The Hovercraft is a fun-inspiring board that likes to turn all over the mountain in an alternative freeride way. It is also the most sustainably produced board in the Jones line, so it gets extra brownie points for that.

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