K2 Subculture Review And Buying Advice

K2 Subculture 2015 - 2014 Review by The Good Ride

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The K2 Subculture offers up K2’s newer micro camber or hybrid camber tech that felt a little like a softer much more mellow Slayblade. So the hybrid camber gives the board a much more balanced springy all park to all mountain freestyle ride. We liked this board but it was missing some of the magic that the K2 Happy Hour had. The 2015 is pretty much the same ride as the 2014.\

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: 156
Days:  1
Conditions: Really good groomed sierra snow that’s just fun to ride in.
Riders: James, Peter, Jimbo
Boots: Burton SLX, Burton Imperial, Nike Kaiju
Bindings: K2 Hurrithane
Set Up:  Centered 23″ wide

On Snow Feel: Stable fun, pretty poppy and playful and a pretty good changeup to the flat to rocker profile boards in K2’s line. It didn’t feel catchy at all and felt closer to the flat to rocker shapes instead of camber.

Powder: We had now powder but it didn’t really feel like a good pow board. It would probably be a little better than camber but not as good as some of their flat to rocker profiles when centered but when set back it won’t be bad. The float from the Turbo Dream or Raygun is easier but this could work if you like more of a camber feel because there is more pop.

Turn Initiation and Carving: so this had mixed reviews with turn initiation and carving.  Jimbo and I liked it a lot on a carve for a twin but felt it was a little off when it came to quick edge to edge turns. Medium radius turns were pretty fun.  Peter just wasn’t liking any of it really. I think for most it will be a nice improvement over the flat to rocker shapes and it did have some nice spring out of the turn.

Speed: Pretty stable at speed but no bomber either.  It’s good enough to keep some speed in the flats and it’s not bad for big steep wide open Mammoth runs we tried the board on.

Uneven Terrain: Not bad in what little bumpy terrain that we could find.

Edge Hold: Just middle ground edge hold and even in the small patches of harder snow at the top we could feel the grip isn’t bottomless.

Flex: Pretty middle ground all mountain-ish flex.

Switch: With the centered stance it was pretty easy switch.

Jibbing: Jimbo and Peter had fun with some mellow obstacles in the jib park but it’s not really a dedicated jib board.  You can for sure stop in there though.

Pipe: It felt ok in the pipe but I personally thought it would be better than it was. It just felt the middle ground and didn’t impress. Maybe with a little more edge hold I would of felt secure.

Jumps: Pretty good spring here and it was fun to ollie off natural terrain around the mountain.  Centered up it’s pretty fun hitting kickers too and it will hold pretty well.

All in all, we felt the K2 Subculture was close to being a really fun board but instead just landed at fun. I think with a few tweaks this could be a more mellow but equal alternative to the K2 Happy Hour.