Positives

  • Effortless Pow Float
  • Carves Hard On The Front Foot

Negatives

  • Needs Positive Stance Angles
  • Not A Back Foot Carver

Summary

The Korua Dart is an easy-floating and powerful carving swallowtail. If you set it up with very directional stance angles, it lights up.

Update 2024: The Korua Dart has not changed at all, so this review is 100% valid for 2024. That's one of the great things about Korua is they don't usually change a model for a while after they make one. 

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Riding Style Snowsurf
Riding Level Advanced - Expert
Fits Boot size (US) 8-10, 10-12
Manufactured in China
Shape Tapered Directional
Camber Profile Directional Camber
Stance Setback -20mm
Approx. Weight Feels Normal
Split No
Powder Excellent
Base Glide Great
Carving Great
Speed Good
Uneven Terrain Great
Switch Poor
Jumps Good
Jibbing Poor
Pipe Good
On Snow Feel

Semi-Locked In

Turn Initiation

Medium

Skidded Turns

Semi-Hard

Flex

Medium/Stiff

Buttering

Hard

Edge Hold

Hard Snow

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Korua Dart 2019-2024 Additional Videos and Written Review Review by The Good Ride

You have arrived at the Snowboard Review from an average rider with an exceptionally objective perspective.

Ethics Statement: We don’t get paid by the manufacturer to write these reviews.  No one is perfect, and we do make money from the “Where To Buy” links below, but this is our best attempt at an honest and objective review from an average rider’s perspective. 

A Break Down of How this Rides and Who It’s for.

How This Review Happened

We spent our precious Good Ride dollars to buy this for you, good readers and we are glad we did.
Size: 156
Days: 20+
Conditions: Lots of good groomers with fun snow to ride on and powder ranging from 1′ to 4′ deep feet and some short off-piste runs thanks to my Drift Boards.
Riders: James (Size 9, 5’10” 185-195lbs), Peter (5’11” size 8.5 boot 175lbs) and Grant (Size 11 6’ 160lbs)
Boots: Adidas Tactical ADV
Insoles: Sandsole Custom Insoles,  Footprint Insole Technology Gameghangers Low Profile
Bindings: Union Atlas, Union Strata, Union Falcor
Set-Up
: I started out riding the Pencil  22” wide 21 front -3 back, on reference and set all the way back. Then I went to 22″ wide 21 front 0 back close to the reference stance and set back. Nowadays I ride it very Posi. The stance width I prefer is 21-21.5″ wide with stance angles +27 front +9 back to +36/+12, and the Pencil really shines with this setup. I ride it this way on reference or set all the way back.

Approximate Weight

It feels on the heavy side of normal, but nothing bad for the overall surface area. This is pretty wide for its length.

Flex/Buttering

The Korua Dart has a very stiff flex between the feet. The tail is medium to medium stiff but allows you to butter a little bit or wheelie up in pow. The nose is medium near the top but quickly stiffens up as it meets the rest of the board. There is good pop and spring out of a turn, but it takes a good bit of weight.

Sizing

So if you look at the specs you wouldn’t think that this would work for Peter and I with 8.5 and 9 boots. Seems more like a board for Grant with size 11 boots. To our surprise, we all felt it fit us really well. Maybe it’s all the taper in the tail, but Peter and I had no problem throwing around the Korua Dart. So if in doubt, size up.

On Snow Feel

Almost completely locked in but not hookey like some boards with this much taper can be.  It tracks well and is pretty much for an advanced to an expert rider who loves turning and powder. If you surf, it’s like being on a little shorter but pretty wide performance groveler that can bash lips and really drive well on the front foot.

Edge Hold

There is a very solid and competent grip with the Korua Dart, and it worked well in the hard patches we encountered.  If you ride in hard to icy snow, I’m not sure if the Dart is the call, but it holds really well for a sidecut without any disruption. Korua does edge hold very well, and it never has grabbed in softer snow.

Turn Initiation

This is medium bordering on medium-fast for Peter and me, and that surprised us with the nose and tail width.  If you are like Grant with a size 11 boot, it will turn med/fast.  In powder, it went where we all needed it very quickly, and we all felt like we were steering much more on the tail, making it much faster.

Turning/Carving

The Korua Dart was glorious to turn, and It really shines if you drive hard off the front foot and set it up with positive stance angles. It still worked with us when we were 0 to slightly duck on the back foot, but going positive on the back foot was much better. This isn’t in the videos above, but the more I went directional with my stance angles, the more the turning pleasure increased, and I found myself setting this up more and more positively.

The Korua Dart likes the weight on the front foot, but the more positive you go, the more you can start to bring back foot weight into the ride without it washing out. It just doesn’t want you to really edge in on the back foot right away. I prefer the carving power of the Cafe’ Racer and Pencil more, but this is very good.

Skidded Turns

Not for the skidder or intermediate rider.

Powder

The Korua Dart could be a dedicated powder board if you could resist not taking it out on groomers. There is over 3cm of taper to a swallow tail that sinks super easy. This makes the super wide nose with early rise rocker float really easy. Then you factor in the pretty big swallow tail, and you have a super deep floater. I actually prefer setting this a bit forward in powder so the board planes a little better. Even in waist-deep pow, I preferred this. So it’s right there with many dedicated power boards.  When setting all the way back at 21.5″, it is 7.625″ back from the center of the board. Now, if you measured this from V of the Swallow Tail, it is 11.625″ back from the center.

If you want more size, tail, and downhill drive, the Pencil or Pin Tonic is the call, but if you like a shorter slashy ride, the Dart is. Both are super fun, so it’s all about personal preference.

Peter, Scotch n Powder

If you haven’t heard enough already, here is our take after more time on Powder and Peter’s take over some liquor and food.

Speed

These Korua Classic boards, like the Dart, have a lot of chatter absorption, and even though this isn’t the best bomber in their line, this is by no means afraid of a straight line.

Uneven Terrain

This isn’t our first choice for hammering through bumps, but in some uneven snow moments or bumpy hard groomers, it did really well. Thanks to the narrower tail, the wider waist and nose didn’t bother us as much as you would think, weaving in and out of bumps or hammering over chunder.  We felt the longer 164 Pencil with the solid tail did a better job hammering through tracked snow, but the Korua Dart isn’t bad at all.

With the Korua Dart, the rest doesn’t matter as much.  You can carve a pipe wall, and it’s got good pop, but it’s not the best ride for getting big Air in Kora’s line but it does work on the small to medium side. It’s a great switch. All in all, it’s one of those rare boards that can carve amazingly well on groomers without sacrificing any float in powder and fit a wide variety of boot sizes without it being that weird. If you surf and want more of a really good but technical performance groveler feel on snow, here you go.

If this review helped, we’d appreciate if you:

 
Korua Dart Specs

 
Korua Dart Images

We try to get as many images of the Korua Dart, but forgive us if they're not all there.

2019

Korua Dart User Reviews

Korua Dart 2019-2024 Snowboard Review SKU UPC Model

Dart 152 - 2022

Mar 16, 2022 by MikeP
Ability Level: Light Advanced • 
Riding Style: Directional, Surf Style • 
Days You Ride A Year: 30+ • 
Height, Weight And Boot Size (for Boards, Boots & Bindings): 5'7" 155lbs 

So I went a little bananas this year and quivered-up (is that a term?) and the Dart is in a stable of directional boards. In any case, I got the Dart out in some untouched powder and man it delivered. Something about the weight placement, stiffness and shape all worked. Great speed, good glide, and although not lightning, very quick edge to edge in the trees. It really gave me the "I'm surfing the snow" feel I was looking for in a powder board. Fun to turn on groomers too. Not my first choice for chundered up snow but good enough (it was good for turning around bumps, but it isn't a plow like say my Super Pig). This thing is a keeper for sure.


Does it all Well

Dec 27, 2020 by Jerry
Ability Level: Expert • 
Riding Style: Freeride, Pow, Carve • 
Days You Ride A Year: 40 • 
Height, Weight And Boot Size (for Boards, Boots & Bindings): 5-11/180cm, 178lbs/80kg, US 11 

I ride Regular +30/+21, K2 Maysis (2019/2020) boots, new Union Force Bindings (2020/2021). The Dart 156 is a dream carver with 2 days, one firm one softer, and 2 powder days confirmed the Good Ride review, this thing is a 1 board quiver for me. Quick in Mt. Bachelor tight trees. The white camo graphics are boring but you can get creative. Still trying to get the right feel for pop and balance on jumps but it sure rides like a dream. I should play with moving my bindings forward a bit like the review suggested for powder. I have yet to crash or fall on this thing. Looking forward to a lot more "testing" on this dream machine


Almost a Daily Driver

Mar 10, 2020 by Andrew
Ability Level: Advanced • 
Riding Style: All-mountain Freeride • 
Days You Ride A Year: 40 • 
Height, Weight And Boot Size (for Boards, Boots & Bindings): 6'3, 200lbs, 10.5 

I picked up the Dart after falling in love with Korua's videos, and reading the reviews of their lineup here. It's been one season with the Dart now and I feel like after the last few days, I've really gotten to understand it. It's not a board for every condition, but it'll put a big smile on your face in most. Variable terrain and snow is the hardest to take this board on, but the more uniform and deep the terrain gets the easier it gets to appreciate what this board wants to do. I'll echo that the classic base doesn't feel so fast, and I've had some issues catching the nose on warmer snow, but on edge this board just wants to constantly accelerate.

I'm loving throwing this board around and slashing it all over the mountain. If a slashy surfer is what you're after, then this will do it for you. I'm giving it 4/5 because of what it could be with a faster base, but in reality I feel it's more of a 9/10 and almost my DD.


4.8 5.0 5 5 So I went a little bananas this year and quivered-up (is that a term?) and the Dart is in a stable of directional boards. In any case, I got the Dart out in some untouched powder Korua Dart 2019-2024 Snowboard Review

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