Never Summer Maverix 2017-2020 Snowboard Review

Never Summer Maverix 2020 - 2017 Review by The Good Ride

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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:  4
Conditions:  Sloppy Groomers to pretty good powder about 2 feet deep in places.
Riders: James, Peter, Jimbo, Tim and Matt
Boots: Burton Almighty, Adidas Tactical ADV, Burton SLX, Burton Rover
Bindings: Union Atlas, Burton Genesis, Burton Genesis X
Set Up:  Set all the way back 22.5″ wide 18 front -9 back

Approximate Weight: Felt normal

Flex:  It’s got a good med/stiff flex to it that breaks more in the middle than the tip/tail.  More about this later.

Sizing: The 157 felt like the perfect size for Peter and I.  However, Jimbo and Zobel with 11ish size boots would need a little more width like the 163 to keep their boots from hitting the snow.

On Snow Feel: It’s pretty loose between the feet flat basing and one footing off the chair.  Especially when compared to hybrid camber boards.  Still, this directional hybrid rocker offers up a pretty fun overall ride that likes to drive out of turns off the tail or pop off the tail and float off the front.

Edge Hold: We had pretty good snow and didn’t get much hard snow…..what an amazing year we are having at Mammoth.  So we didn’t have a great test on edge hold but what few hard patches we hit had that same old Never Summer grip that’s good in hard snow but not a hard snow specialist.

Turn Initiation: Really snappy and quick edge to edge and it’s great in the trees.  The Insta/Gator had quick easy turn initiation there that make it work well and we always felt in control.

Turning Experience: It was good but nothing super fun. For some reason, the Insta Gator had more personality to us and just felt more fun.

Skidded Turns: Super easy to recover with a skidded turn if you get off your game and it’s a great powder board for those intermediate gear whoring quiver riders or those that know they want a surfy freeride approach to the mountain.

Carving: It’s a little washy and off the tail but if you put your weight back on that tail then it has a pretty surfy carve with decent spring out of the turn. It’s all about that ripsaw camber tail and that’s what makes it fun.

Speed: It can feel a little loose underfoot flat basing and a little chattery when picking up speed but it wasn’t terrible and the flex is pretty good.

Uneven Terrain: Here was one thing that we felt the board was missing.  It can easily weave in and out of bumps of all kinds and it’s great here. It just folds a little too much in the middle when you try to power through bumpy snow when you want to build on your turns. If you are content to just get through the bumpy stuff then it’s pretty great in every other way. Its got that legendary dampness

Powder: There is really good float here.  The set back is pretty far on board and at a 22.6″ stance width you can get almost 6.25″ back on board. With approximately a 21.8″ stance width you can get about 7″ back on board which is pretty good. The one thing we felt when riding in powder is sometimes the bend in the middle would feel like it bent too much and it would ruin our flow.  It also didn’t have that easy float like it was on top of the snow like the Insta/Gator did.  The back half the board felt like he was in the snow and the front half felt like it was floating which is great but didn’t float like some of our similar favorites and we wouldn’t mind seeing a little more float as you get from the Swift and Insta/Gator.

Buttering: Easier to butter than you would think and if you like to mellow out and play around, the Never Summer Maverix will let you do that.

Switch:  Not terrible but it takes a lot to get used to the directional shape, different camber and set back.

Jibbing: Probably doable but we didn’t try.

Pipe: Yeah this could be fun. Very surfy and slashy but fun.

Jumps: This isn’t a perfect jump board but that camber off the tail has nice pop for directional air. So it’s a great board if it doesn’t land switch.

So all in all the Never Summer Maverix a pretty fun ride that would really appeal to a surfer that wants an easy overall ride except for maybe in the deepest of deep thick powder.