Never Summer Trooper Snowboard Review

An Un-Paid, Un-Biased Breakdown Of How the Never Summer Trooper Rides Review by The Good Ride

• User Reviews
• Product Specs
• Product Images
• Questions?

How The Never Summer Trooper Was Tested:

I borrowed the Never Summer Trooper for an extended demo and will be sending it back very soon.

Size: 157
Days:  3
Conditions: Pretty good mid winter snow, varied spring snow and pretty decent early spring pow. I also compared this to a bunch of different boards and you can find those comparisons up on Patreon for Paid Members.

Riders: James (Size 9, 5’10”, 185-195lbs). I’ve tested and compared 800+ boards and close to 1,000 if you count different versions of the same Model over the years.
Boots: Nitro Team TLS
Insoles: Footprint Kingfoam Orthotic Elite
Bindings: Union Force
Redundancy: Strapins in case boots or bindings break.
Jacket: Skyline Fuse 3L Jacket, Skyline Fuse Light 3L Jacket
Pant: Burton AK Gore-Tex Pro 3L Hover Pant, Skyline Faze Pant
Helmet: Smith Method, Smith Scout, Smith Maze
Goggle: Smith 4D Mag
Gloves: Burton AK Clutch Mitt, Burton AK Tech Leather Glove, Drop Tahoma Mitt,

James’s Set Up

21.5” Wide. Stance Angles +18/-3, +18/+3, +24/+6, +27/+9 back, +18/-9, +15/-15. Close to Reference on groomers and Set all the way back in powder.

Similar Boards We Like (but not the same):

Korua Otto, Ride Algorythm, Ride Shadowban, Salomon Highpath, Yes Standard Uninc, Capita Black Snowboard Of Death, Jones Rally Cat, Cardiff Crane, Cardiff Lynx, Nitro Alternator, United Shapes Horizon, Gnu Antigravity, Lib Tech Dynamo

Ethics Statement

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Construction / Durability / Weight

The Never Summer Trooper is very well made but still very much on the medium side of light. Their top sheets are very durable and hold up better than most boards in the industry. (We don’t put in the exact weight because with wood cores, there is no consistency in a board’s weight)

Sizing

The Never Summer Trooper 157 fit me really well. I could easily ride the 161 if I wanted a little more stability, a little more speed and a touch more float. However, this 157 is the perfect combination for me to have a mountain freestyle personality when I want it, and hint of a freeride personality when I set it back.

Never Summer does have recommended boot sizes which is good but they are pretty liberal with min-max sizes for each board. They are also slightly conservative with their recommended weight as these boards are super well built and can handle a heavier rider than they state.

Sizing is all about balancing what fits your boot size (most important), weight (second most important) and height (third most important) for how you like to ride. If it’s too wide and it’s hard to turn but too narrow and you might boot out which often slams you into the ground.

The Good Ride’s Conservative / Safe Recommendation

There are often up to 2 or 3 sizes that will work for your specs. Size down for more control and size up for more speed/stability/carving power. Here are some ideal US boot sizes for these boards. If it comes down to boot size or weight, I would ensure it fits your boot first and then your weight a close second.

151: 8-9
154: 8.5-9.5
157: 9-10
160: 9.5-10.5
158x: 10-11
161x: 10.5-11.5
164x: 11-12

Shape / Setback

The Never Summer Trooper is slightly directional but has a very twinish almost mtn freestyle shape to it. The nose and the tail are the same width. And they seem to be very close in length, and you have a very centered feel on board. As you can see in the pick above there isn’t much set back on board so it always feels more or less centered wherever you set up your stance location.

Camber/On Snow Feel

The Never Summer Trooper’s Fusion Triple Camber profile consists of a very small camber between the inserts, to rocker, to a mellow, elliptical camber to rocker before the nose and tail. The camber doesn’t come all the way back down so it has a feel that’s inbetween their Rocker & Camber and their camber dominant Recurve camber.

It’s not a very stable board underfoot. It doesn’t have that super loose auto spinny feel that most of their hybrid rocker shapes like rocker and camber have. But it’s far less stable than their recurve camber profile, which is camber past the inserts with some passive bends instead of active bends like these to rocker. This can feel a little hooky, like it’s gonna catch an edge, but then usually never does when one footing off a chair or flat bashing around the mountain.

And it always likes to be a little bit on edge, but even then, sometimes I find that the camber profiles can fight each other a little bit and trigger that hooky feel described above. But I’d say once you get used to it, anybody from a beginner to an expert can ride this. It might be a touch on the boring side if you really like a lot of that camber feel. The softer the snow, the more stable this feels. The harder the snow, the more hooky and off it feels. And that’s what takes getting used to.

Edge Hold

The Never Summer Trooper grips like a champ. The multi radius side cut combined with the triple camber really grips in icy snow without grabbing in soft snow either. Other than the more pronounced hooky feel Fusion Tripple Camber has in harder snow it’s an excellent board for those that see hard to icy snow.

Flex Personality

The Never Summer Trooper is stiffer in studio than it feels on snow. There is an overall
medium flex but it doesn’t have that easy give between the feet like the Rocker & Camber Snowtrooper. There is a little easier give in the rocker points right before the
inserts though and it has a good snap back after you flex it.

Butters and Ollies

When it comes to buttering, it was pretty easy to access both the nose and tail for a butter, and I had no problem doing so. And I don’t think most riders will either.

And then when it comes to pop on an ollie or small air, I found it somewhat complicated. It felt harder to leverage the camber to get that pop because it’s further away from your feet than it used to be with Rocker and Camber profiles in the past.

If you ride like a snowboard instructor with a really wide stance width and with that more bowlegged squatty style you can get closer to the camber and it will pop better. If you ride like the rest of us with a more normal stance width and not bowlegged it’s not as lively. But this does track into and land well on any little side hit if slightly on edge.

I was also surprised that when you launched off those who gave me more pop than I would expect for the issues I described above but I still like Recurve and their old Rocker & Camber Profile better for getting air.

Switch and Park

The Never Summer Trooper is a great board for switch riding. If you want that mountain freestyle personality riding more on reference stance, this will be fun in the park. It’s not a bad board for pipe because of that grip but those three cambers might make it feel hooky in some places you don’t want in the pipe. It’s not a bad board for hitting kickers of all types as long as you track well into it being a little bit on edge. You could hit a jib or two with this if you wanted to.

Uneven Snow

The Never Summer Trooper does pretty well in hard, uneven snow and soft uneven snow. Even though Never Summer only rates this as a six flex and a five for dampness, their perspective of dampness is different than the rest of the industry, and all their boards are much more damp. It’s obviously not an ultra damp chunder buster. And I did feel it buck and bounce around a little bit in some soft tracked up thick powder starting to go towards uneven. It’s still handled very well for what it is though.

Turning / Carving / Speed

The Never Summer Trooper’s turn initiation was pretty quick edge to edge and it wasn’t bad in the trees for riding pretty centered on board. When I got it on edge I just didn’t feel like I was getting that camber spring out of the turn like I was with the Benchmark (Directional Rocker & Camber) or like the Proto Type 3 (Recurve Camber). Both had more spring out of the turn.

I did find that if you center weight your turns the middle camber turns through a carve well but just doesn’t have a lot of spring. It hurries it up a little bit, but not like the old boards that had rocker underfoot. If you go with a wider stance and really bring your knees out wide to go for that squatty like instructor stance, you can engage that camber point more. It’s still not as well as their Rocker and Camber Profiles. That’s not my style of riding and most people don’t ride that way. If you ride with your knees more in line with your less likely that you’ll engage it. And that’s more of what I was feeling.

The Trooper turning radius is pretty balanced. You can do just about anything with it, and despite most of the deeper sidecut being in the lifted part of the camber profile. works with this flat part here more than this part, so it tracks pretty well if you want a straight line and you’re slightly on edge, or make those longer drawn out turns that end up really building speed, this can do okay with that, but it’s not great. The side cut doesn’t fight you as much, it’s more the camber profile. When flat base can do this and feel a little hooky, a little like it’s going to catch, and that can sap confidence for a straight line for sure.

Base Glide

Never Summer always does a good job with their bases. When it’s well waxed, it’s near the upper tier for glide. It can feel a bit sticky when it’s dry but it does hold it’s wax well so you don’t have to wax as often as many other boards.

Powder

For a more centered on board kind of ride the Never Summer Trooper isn’t bad. If you’re like a more mountain freestyle centered approach to powder riding, this could work. If you like to set it back and get more of that Freeride feel there are much better boards out there than this. Especially if it gets deep.

Final Thoughts

So overall, while the Never Summer Trooper’s Fusion Tripple Camber Personality didn’t really appeal to me. I definitely prefer recurve triple camber and their old rocker and camber profiles. But, it’s not just about me. I could see how this board will work for somebody who’s, let’s say, a beginner intermediate, maybe even advanced rider, but just wants to make cruisy turns, wants excellent edge hold, good base glide and an easy overall ride. If so, this could for sure work for you.