Slash Straight Narwal 2013-2019 Snowboard Review

The Slash Straight is from GiGi’s mind and made by Nidecker. Nidecker only really exists in a limited capacity these days in the US but the companies they make boards for like Slash are doing great. The Slash Straightis almost the exact opposite of the ATV and it’s more of a forgiving powder friendly ride. The ride hasn’t changed much over the last couple of years.

2016 Review

You know it’s not that much different than past years except it comes in wide. Still the same kind of ride that we really like in powder while at the same time it’s pretty good on groomers as well. Very quick turning and easy floating. You could easily call this a forgiving freeride board or a powder board. It’s very directional and set back with the shape and camber profile but the nose and tail are still the same width where most Powder to Freeride boards have a tapered tail.  So it gives it a unique feel that’s surfy and slashy but with a little double ender aftertaste.

Size 161
Days: 4
Conditions: Good soft sierra snow with a little left over powder but far from a pow day. The other days were groomer days with hard to good snow.
Rider- James, Peter
Bindings: Burton Cartel Limited
Boots: Burton Ion
Set Up- Set back almost all the way about 23? wide 18 front -3 back

The Slash Straight and YES Pick Your Line share the same type of mellow magnetraction side cut.  They also have the same set back length but from there things are a little different.

– The Straight has a much more directional shape. The nose and tail are much more different with the Straight.
– The nose is super pointy and the tail is almost like a fish tail from a surfboard.
-There is also more rocker and less camber in the Straight than the PYL.
– The Slash isn’t as thick at the waist as the Yes PYL.

The directional shape is a little more suited for getting surfy in the powder than the YES Pick Your Line.  They are both surfy but this is a little more surfy. The extra rocker in the nose makes for a more easy float than the PYL even though both are excellent in powder.  The PYL is more of a balanced board between Groomers and powder where the Straight is more of a powder board that can ride groomers well.

On Snow Feel: It’s stable and feels like you are riding a smaller camber board on groomers but a bigger rocker board in powder.  It’s very catch free and forgiving.

Powder: I didn’t have a true powder day yet and it wasn’t the best winter for it. I did have some soft left over snow that took a lot of work to find. Even this thick wet left over sierra slush was no problem for the Straight.  You can tell that this will have super easy incredibly effortless surfy powder float.

Turn Initiation and Carving– Very quick edge to edge for shot radius turns and it doesn’t require much work.  Its a very off the back kind of surfy ride that some love.  Wider radius turns are ok and so is carving but it can get a little washy.  It doesn’t have much camber between the feet and I’d like to see a little more to give it a little more spring out of the carve.

Speed: The base needs to be kept up and waxed well. If it’s kept up well it has a good glide for flats but it just glides ok out of the rapping.  It just didn’t have the speed of the bases that the Jones or even the YES boards out there had. It doesn’t chatter that much for a board with so much rocker. It’s got all the speed you need for good powder riding and surfy groomer riding.

Uneven Terrain: Super easy to deal with bumpy crappy snow that you often have to go through to make your own tracks. It’s fine negotiating the end of the day snow on a crowded groomer day too. Combine this with a damp pair of bindings and you will feel little shock when you are in crappy slow speed snow.

Edge Hold: Very smart to add the Ultimate Traction bumps to the board. Its not grabby in thick soft snow but it holds in harder snow as well.  It’s not an ice specialist though. You will want something with magnetraction for that.

Flex: Right there in the medium world. It’s not bad to butter and press but that’s not really this boards best feature.

All in all this is a pretty fun board for those that want a super easy float in powder and need something that can perform rather well on groomers when it’s not dumping.