Nitro Banker Snowboard Review

An Objective In Depth Review of the Nitro Banker Snowboard Review by The Good Ride

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

How The Nitro Banker Was Tested

I borrowed the Nitro Banker for an extended demo and sent it back.

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Size: 159
Days: 3
Conditions:I got this in a decent amount of conditions. A little bit of late spring powder that was actually pretty good. And some good groomers. I often compared this to the Nitro Alternator, which has some inspiration from the Banker as well as the Team.
Riders: James (Size 9, 5’10”, 185-195lbs). I’ve tested 800+ boards (Close to 1,000 if you include different versions of the same model) and Compared Many.
Boots: Ride Deadbolt, Bataleon Acid BOA but lately I’ve been riding the Nitro Team TLS
Insoles: Footprint Kingfoam Orthotic Elite
Bindings: Union Force, Union Atlas
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
Goggle: Smith 4D Mag
Gloves: Burton AK Clutch Mitt, Burton AK Tech Leather Glove

James’s Set Up

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

Similar Boards We Like (but not the same): 

Amplid Souly Grail, K2 Alchemist, United Shapes Cadet, Jones Flagship Pro, Stranda Descender, YES Pick Your Line, Korua Otto, Ride Algorythm, Ride Shadowban, Capita Black Snowboard Of Death, Nitro Alternator, United Shapes Horizon, Gnu Antigravity, Lib Tech Dynamo

Approximate Weight

The Nitro Banker Felt pretty normal for it’s surface area. (We don’t put in the exact weight because with wood cores, there is no consistency in a board’s weight)

Sizing

The Nitro Banker 159 fit me pretty well and I liked it but I prefer a little more control with my size 9 boots so I think I’d size down to the 156 if I bought one.

Nitro has only 2 sizes 156 and 159. They are very fair with their recommended weight and here are my boot sizing recommendations.

Banker 2025 Sizing

Shape

The Nitro Banker is a tapered directional board with only a few mm of taper and it has a more centered feel underfoot than it looks.

Camber Profile

The Nitro Banker is full on old school tecchnical/catchy camber but its stable underfoot and feels the same in all conditions. It’s best for advanced to expert riders as it doesn’t feel easy to skid a turn.

Edge Hold

The Nitro Banker’s sidecut grips pretty well but you still need to dial your turns back a little bit when the snow gets hard.

Flex Buttering and Ollies

There’s a medium but rubbery flex to it with a softer flex in the nose vs. the tail. It’s got a rubbery feel to it as you flex it but it has a lively full camber pop back that really makes it fun to olllie and get air with.

I found the Nitro Banker really easy to butter in the nose but the tail takes a little more work.

Uneven Snow

The Nitro Banker is a very good all day ride and it has flex personality that pops but doesn’t buck or bounce you arouond too much in soft uneven snow or get to chattery/cranky when it’s hard and uneven.

Speed

This dual radius sidecut with a mellower radius entry makes it a lot easier than you would think going straight for a board called the Banker. It’s not the best but if you like to ocassionally open it up and make a susstained straight line it won’t fight you and while it’s no straight liner, it will stay pretty composed.

Base Glide

The Nitro Banker’s base has decent glide but can get a little base burn on the sides. It’s not an amazing base but I’ve seen a lot worse.

Turning Experience

The 159 Nnitro Banker was a little slow for my size 9 boots but still pretty managable. The 156 would be medium-fast though and very fun to make quick turns with. If I sized down I would feel really comfortable in tight tree lines or steeper terrain where you need to make quick adjustments.

When you get this sidecut engaged, it really does have a cool turning experience that’s more balanced than you would think — mainly because this sidecut has such a mellow entry at 8.2m and then comes into 6.5m out the tail.

So if you’re somebody who front-foot weights your carves, this isn’t going to feel as turny. It’ll go down the line and have a more longer, drawn-out turn.

That’s what I felt when I really weighted on the front foot.

When I center-weighted it, it felt pretty balanced.

Then when I really leaned back into the tail and really tried to back-foot weight out of a carve, it had much more of a turny feel to it.

So it’s really fun to play around with how you weight your turns and each way you weight your turns has such a different feel to it that is rather unique and at the same time not complicated or hard to get to know.

Lastly, the spring out of the turn is really satisfying and full camber poppy boards like this are a blast to turn even though they aren’t super stiff tip to tail or tortionally.

Powder

So even with a 5×2 insert per foot you can still get reasonably far back on board and get easy directional float for a full camber board thanks to the bigger nose and a little bit of taper in the much smaller tail.

At a 22-inch stance width, you can get 3.1875 inches back from center of board.

On same day tests I found the Nitro Alternator to float a little better but both are very good for full camber boards that are a little more on the directional all mountain side of the spectrum. They aren’t great ffor a Freeride board for float but are pretty good for All Mountain.

Switch and Park

It rode switch better than I thought it would. Not amazing, but good and I found myself flipping it around the other way a lot and that smaller tail doesn’t feel as weird as you think it would.

I wouldn’t mind riding this in the pipe and i wouldn’t mind taking a more direcitonal approach to riding in there if I had a 156.

This would hit some kickers in the park pretty well, but not amazing. I think many will like all the side hits

I wouldn’t want to jib with this.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I thought the Banker was really fun. In same day comparisons I personally prefered the Alternator better but I could have a beautiful life with the Banker as well. I think it’s a very well-made, very fun board and it could swing the other way if you ride a little differently than I do.