2014 Flow Darwin Snowboard Used and Reviewed

2014 is ushering in a new snowboard from Flow with the Darwin. This powder specific swallow tail is designed for slashing the awesome white stuff we all pine after. Here’s how it stacked up for all those that are interested.

Board: Flow Darwin

Size: 153

Camber Option:

Bindings: Rome 390 Boss

Stance: 22.5 Wide 18 Negative 15 Goofy

Boots: K2 Thraxis Size 10

My Weight: 175lbs

Resort: Breckenridge

Conditions: Sunny bluebird skies with some heavy wind blown pow. Lots of powder tree slashing.

Flex: It’s actually stiffer than one would think from the tail to just in past the last insert pack at the front. The nose is flexible allowing for it to glide over firmer snow. When you give it a torsional twist there isn’t much give either.

Stability: The flex pattern makes it real stable under foot. The only spot that gets real chatter is in the nose and if you set your stance a little more forward that can rectify some of that. There is ABT under the back foot, this helps with chatter vibrations but absorbing straight hard impacts off small drops I didn’t notice anything.

Ollies/Pop: There’s really not much since you have next to no tail to load up and snap off from. What little pop there is really isn’t worth mentioning. This board is meant to slash turns not pop off side hits.

Butterability: You can butter the nose but due to the shape I wouldn’t recommend it at all.

Carving: The sidecut lets you lay a carve if you have the bindings set more forward than back. Being set back lessens the area for initiation which in turn changes how it arcs through a carve. This board does ride a lot bigger though due to its shape which makes for more edge hold in my opinion. Then again this is a niche pow board why would you be carving hard on groomers?

Rider in Mind: Pow fanatic.

Personal Thoughts: The swallow tail is ineffective and actually cuts down on the surface area of what little tail you have. It also would occasionally hook on hard snow or ice under the pow. You want to have your stance more forward than you think to give you a little bit more tail for some spring especially out of hard carves or popping. Over all it’s a fun pow board with a unique shape but there are better out there.

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Disclaimer: This snowboard was loaned to us for product review from the Flow Snowboards Rockies rep.