Board: Ride Alter Ego
Size: 159
Camber Option: Hybrid All Mountain. Rocker in the tip with a micro camber zone under foot.
Bindings: K2 Indy
Stance: 22.5 Wide 18 Negative 15 Goofy
Boots: K2 T1 DB Size 10
My Weight: 170lbs
Resort: Breckenridge
Conditions: Mid morning fresh powder between 4 to 6 inches that was slowly baking in the sun and getting warmer. Blue skies, high winds, and great visibility.
Flex: This board has a unique flex pattern due to the split tail. If the tail clip is closed the board is obviously stiffer if the split tail clip is open it’s softer. Between the feet the board has its stiffest section it’s fair to say it’s a bit above middle of the road in terms of flex but not by much. There’s a decent amount of torsional give. The rocker in the nose makes for what seems like a softer flex. The tail as already mentioned is where the fun happens and it’s noticeably softer.
Stability: This board was stable in big chunder fields when pushing through the snow, it was only when on cat tracks that I noticed a lot of micro vibrations resonating back to the insert packs. This made it unique. Also when the split tail was open there was obviously more chatter in the tail on hard packed. Over all it wasn’t the most damp board.
Ollies/Pop: Regardless if the split tail was open or closed this board had snap out of the tail. Hitting natural features and hits this board wanted to boost. It wanted to send it off anything in its path. The snap on this board is what you would expect from Ride and it’s responsive.
Butterability: You can get up on the tail and do little slash butters with it without any effort. It’s even more playful if you open the tail clip. Nose butters I would suggest going fast, popping hard, and doing it in deeper snow.
Carving: Getting on groomers you have to question whether the split-tail is going to wash out or not. It doesn’t. I kept switching from the locked and unlocked position to see if there was anything to worry about when driving the board through a hard carve. I found that when the tail was unlocked you got a bit more flex out of the tail which would change the carve radius a little bit and when it was locked you could drive harder from the tail. Over all this board was super fun at railing hard aggressive turns, tight radius turns, and mellow to deep carves.
Rider in Mind: The guy that wants two boards in one for those days that there isn’t any fresh snow.
Personal Thoughts: The concept of this board is unique to Ride and I wasn’t sure how it would pan out. The idea of having two boards in one isn’t anything new, but the method that they brought it to the public is. The split-tail works how you would expect it. For me personally I liked it when it was open a lot more, it gave more play in the tail. This made it easier to sit on it in steeper snow that was on tracked and didn’t fatigue my leg as much.
Check out the 2016 review of the Alter Ego.
Comparable Boards: Burton Skeleton Key, Salomon Super 8, Rome Blur
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This board was loaned to us for review by the Ride Snowboards marketing department.
*Disclaimer this board did not change for 2018 so we carried the 2016 review over.
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