The 2022 Ride Benchwarmer Snowboarder Review

Board: Ride Benchwarmer

Size: 154

Camber Option: Twin Hybrid Camber. Huge camber section with a minimal rocker in the tip and tail.

Bindings: Rome Black Label

Stance: 21.5 Wide 15 Negative 12 Goofy

Boots: K2 Thraxis Size 10

My Weight: 200lbs

Resort: Copper Mountain

Conditions: Cold temps, sunny skies, fresh corduroy, left over pow off the run, lumpy rutted out terrain in spots. Basic mid season conditions.

Flex: This is a stiffer twin coming in above middle of the road but hasn’t ventured off into that death plank land where no board wants to be. You get a little play where the rocker is then when it hits the camber section it stiffens right up all the way through. The torsional flex is there but there’s a lot of rebound out of it and you notice that while you can engage it with some relative ease it wants to push back to its natural placement. In case you haven’t caught on this board is highly reactive.

Stability: Here’s where this board seriously shines. It’s super stable. The flex, camber profile, and shaping all work together to give this board a smooth damp ride that doesn’t sacrifice its liveliness. This is a board that is designed for crushing everything in its path. You can feel the camber push back into you when you slash fresh snow or even when you go over undulations in the snow. So be aware of that as you may think it’s going to buck you but it’s just letting you know to go faster and drive it harder.

Ollies: You like popping over everything in your path? This board has you covered. The camber section has to be loaded up and even when you try to be mellow with that it lets you know to push it harder because you’ll launch higher and farther. The carbon in this board coupled with its camber profile just work so well to get you to the moon. Welcome to boost city, population everyone on this board!

Pop On Jumps: Small, medium, large, mega, this is a board for jumping with. Even if you don’t try to pop the lip it just launches you. When you do pop it SENDS YOU even further. If you like catching air and complain that most boards don’t help you, seriously look at this one.

Butterability: This is where this board lacks. Sure you have that rocker zone which is the sweet spot to get it to lock into presses, but the board itself is so reactive coupled with its flex that it fights you the whole time. You will be man handling this board to butter and you had better know what you’re doing. If you don’t, LEARN!

Jibbing: High speed jibbing is your friend. If you’re a little laid back and like to be more loose with how you do things this board won’t let you. You have to be calculated, you have to be powerful, you have to understand how to get a board to engage and disengage. It locks in and fights you on every press. When you go sideways it barely cradles the feature it more or less just balances on top of it.

Carving: Now lets talk about my favorite part of this board. This is the best asymmetrical sidecut I’ve been on. It just rolls easily from edge to edge with minimal effort, but when you put more in you can aggressively drive it. If you like doing snake-like carves here you go. Want to lay it over and rip a trench? You can do that but you have to have the speed and power behind it, if you don’t it looks like ass and no one wants that. Short tight quick carves or super hard drawn out ones. When this board is on edge it feels locked in and it lets you know it. A lot of that has to do with the new Slimwall.

Rider in Mind: High end park rider or someone that wants a asymmetrical twin for all mountain freestyle use.

Personal Thoughts: I won’t lie as a park board this isn’t it for me, but riding it around the mountain now that was a more eye opening experience. This thing rails turns and feels locked in. It was fun in pow. The rebound out of this board makes you want to go faster. It’s to the point you will feel it in your knees at the end of the day because it made you charge. If the old Helix had been anything like this I would have been impressed. This won’t be a board for everyone and the Zero will fill that void as a park deck, but for heavier riders that want an oldschool feeling cambered twin they should be looking at this.

Comparable Boards: Gnu RC C3, Rome Mod Stale, Capita Outsiders

Binding Recommendations: Ride A-9, Rome Cleaver, Union Atlas