It’s that time of year where we take a look at the upcoming 2023 snowboard gear.
This is more like a big picture overview of everything. If you want finer details of the changes for each brand that we cover, see the links below to each brand’s overview.
As we release more brand overviews, I’ll add the links to those here too. More coming out every week as we approach the 2022-2023 season.
The Snowboarding Product Landscape of Late
With Covid interrupting supply and generally disrupting just about everything, this was bound to influence the industry.
Last season it meant everything seemed to become available late and in short supply. This season feels very different. In fact most things have come out early (at least for pre-sale) and this is perhaps something that brands started to work on when they knew that 2022 supply would be late. They got onto 2023 stuff early so that they could try to make up for lost time – and the fact that less past season gear would be around this time of year, because of that reduced supply. Just spitballing really, but that’s my theory, and I’m sticking to it 😉
Some Snowboard Product Trends
One trend I have noticed is that, for the most part, brands have either stuck to around the same amount of products on offer on average. Though there are some that have reduced their line ups and some that have expanded.
There are still a fair amount of new items that have come in – beyond just rehashing or renaming older models – despite all of that – but typically a fairly equal amount of exiting items. Turnover maybe not to the same extent as in the past, but there are still a good number of genuinely new items available and some significant tweaks to existing models as well.
One other trend that has been obvious for 22/23 is that prices have gone up. They typically go up (on average) every year anyway, so this in itself is nothing extraordinary. But prices on average have gone up more for this year’s boards than they have in any other single season since I’ve been tracking prices (since 2014). This is no doubt in response to inflation and reduced sales for 21/22 product.
As was the case for 21/22, splitboards are on the rise again – though not quite to the same extent as they did last season.. There are a number of splitboards exiting to make way for the new ones, but more are coming than are going still.
Let’s take a quick look at some of what’s retiring and what’s fresh for 2023.
Out With the Old
This isn’t everything of course, and as I go through more overviews I’ll add more here. But this is a snapshot of some of the 2022 models that aren’t returning with a 2023 model.
Some surprise omissions as there always seems to be. Some replaced by very similar models and others not so much.
Men’s/Unisex Snowboards
- Arbor Terrapin
- Burton Kilroy Twin
- Burton Kilroy 3D
- Burton Family Tree Mystery Juice Wagon
- Burton Family Tree Leader Board
- Burton Family Tree Wave Tracer
- Burton Family Tree Show Stopper
- Capita Asymulator
- Lib Tech Skunk Ape
- Never Summer Peacemaker
- Never Summer Ripper
- Never Summer Big Gun
- Niche Hawthorn
- Nidecker Fun Ball
- Nidecker Tracer
- Nidecker Spectre
- Nidecker Spectre Carbon
- Nitro Woodcarver
- Nitro Fusion
- Ride Wildlife
- Salomon Villain
- Salomon Ultimate Ride
- Salomon HPS Wolle Nyvelt
- Slash Aurora
- YES The Y
- YES Hybrid Uninc DCP
- YES Uninc JPS
Men’s/Unisex Splitboards
- Burton Family Tree Leader Board Split
- GNU Gorp
- Never Summer Icon Bound Split
- Never Summer Harpoon Split
- Salomon HPS Taka Split
- Salomon Speedway Split
- Salomon Pillow Talk Split
Men’s/Unisex Bindings
- Flow NX2-CX Fusion/Hybrid
- Union Contact Pro
- Union Milan
- Union Explorer FC (splitboard bindings)
Women’s Snowboards
- Jones Airheart
- Never Summer Lady West
- Niche Ember
- Ride Backtalk
- Salomon Gypsy
- Salomon Pillow Talk
Women’s Splitboards
- Never Summer Lady West Split
- Never Summer Women’s Epik Split
Kid’s
- Burton Chopper
- Burton Chicklet
- Never Summer Kid’s Yutes
- Never Summer Kid’s Shredder
Some of the most surprising/disappointing retirees, for me, are the Burton Family Tree Show Stopper, Capita Asymulator, Never Summer Lady West and Union Contact Pro/Milan.
In With the New
Again, this list isn’t exhaustive but covers some of the new snowboards, bindings etc that have come in for 2023. I’ll add more as I update the individual brand overviews.
Men’s/Unisex Snowboard
- Arbor Satori Camber
- Bataleon Goliath +
- Bataleon Evil Twin +
- Bataleon Disaster +
- Bataleon Party Wave Twin
- Bataleon Cruiser
- Burton Family Tree First Cut
- Burton Family Tree Forager
- Burton Family Tree Territory Manager
- Burton Good Company
- Burton Mystery Con Artist
- Burton Name Dropper (returning)
- GNU Forest Bailey 4 x 4
- Jones Tweaker
- Lib Tech Jamie Lynn ‘96
- Lib Tech Rasman
- Lib Tech Skunk Ape II
- Nidecker Escape Plus
- Nitro Dinghy
- Ride Shadowban
- Ride Peace Seeker
- Rome Artifact Pro
- Salomon Abstract
- Salomon Highpath
- Salomon HPS Wolle Nyvelt Fish
- Salomon Super 8 Pro
- YES 420 (returning)
- YES PYL Uninc DCP
- YES Standard Uninc
- YES Warca Uninc JPS
Men’s/Unisex Splitboard
- Arbor Satori Split Camber
- Arbor Landmark Split Rocker
- Arbor Landmark Split Camber
- Capita Mega Split
- Capita Powder Racer Split
- GNU Banked Country Split
- Jones Stratos Split
- Jones Ultra Stratos Split
- Nidecker Escape Split
- Nitro Vertical
- Nitro Team Split
- Rome Uprise Split
- Salomon Highpath Split
- Salomon HPS Taka Split 2.0
Men’s/Unisex Bindings
- Flow NX2-Carbon
- Nidecker Supermatic
- NOW Select Pro Kowalchuk
- Union Atlas Pro
- Union Ultra (returning but quite different)
- Union Charger (splitboard bindings)
Women’s Snowboards
- Jones Airheart 2.0
- Never Summer Lady FR
- Never Summer Women’s Proto Slinger
- Nitro Karma
- Nitro Women’s Optisym
Women’s Splitboards
- GNU Barrett Split
- Never Summer Lady FR Split
- Salomon Bellevue Split
Women’s Bindings
- Union Women’s Ultra
Kid’s
- Arbor Satori Youth Camber
- Burton Grom
- Burton Mini Grom
- Capita Children of the Pow
- Jones Ultra Prodigy
- Nitro Mini Thrills
- Salomon Dancehaul Grom
Changes to Existing Models
There’s too much to go into into detail here, but check out the individual brand overviews at the links below, to learn more about significant changes to existing models.
Brand Specific Details on the New, Old and Tweaked/Overhauled
Follow the links below to check out the details for specific brands. I will add links to more of these as they are published on the site.
>>2023 Never Summer Snowboards
>>2023 Slash Snowboards Overview
>>2023 Thirty Two Snowboard Boots
>>2023 Union Snowboard Bindings
Snowboarding Profiles Reviews
As always reviews for any gear that was tested by Snowboarding Profiles will be released throughout the year. A good number have been published already. More will come out every week.
Looking Forward to Next Winter
We’ve got some exciting new things we’re looking to do to further improve our reviews and our recommendations, which we’ve started preparing and implementing in the off season and hope to implement more as the season gets underway. Also looking forward to getting our hands on the 2024 gear this winter!
For those of you in the Southern Hemisphere, hope your season is going well. For the rest of us, hold tight, winter isn’t too far around the corner and we’ll be shredding up the slopes in no time!
Hi Nate! While browsing through the new models on yes website I found a rather good new addition to the specs of the boards: Yes Snowboards specify the ‘front foot width’ and ‘back foot width’ additionally to the tail/tip width and waist width!
What’s your opinion on this new developement? Should more companies do this? What does this mean for your width advice on your page?
Personally I think this is rather good and makes buying the right board even easier now!
Greetings from Austria,
Konrad
Hi Konrad
Yeah, I’m stoked they’re doing this now and hopefully more and more will start doing it. Nidecker also does it and has been for a little while.
For all the boards I test and review I note the width at inserts, so as long as I have a review for it, you can find that information on other brands as well. But as far as I know Nidecker and YES are the only brands to publish this information so far.
Has also been quite good to look at and compare to my own measurements. Typically we get the same measurement or just 1mm or so off, so it’s been an interesting exercise taking a look at what they have compared to my own measurements.
Thanks for this preview. Definitely sad to see the Never Summer Lady West drop off; I’m a level 4 beginner, and was planning to upgrade to this board soon, depending on how fast I progress this season. I do still ride the Nitro Lectra from your best beginner boards list and it’s still amazing, so I’m sure I’ll be fine. But that Lady West was so nice!
I know right! Never Summer has a habit of ditching some great boards.