Burton Show Stopper Review

Who is the Show Stopper Most Suited To?

The Show Stopper is a great option for anyone looking to get off groomer (but still rides great on groomer) and explore, whether there's powder or not. A directional freeride board that's more precise than it is surfy, but one that's not unforgivingly stiff. 

Someone looking for a board that's nimble at slower speeds, but still stable at higher speeds. 

Not for the beginner or even low intermediate. For solid intermediate riders and up. 

Bindings angles: +15/-15

Stance width: 530mm (20.9″)

Stance Setback: Setback 38mm (1.5")

Width at Inserts: 271mm (10.67") at front insert and 271mm (10.67")*

* typically with a big setback the back insert is wider and with a good bit of taper, the back insert is narrower. In this case the taper and setback cancel each other out, so that the width at inserts is even

Rider Height: 6'0"

Rider Weight: 175lbs

Rider Boot Size: US9.5 Adidas Tactical ADV

Bindings Used: Burton Malavita M

Control Board for Control Laps: Lib Tech Terrain Wrecker 

Weight: 2720grams (5lbs 15oz)

Weight per cm: 17.66 grams/cm

Average Weight per cm: 18.43 grams/cm*

*based on a sample size of around 100 models that I’ve weighed in 2019, 2020, 2021 *& 2022 models. The Show Stopper is lighter than average. Taking into account it's a wider board, it's even lighter than the 17.66 grams/cm suggests. On snow it doesn't feel super light, but maybe just a little lighter than normal or about normal. On the lift it feels light. I think the reason it doesn't feel as light on snow as it actually is is because of how damp it feels. A damper board tends to feel heavier on snow versus a snappier board. 

Powder

Didn't get any powder to ride on the day, but the specs suggest, this thing would handle powder really well. 

It's setback quite a long way - 38mm (1.5") on effective edge and setback around 73mm (3") on the overall length of the board - and has a generous taper of 12mm. That plus, 

Handled slushy conditions really well. 

Speed

Nice and solid at speed. Something that felt stable, even when things were a bit cruddy - and felt like the overall speed was good too, particularly given it was a 154. 

Good glide on this board too - which was nice for those flatter/slight uphill sections. 

Uneven Terrain

Crud: Felt really confident riding this board in crud. It could smash through it or go over top and felt really solid. Didn't really get bucked around at all, but even if it did, it's the kind of board that you could correct fairly easily on, due to the control it gives you. 

Bumps: Weaves between bumps really well. So fun in the trees - could handle everything in there with ease - nice and nimble and absorbed everything in it's path. Just such a fun tree board. 

Jumps

Overall for the type of board it is, it wasn't bad for jumps. 

Pop: Good pop. It wasn't super snappy or anything and the pop wasn't super easy to extract, but it wasn't super hard either. 

Approach: Nice and stable but with enough agility to be able to speed check and change course when necessary. 

Landing: Solid. Wouldn't go as far to call it a stomper - but solid, and some forgiveness too, for those less-than-perfect landings. 

Side-hits: Not ideal, but still quite fun. 

Small jumps/Big Jumps: Medium to Large jumps, straight air is the sweet spot for this board when it comes to jumps. 

Switch

It's pretty directional, so it was never going to be amazing for riding switch, but it's doable. 

Spins

Taking off and landing switch not ideal. But there's some decent pop there and getting the spin around wasn't too bad. Being on the lighter side helped to. Not the ideal spinner by any means, but if you wanted to hit the occasional 180, 360 etc, it's certainly doable. 3/5. 

Butters

It's not unbuttery. It's not super buttery either. But it had more pressability in the nose and tail than I was anticipating. probably 3/5 pushing 3.5/5. 

Overall, the Show Stopper was super fun to ride. And strikes a really good balance between being burly enough to handle some speed, but still really agile when riding slower. It can handle a variety of different turns and is just so fun and lively to turn with.  

It's also really well suited to riding powder. 

For anyone looking for a one-board quiver, that's pretty versatile outside of riding freestyle, this ticks a lot of boxes (or someone who wants it as their directional freeride/powder board in their quiver).