GNU Velvet Snowboard Review

Overview of the Velvet’s Specs

Who is the Velvet Most Suited To?

The Velvet is best suited to either more high-end beginners/low intermediates who are looking for a playful, easy ride to build their confidence or just anyone who wants a more playful ride that doesn't require too much effort input from the rider. 

It doesn't excel when ridden fast/aggressive, but if you don't like to ride fast and like be more casual/playful and don't want to be fatigued or have to really drive the board hard, then it should work well for you, particularly if you like to butter around hit small jumps and sidehits. 

Not a complete beginner board, but high-end beginners should be good with it. Not the easiest for coming off the lift, because of the looser feel, but that looser feel does also make it easier to initiate turns. 

Bindings angles: +15/-12

Stance Setback: Centered

Tester: Jade

Rider Height: 5"7" (170cm)

Rider Weight: 130lbs (59kg)

Rider Boot Size: Women's US6.5 Thirty Two Exit

Bindings Used: Burton Lexa, Medium 

Powder

Nothing to test in on the day, but based on feel of board and specs, the Velvet would likely be about average in powder. 

It does have a generous amount of rocker in the profile. There's nothing much else helping it in powder but that will certainly help with float. Should have a surfy feel in powder. 

Carving

Not great on a carve. Can get washy when you really try to dig the edge in and get deep on a carve. Too soft and too much rocker in the middle to make it a great carving board. 

Turning

Ease of Turns/Slashes: Really nice and easy to initiate turns on and easy to slash around on this board. 

Maneuverability at slow speeds: Nice and quick edge-to-edge - really easy and fast to change edges when riding slow. 

Skidded Turns: Easy to skid turns without much chance of catching an edge. 

Speed

Gets pretty wobbly when you open it out to moderately fast speeds. Not a speed demo. That softer flex and the amount of rocker between the feet makes for a pretty unstable feeling when you get up to certain speeds. 

Uneven Terrain

Crud: Can float over it pretty well, but does get bucked around fairly easily. But on the flip side, it is pretty easy to make corrections, when you're thrown off line. 

Bumps: In terms of weaving between bumps it's nice and quick edge-to-edge. It's not super stable when things are rough and you tend to feel all the chatter, but that edge-to-edge speed makes trees/moguls enjoyable. 

Let’s Break up this text with a Video

Jumps

Overall really fun for jumps, paritularly smaller ones. Not so much larger ones though. 

Pop: Nice and easy to access the pop on this boards. When you wind it up, there's not much more you can extract from it though. So not oodles of total pop but decent amount - and what's there is really easy to access. 

Approach: Good for making adjustments/speed checking and works really well for small jumps and smaller sidehits. Can get pretty wobbly when riding faster, so faster approaches to bigger jumps not ideal. 

Landing: A lot of forgiveness on landings, but almost too much for bigger jumps. Not something that stomps landings, but on smaller jumps where you don't need it to be super solid, it's good and has that forgiveness for if you get the landing slightly off. 

Side-hits: Nice for smaller sidehits, especially when you need that agility on approach for those sidehits you spot last second and want to hit. The easy access pop is also nice for sidehits. 

Small jumps/Big jumps: Best for small for sure, but can handle medium too.

Switch

So easy to ride switch and transitions are pretty seamless too. Not catchy at all. 

Spins

For smaller spins, the Velvet performed well. It's easy to setup or land switch, it's got that nice easy access pop and it's pretty easy to get the spin around too. For bigger spins, not as well suited. 

Jibbing

Really decent for jibs. Has that easy pop and easy maneuverability that gives confidence on approach. 

Butters

Presses nice and easily off the nose and tail and an even feeling between both. 

Score Breakdown and Final Verdict