Slash Spectrum Snowboard Review

The Slash Spectrum is a park board that borders on being all-mountain freestyle. It's most at home finding air-time, but can handle a reasonable amount of speed and lay down a pretty good carve, too. 

In this review, I will take a look at the Spectrum as a freestyle snowboard.

As per tradition here at SnowboardingProfiles.com I will give the Spectrum a score out of 100 (based on several factors) and see how it compares with other freestyle snowboards.

Overall Rating

Board: Slash Spectrum

Price: $499

Style: Freestyle

Flex Rating: Medium (5/10)

Flex Feel on Snow: Medium (5/10)

Rating Score: 83.2/100

Compared to other Men’s Freestyle Boards

Overview of the Spectrum’ Specs

Check out the tables for the Spectrum’s specs and available sizes.

Who is the Spectrum Most Suited To?

The Spectrum is best suited to those looking for a freestyle board that's more mid-flexing, rather than soft to mid-soft and that excels more so for the jump-line than jib line, in the park. Outside the park they want it to still be able to play around a bit with butters and ground tricks, but also want something that can lay down a pretty good carve on their way to finding their next side-hit. 

Compared to most freestyle oriented boards, it's got a better chance of finding a rider for who it would be a one-board quiver for. But it's still more likely to be a quiver addition as a compliment to a more powder oriented board and/or all-mountain and/or jib board. 

Not for beginners or even those that are intermediate in general but just starting out in the park/freestyle game. For more experienced freestyle riders, IMO. 

TEST/REVIEW DetailS FOR THE Spectrum

O.k. let’s take a more detailed look at what the Spectrum is capable of.

Demo Info

Board: Slash Spectrum 2025, 157cm (254mm waist width)

Date: February 14, 2024

Powder

It was hard and crunchy on test day, but based on specs and its general riding characteristics I don't think it would do great in the deep stuff.

I haven't ridden a true twin, centered, full camber board that did particularly well in deep powder, and with no 3D shaping in the base or anything, I can't see the Spectrum being the exception to that. 

Carving

It’s not a high-speed arc monster but does quite well for slower and moderate speed carving. The edge does like to lock in when you want it to and it feels real good, but as mentioned, does have its speed limit. 

Turning

Ease of Turning/Slashing: It’s a pretty easy board to initiate turns on and break loose the tail to slash out. Not a full-scale easy-as-they-come turning board, but definitely not demanding.

Maneuverability at slow speeds:  I found the Spectrum had some good slow speed agility. It doesn’t require a lot of speed and forces to get it to respond and ride well.

Catchiness: It's not catch-free or anything, but it's also nothing super catchy.

Speed

It feels good at moderately fast speeds but isn’t a board to break records with. This is to be expected from a freestyle/all-mountain freestyle board like this, and I have no complaints with how much speed it could handle.

Uneven Terrain

Crud/Chunder: I found it had enough oomph and dampness to do well well in rough, messy snow, especially making good use of down unweighted turns.

Trees/Bumps: I didn’t notice any extra effort at all to be able to handle a run of the mill bump or tree line. It’s fairly quick edge-to-edge, and not so demanding that it creates any extra problems. Nothing out of this world amazing for it, but still really decent. 

Jumps

Overall, the Spectrum was heaps of fun in a wide range of different scenarios for air-time. 

Pop: Easy to extract pop whether I needed a lot or a little. A touch less total pop compared to the Happy Place, but it gives you what you need.

Approach: I found it had a good mix of stability for various approach speeds, and ease of adjustment for last minute corrections.

Landing: Similar to the approach, a nice blend of stability for the runouts and forgiveness for recoveries when your flight didn’t go quite as perfectly as you planned it.

Side-hits: I found this to be the Spectrum's best attribute when it cam to getting air. It’s nice and easy to control, and since side hits typically require slower speeds than bigger park kickers, there’s no real downside here.

Switch

Felt really good for switch riding. Not perfectly catch-free for transitions, but certainly easy and comfortable to ride switch on.

Spins

Really good for spinning. It was very similar to the Slash Happy Place, which is a theme in many categories. It’s just a little on the heavy side, but that didn’t seem to affect it badly. Otherwise, the easy access pop, easy setups and landings from and to both switch and my usual, goofy direction.

Jibbing

I expected it to be more playful than it turned out to be, but it was still decent for jibbing - but more of a jump-line board, than jib-line, IMO. 

Butters

Quite good at buttering and pressing. It took me a little getting used to, and seemed sort of grippy at first, but I was able to dial it in quite quickly and felt good with a little bit of time on the board. 

Score Breakdown and Final Verdict

Check out the breakdown of the score in the table below.

I found the Spectrum to be quite a similar ride to Slash’s Happy Place. I recommend reading both reviews to get a sense of which one might be a better fit for you. 

It's just a little on the playful side. Franky, I expected it to be a little more playful, but I’m not at all tempted to put it on the aggressive side of the spectrum either. It’s quite a stable feeling ride, but leaning towards the semi-locked in side rather than the loose side of things.