The Nidecker Astral isn't the kind of board that sets your adrenaline alight or has your dopamine sensors tingling, but it provides really decent performance at a price that won't have your bank balance taking too steep a plummet off a cliff.
In this review, I will take a look at the Astral as an all-mountain snowboard, which we define as the do-it-all swiss-army knives of boards.
As per tradition here at SnowboardingProfiles.com I will give the Astral a score out of 100 (based on several factors) and see how it compares with other women's all-mountain snowboards.
Overall Rating
Board: Nidecker Astral 2025
Price: $459
Style: All-Mountain
Flex Rating: Mid-Soft
Flex Feel on Snow: Medium (5/10)
Rating Score: 83.1/100
Compared to other Women’s All-Mountain Boards
Of the 25 current model women's all-mountain snowboards that we tested:
❄️ The Astral ranked 16th out of 25
Overview of the Astral’S Specs
Check out the tables for the Astral’s specs and available sizes.
STYLE:
ALL-MOUNTAIN
PRICE:
$459 - BUYING OPTIONS
Ability Level:
flex:
feel:
DAMPNESS:
SMOOTH /SNAPPY:
Playful /aggressive:
Edge-hold:
camber profile:
HYBRID CAMBER
Hybrid Camber - Nidecker's "Camrock"
SHAPE:
setback stance:
Setback 10mm (0.4")
BASE:
Extruded | Nidecker's "Extruded N-5000"
weight:
Felt normal
Camber Height:
7mm
Sizing
LENGTH (cm) | Waist Width (mm) | Rec Rider Weight (lb) | Rec Rider Weight (kg) |
|---|---|---|---|
139 | 234 | 75-120 | 35-55 |
143 | 238 | 90-130 | 40-60 |
147 | 242 | 100-145 | 45-65 |
151 | 246 | 110-155 | 50-70 |
155 | 249 | 145+ | 65+ |
Who is the Astral Most Suited To?
The Astral is best suited to an intermediate to advanced rider who needs versatility in their board and has a lower budget to spend. I would say a really good price for what you get. It's not the ultimate board or anything, but all round really decent performance for the price.
It's the kind of board you would get as a one-board quiver in most cases, IMO.
Astral DetailS
O.k. let’s take a more detailed look at what the Astral is capable of.
Demo Info
Board: Nidecker Astral 2025, 147cm (243mm waist width)
Date: January 10, 2025
Carving
I found it to be a solid carver. Nothing that was amazing or anything, but decent enough up to moderately fast speeds. Didn't like it as much when carving at faster speeds though.
Turning
Ease of Turning/Slashing: Nice and easy to initiate turns and to slash out the tail.
Maneuverability at slow speeds: For how easy it was to initiate turns, it wasn't as quick edge-to-edge as I would have expected. It was still decent, but not super agile at slow speeds.
Catchiness: Very little catch. If you weren't looking for it, you'd likely not notice it.
Speed
Not a bomber. It's not slow and it doesn't too early up the speedometer, but it does get shaky when you start to open out the speed on it past a certain speed.
Powder
No powder to test in on the day, but based on feel and specs, it should be just a bit above average, but nothing too special. It should hold it's own fairly well in shallower powder, but probably becomes harder work when it gets deeper.
Uneven Terrain
Crud/Chunder: It would be too much to call it a rag doll, but it did get bounced around fairly easily in messy snow. It wasn't super solid. But have definitely ridden boards that were more easily thrown around.
Trees/Bumps: Solid ride through trees and moguls. Nice easy torsional twist when weaving through bumps and good edge hold when riding through moguls and trees in harder conditions. Would be OK, without being amazing in powdered trees.
Jumps
Overall decent for jumps, without being amazing, in my experience.
Pop: The pop is pretty easy to access. There is more pop when you wind it up, but it takes quite a bit more effort to get more out of it. Total pop overall is OK, but nothing to write home about.
Approach: A good mix of stable and maneuverable for most jump sizes.
Landing: While landings were forgiving in the sense that if I got a little sideways, I could revert my way out of it and not too much danger of catching an edge or anything, but not as forgiving if you landed tail or nose heavy. It had a tendency to over-flex the tail or nose if not landing perfectly centered. When landing perfectly it felt good though.
Side-hits: Decent without any real x-factor.
Switch
Transitions were very non-catchy and smooth. But turns and riding in switch felt a bit labored. Not bad overall though.
Spins
Pretty easy board to spin on. Little to no catch on setup and when having to complete an under-rotation after landing. And doesn't over-rotate easily after landing either.
Jibbing
Decent enough, but I found if my dismounts were off that the tail and nose flex tended to over-flex and that made it difficult to hold onto the landing at times.
Butters
It's nice and easy to press the nose and tail and has a nice feeling when spinning through butters. It did find it felt like it had the potential to over flex on tail presses though.
Score Breakdown and Final Verdict
Check out the breakdown of the score in the table below.
| Factor | Rating (/5) | Weighted |
|---|---|---|
| Powder | 3 | 9/15 |
| Carving | 3 | 6/10 |
| Turns | 4 | 8/10 |
| Speed | 3 | 6/10 |
| Crud | 3 | 6/10 |
| Trees | 4 | 8/10 |
| Switch | 4 | 8/10 |
| Jumps | 3.5 | 7/10 |
| Spins | 4 | 4/5 |
| Butters | 4 | 4/5 |
| Rails | 3 | 3/5 |
| TOTAL (after normalizing): | 83.1/100 |
The Astral is a board that gives solid performance at a really good price-point. It's not the kind of board that is going to have me screaming it's name from the treetops or anything, but for its price and versatility, I would consider it a good buy if you don't have a lot to spend on your board.
More Info, Current Prices and Where to Buy Online
To learn more about the Astral, or if you're ready to buy, or if you just want to research prices and availability, check out the links below:
To check out some other women's all-mountain snowboard options, or to see how the Astral compares to others, check out our top rated all-mountain snowboards by clicking the button below.
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