Rossignol Frenemy Snowboard Review

Who is the Frenemy Most Suited To?

The Frenemy is a great option for anyone looking for a board that can do a bit of everything and is the kind of board that's easy to ride and feels like you never left the mountain, even after having not ridden for a long time. 

It's the kind of board that a high-end beginner can ride but also good for advanced riders who want something that's not going to be too physically challenging to ride - something that's easier going and consistent.  

Bindings angles: +15/-12

Stance width: 510mm (20.1″)

Stance Setback: Setback 10mm

Width at Inserts: 249mm (9.8") at front insert and 251mm (9.88") 

Weight: 2700g (5lbs, 15oz)

Weight per cm: 18.37g/cm

Average Weight per cm: 17.12 grams/cm*

*based on small sample size of women's boards that I've weighed. 

So heavier than normal.  And on snow Jade found it to be heavier than average (weight on scales doesn't always translate to how it felt on snow). 

Tester: Jade

Rider Height:  5'7" (170cm)

Rider Weight: 145lbs (66kg)

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

Bindings Used: Burton Lexa, Medium 

Damp or Chattery?

A little more to the damp side of the scale. A little damper than average, but not super damp or anything. 

Smooth or Snappy? 

Right in the middle. Not ultra snappy, but not un-snappy either. 

Powder

Jade didn't get the board in powder, but based on specs, it's going to be decent in powder. Not going to be the ultimate powder board, but there's a small setback, a good amount of rocker and the nose is a little longer than the tail. Based on other similar boards, it's going to be slightly above average in powder. 

Carving & Turning

Turning: Nice and easy to initiate turns on and at the same time not without power. A good mix of ease of turns and power in the turn. 

Carving: Never going to be a carving monster, but handled carving pretty well. Jade felt she could charge larger carves well and was able to dig in and commit to an edge and go for it. 

Maneuverability at slow speeds: Pretty good at riding at slower speeds and edge to edge was fairly quick and easy, without being ultra nimble. 

Skidded Turns: Jade felt she was able to perform skidded turns with ease without much concern with catching an edge.

Speed

It's never going to be a speed demon at its flex, but Jade found the Frenemy to handle speed well, was stable at higher speeds and felt that it glided really well too. 

Uneven Terrain

It's all round very good in uneven terrain.

Crud: It's not a crud crusher, but it does a decent job of smashing through crud. It's not immune to being bucked around in it a little, but it's easier enough to correct when you do get bucked off line a bit. 

Bumps: And it's nimble enough for weaving through tight bumps, and going over those bumps it hugs pretty well too. 

Let’s Break up this text with a Video

Jumps

Whilst it's not oozing pop (and part of that is the rocker which comes in right in the middle of the bindings - if it just extended a little further past the inserts I think that would give it more pop, but I digress), the pop that's there is easy to access, and it otherwise strikes a really good balance between stable and easy to adjust on the approach and being solid but also forgiving enough on landings. 

It's just not super lively when you want to get really good boost. 

Pop: It hasn't good oodles of pop, but there's some pop there for sure - and what's there is nice and easy to access.    

Approach: A good balance of being stable for faster approaches but also easy to speed check and control on the approach. 

Landing: For landings again it strikes a good balance. Solid enough, without being a stomper, for landing bigger jumps, but forgiving enough of errors when you don't quite get the landing perfect. 

Side-hits: Being nimble enough and easy enough to adjust meant getting to those trickier side hits or the ones you spot last minute were good - and that easy access for the pop really helped too as well as being forgiving on landings, for those hits with less than ideal landing spots. 

Small jumps or Big Jumps: Medium jumps is the Frenemy's sweet spot. But it can handle both big and small jumps well too. 

Switch

Whilst not perfect, the Frenemy performs well when riding switch. Not as good as it would be if it were a twin, but not far off either. Very capable for riding switch. 

Spins

Getting the spin around was fairly average - and part of that was the weight of the board. It's definitely on the heavier side, so required a bit of effort to get it around. But otherwise it's pretty good for spins. Setting up and landing switch was fine and that easy access pop helped too. A little more overall pop and a lighter core would help this board be a really good spinner. 

Jibbing

Decent on boxes/rails - Jade felt confident on the approach in terms of being able to easily line up the jib and make corrections as necessary on the approach and the dismount and landing was fairly easy too. 

Butters

It's not ultra buttery, but it's not hard to butter either. On the easier side of average to butter. 

Overall the Frenemy is a one of those boards that doesn't have any real weaknesses in any area, but also isn't amazing in any one area either.

It's kind of middle ground for a lot of things, but it's the kind of board you can just get on, go anywhere and do anything without having to worry too much about - but it's probably not going to blow you away either. A really good consistent board for all conditions, that can be ridden from anyone from upper level beginners to advanced riders.