Arbor Single Snowboard Review

Who is the Single Most Suited To?

The Single best suited to someone looking for a short wide board to add to their quiver mostly as a powder/tree board, but one that can still carve on groomers pretty well too. 

Not what I would call a one-board quiver, but a great addition to the quiver. 

It's not a super hard board to ride or anything. It's pretty easy going but still not for a beginner - someone solid intermediate and up. 

Bindings angles: +15/-15 & +18/-3

Stance width: 540mm (21.3″)

Stance Setback: Setback 30mm (1.2")

Width at Inserts: 287mm (11.3") at front insert and 283mm (11.1") at back insert

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: 2900grams (6lbs 6oz)

Weight per cm: 19.08 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 Single is a little heavier than normal. That said, if you take into account the overall surface area, it's probably closer to a regular width 158-159 in surface area, so it's pretty much normal. On snow it felt normal. 

Damp or Chattery? 

Right in the middle of the scale. That big ole nose shakes around a lot, but you don't feel it hugely underfoot. 

Smooth or Snappy? 

Again right in the middle. There's a bit of snap to the board, but it's also fairly smooth riding. 

Powder

The first day I took the Single out I didn't have any fresh snow to test it in, but I could tell from riding it that it would be great in pow. 

Then it snowed the next day it snowed overnight and I still had the board, so I took it out again at the same time as a similar style of board - the GNU Gremlin. 

And I am glad I did. This board was so much fun in powder. It was effortless and surfed nicely.

Not too surprising given the taper, the surface area (particularly in the nose) and how directional this board is. Plus it has "pow fenders" which is an uprise around the contact points in the nose of the board, which also helps with float. It doesn't have any rocker as such in the profile, but you wouldn't know it with the way this thing floats. 

Carving & Turning

Carving: Really fun for slower speed carves. Not quite as good when really opening it out, but still does OK. Too much taper and not stiff enough to be a carving machine, but can carve on groomers and better than you'd think for how powder focused this thing is. 

Turning: Easy to turn and good spring.  

Maneuverability at slow speeds: Quite nimble but not super nimble. As with any super wide board, I find they're never ultra nimble, but for how wide it is, it's pretty agile (that shorter length of course helps). I didn't find it like physically hard to change edges (which I find with some other wide boards) - you could change edges with very little effort, which was nice - but just with those quick short turns it felt a little delayed. 

Skidded Turns: Felt forgiving of skidded turns. Not catchy at all. I wonder if those uprise fenders help there. Arbor's System camber does tend to be less catchy than traditional camber anyway - so that plus the uprise fenders probably makes the difference there. 

Speed

It can handle a bit of speed on groomers, but not a bomber. The nose flaps around quite a lot, and whilst you don't feel it that much underfoot, there's still not an ultra feeling of stability at speed. For how short it is, it's pretty good for speed though. 

Uneven Terrain

Crud: It doesn't smash through it as such, but it floats over nicely. And when it does get a little bucked around, it's easy to make corrections, but also you can just keep floating over it, as that nose just allows you to sail on top. 

Bumps: It's not super quick edge-to-edge (but not slow either) but it's also not an effort. It takes time but not effort, if that makes sense. You can initiate that turn nice and easily, but it just takes a little time for the board to catch up to what you're doing.

But it's certainly not slow and with that little tail, you can just whip it around in tighter spots and makes it easier to avoid catching the tail on a tree trunk. 

When going over bumps you can hug them nicely with this board. 

Let’s Break up this text with a Video

Jumps

It's not really a jumping board, but it's actually decent for straight airs. 

Pop: The pop is easy to extract. It's not super poppy overall, but what's there is really easy to access. 

Approach: Nimble enough and stable enough, but not ultra at either. 

Landing: Not a stomper, but solid enough. And forgiving enough at the same time for those bad landings. 

Side-hits: Had fun hitting side hits with this board. It's not ideal of course and best if you're not looking to spin off anything. 

Small jumps/Big Jumps: Best for medium. 

Switch

Nah! It's got a tiny tail and huge nose, a big setback, etc etc. This board is made to ride in one direction and it feels weird riding it the other way. 

Spins

Nice and easy to get spin around (probably part due to it's shorter length) and pop isn't hard to access but landing and setting up switch isn't fun. 

Butters

There's some flex in the there for pressing. More so in the nose. But the nose is a little awkward to press, probably because of how big it is - and the tail is a bit stiffer and also a little awkward but probably because of how small - and the feel off the tail and nose is completely different. So yeah, not really suited for butters - but definitely not designed for that type of riding either, so no surprise there. 

Overall, the Single is a really fun ride, particularly in powder. It's not the kind of board you get if you never see powder - but it can hold it's own no groomers and in icy patches and other harder places you might need to go through to get to that powder stash. 

Even in hard trees, when I rode it on the first day it was still fun, then when I got pow, the trees got even more fun (naturally!) 

Certainly not a one board quiver, but a great option if you're looking for a short wide to bring out on powder days.