Arbor Westmark Rocker Review: Freestyle Snowboard Review

Who is the Westmark Rocker Most Suited To?

The Westmark Rocker is great for anyone looking for a board on the looser, more playful side for riding freestyle, predominantly in the park, but using the mountain as a park too. And even more ideal if you like that but want a twin that's a fun surfy ride in powder. 

Not ideal for a complete beginner, but for a high-end beginner it's very doable. 

Bindings angles: +15/-15

Stance width: 560mm (22″)

Stance Setback: Centered

Width at Inserts: 264.5mm (10.41") 

Rider Height: 6'0"

Rider Weight: 185lbs

Rider Boot Size: US10 Vans Aura

Bindings Used: Burton Malavita M 

Weight: 2800g (6lbs, 3oz)

Weight per cm: 18.06g/cm

Average Weight per cm: 18.45 grams/cm*

*based on a small sample size of 51 boards that I've weighed in 2019 and 2020 models. So the Westmark Rocker is a little lighter than normal, but very close to that average.

Powder

A fun ride in powder. Not going to excel in deep powder, but really nice for a twin and really fun surfy feel in moderate powder. Great powder option for those that want to ride both directions in powder. 

Carving & Turning

Carving: It's not a hard carver by any means. It's a looser more surfy feel and doesn't really engage in deep, long, aggressive carves

Turning: Good for doing regular S turns on, at slower speeds. 

Maneuverability at Slow Speeds: Really maneuverable at slow speeds. It gets off it's game a bit at speed, but really quick edge-to-edge at slow speeds. 

Skidded Turns:  Easy to skid turns on. Not catchy at all 

Speed

Getting up to moderate to fast speeds the Westmark Rocker starts to get quite wobbly. It's not a bomber, IMO. 

Uneven Terrain

Absorbs the bumps really well and nice and nimble for weaving in between. Good in crud too. 

With it's nimbleness as well, this board is really fun in trees, particularly when there's a moderate amount of fresh snow. 

Let’s Break up this text with a Video

This video is for the 2019 model, but both models are very similar. 

Jumps

Overall a fun board to hit jumps and side hits with. 

Pop: Good pop without being epic. Pop was really easy to access though - not much effort needed to extract it. 

Approach: Not particularly stable on approach to larger jumps, but nice and nimble to approaches to harder to hit side-hits. 

Landing: Nice and forgiving on smaller jumps, but not as suitable for larger jumps. 

Side-hits: Really fun - nice and nimble for trickier approaches and decent pop and that pop was super easy to access.  

Small jumps/Big Jumps: Really fun for smaller jumps. Not as suitable for larger jumps. OK for medium jumps. 

Switch

Really good for riding switch, which was no surprise. Because it's generally an easy board to ride, it's also good for those just learning how to ride switch. 

Spins

Fun board to spin. The spin gets around super-easy, lands and takes off in switch really well and has that easy to access pop. Not really for bigger, more extreme tricks, but highly suited for 1s and 3s off small to medium jumps. 

Jibbing

A nice board to jib on. It's nimble, forgiving an felt nice underfoot on jibs. I felt confident jibbing with it, and I'm not the strongest jibber. 

Butters

Nice and buttery. Press off the nose and tail really easily. 

The Westmark Rocker isn't a bomber by any means, but for playful freestyle riding - small jumps, side-hits, jibs and butters - it's a really fun board. And if you want to surf some shallow to moderate powder in between park laps, it's got a fun surfy feeling for that too.