Bataleon Party Wave Snowboard Review

Who is the Party Wave Most Suited To?

The Party Wave is best suited to someone looking for a playful board that's good in powder and good in trees. 

For most this will be a board that you add to your quiver for those days where you want to spend the day in trees/powder. But it's a nice affordable option for that extra board. 

Apart from tight turns/slashing and powder float, I also found it really fun to launch off side-hits with it. It's not for big air, but if you're someone who likes to find little hits off groomer or on the sides of groomers, this would add to this board's suitability for you. 

Not quite beginner friendly, but could be at a stretch. 

The Party Wave in More Detail

Bindings angles: +15/-15

Stance width: 540mm (21.3″)

Stance Setback: Setback 0.4" (10mm)

Width at front insert: 284mm (11.2")

Width at back insert: 275mm (10.8")

Rider Height: 6'0"

Rider Weight: 180lbs

Rider Boot Size: US9.5 Adidas Response ADV

Bindings Used: Burton Malavita M

Control Board for Control Laps: Lib Tech Terrain Wrecker 

Weight: 2920grams (6lbs 7oz)

Weight per cm: 19.34 grams/cm

Average Weight per cm: 18.71 grams/cm*

*based on a sample size of around 250 models that I’ve weighed in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 & 2024 models. The Party Wave was technically a little heavier than normal looking at the weight per cm, but it's a really wide board, so if I knew the surface area of all the boards we'd weighed, then it would almost certainly be lighter than average in terms of weight per surface area. And on snow it did feel a little lighter than normal. 

Powder

Nothing to test in on the day, but based on specs, experience with other Bataleon boards and feel of the board, the Party Wave should do really well in powder. 

It has a tapered directional shape with 20mm of taper and Bataleon's 3BT with high sidelift in the nose and low in the tail. While it isn't hugely setback on effective edge (0.4" (10mm)) it is setback 1.6" (40mm) over the length of the board. This still isn't a huge amount, but everything else about this board spells float. 

Carving

It's not ideal for carving. Certainly not the worst, but it does get washy when trying to carve aggressively and at higher speeds. 

Turning

Ease of Turning/Slashing: It's nice and easy to initiate turns on the Party Wave and it loves to slash turns. 

Maneuverability at slow speeds: Nice and quick edge-to-edge and very little effort needed to switch edges.

Catchiness: Really uncatchy. Didn't feel like I needed to think about that with this board. 

Speed

This is a playful board - and while it was a little stiffer than I was expecting, it's still fairly soft and it doesn't feel super stable when getting past a certain speed. But it can handle moderately fast speeds OK. 

Uneven Terrain

Crud: It gets bucked around pretty easily and feels the chatter when things get bumpy. Thankfully it is an easy board to correct/navigate, but you'll be having to do that a lot on this board in messy snow. 

Trees/Bumps: Now this is where this board really shines and feels at home. It's quick edge-to-edge and it's volume shifted, so that short length makes it easier to get your way through tight obstacles. Would be even better with powder in there. 

Jumps

It's OK but not ideal. Better for ollies than I though it would be though. 

Pop: There's not a lot of overall pop. But what's there is really easy to extract. Pretty effortless pop. 

Approach: It can get a bit wobbly on faster approaches but for tighter approaches or anything that you need to adjust or speed check, it's really good at that. 

Landing: Not super solid and while the width does give you that surface area to make up for the shorter length, there's still not a lot of tail length to work with if you land too tail heavy. But it is something that you can quickly speed check or maneuver after landing, if you need to. 

Side-hits: Was really fun for sidehits. That easy maneuverability and easy pop, made it fun and easy for small hits. 

Small jumps/Big Jumps: Best suited to small jumps and side-hits. Not stable enough for larger air, IMO. 

Switch

Transitions to switch were easy and riding switch on it was doable. But it did feel pretty weird. Feels a lot different riding it switch than it does the way around it's designed to be ridden. Such is life with directional boards. 

Spins

It was actually pretty good. It felt quite light and at 151 it's really short for me, so it was easy to swing around. Not ideal for taking off or landing switch, of course, but also doesn't feel catchy at all whether setting up or landing switch or your normal direction. 

Butters

Pretty easy to press the nose and tail, as you'd expect with a board of this flex. Nose and tail do feel quite different from each other though. 

Score Breakdown and Final Verdict

The Party Wave is a fun, playful board that excels mostly in powder and in trees. But is also quite fun for smaller side hits.

On groomer it is most fun slashing turns and going quick edge-to-edge and less suitable for bombing and long fast carves. And the price is really friendly for those looking for something like this but are on a budget.