Burton Paramount Review: Freestyle Snowboard Review

Who is the Paramount Most Suited To?

The Paramount is a great option for anyone who wants ample pop and power for riding the park - or on the way to the park on the groomers. And still wants to be able to lay down a good carve. It's a stomper that can go big, but isn't cumbersome for smaller jumps and side-hits too. 

Through my aggressive-all-mountain-freestyle snowboard rating system the Paramount actually scores in the 90s, so it's perhaps even better suited to that category - so you can certainly use it for that too. I chose to put it here as it's softer flexing than I normally put in that category.  

Not for the beginner or even intermediate rider. This is best suited to those who are already advanced confident riders and have some park game already. 

Bindings angles: +15/-15

Stance width: 560mm (22″)

Stance Setback: Centered

Width at Inserts: 267mm (10.51") 

Rider Height: 6'0"

Rider Weight: 185lbs

Rider Boot Size: US10 Vans Aura

Bindings Used: Burton Malavita M 

Flex

Burton rate this as just on the softer side of medium - looking at their scale about a 4/10 or 4.5/10. In hand that feels pretty accurate but it rides a little stiffer than that. I felt the 158 at probably 5.5/10. But if I was to buy this board for predominantly park riding, I might look at the 155 potentially, which would be roughly around 5/10 flex I would say. 

Powder

This is it's biggest weakness. Even in shallow powder it felt a bit sinky. Of course you can ride anything in powder, but this is one that really increases your chances of nose diving and ending the day with a very fatigued back leg. 

Carving & Turning

Really fun on a carve. This board has heaps of camber and you get heaps of spring out of a turn and really allows you to get into quite an aggressive carve, despite the lower flex rating. 

Not easy to skid turns on though, so not a good beginner option. Too aggressive overall for a beginner anyway. 

But it is actually quite nimble at slower speeds, which surprised me a little, but I guess that's one of the advantages you get from a slightly softer flex (vs what you'd expect from an otherwise aggressive board). 

Decent in trees - though would be a different story if there was more powder in there, I would imagine. 

Speed

For a twin with a softer flex, it handles speed really well. Never going to be an out and out bomber for speed and did start to get a little wobbly when really opening it out, but decent enough. 

Uneven Terrain

In and around bumps it performed pretty well. It's nimble enough to go around bumps and not unforgiving going over them. 

Decent in crud too.   

Let’s Break up this text with a Video

Jumps

This board was sick to jump with - small jumps, large jumps, side-hits ollies, you name it. Just wanted to ride this on jumps all day!

Pop: The Paramount possessed perhaps the perfect balance between easy to access pop and explosive pop. You could extract a really good amount of pop with very little effort. But if you wanted more, and put the effort in, there was plenty more available. There is heaps of camber in this deck, and it shows. 

Approach: Actually nice and nimble so approaches to tricky side-hits was fine - but also stable on approaches to big jumps too. 

Landing: Just forgiving enough for smaller jumps but super solid landing big jumps. You want to stomp your landings with this board, but when you do, boy does it feel good. 

Side-hits: Great pop - with a lot of that really easy to access, felt light and easy to spin and was also nimble. Heaps of fun finding side-hits on this thing when not in the park.   

Small jumps or big jumps: Really good for any jump big or small.  

Switch

It's a true twin - so yeah good for switch for sure. 

Spins

The Paramount felt light and poppy - and easy to get that pop going. It felt easy to spin and could handle landings off small and big tricks alike. Taking off and landing switch no issues either. 

Jibbing

Not the best jibber but doable, certainly for those who are good jibbers. But yeah, not ideal. 

Butters

Not that easy to butter/press. Middle of the road.

Overall, the Paramount is a beast. It's poppy and lively and just super fun for any kind of jump. Definitely more of a jump/spin park board vs a buttery/jibby one, so if you're more into the jump line and want that pop and those stomping landings, then this might be the one for you. 

I was very close to adding this to the aggressive all-mountain-freestyle category, and if that's the kind of board you're after, then this would also be a great choice to look at. Only reason I chose not put it in that category was because it's flex is a little softer than I would normally have in that category.