Burton Skeleton Key Review: Freeride Snowboard Review

Who is the Skeleton Key Most Suited To?

The Skeleton Key is great for anyone looking for a softer flexing freeride board. Someone who wants to carve, hit powder whenever they can and might like popping some rollers, ollies or lips. 

Not for someone who likes to ride switch or do 180s, but not a lot of freeride boards are. 

Not for a beginner at all. It's not overly stiff, but still too stiff for a beginner - and there's a a lot of camber there, so even someone who is just identifying as intermediate might struggle a little too. Solid intermediate and up, IMO. 

Bindings angles: +15/-15

Stance width: 560mm (22″)

Stance Setback: Setback 50mm

Width at Inserts: 268mm (10.55") at front insert and 268mm (10.55")*

*unusual for a board this directional to have identical back and front insert widths, but in this case the setback seems to cancel out the taper. Taper usually makes the back insert narrower than the front insert, but setback means that the back insert is on a wider part of the board as it's closer to the wide points, but in this case those 2 things seem to cancel out. 

Rider Height: 6'0"

Rider Weight: 185lbs

Rider Boot Size: US10 Vans Aura

Bindings Used: Burton Malavita M  

Powder

The Skeleton Key provides really effortless float in powder. It was an enjoyable board to hit the powder on for sure, and I'm sure would perform well in deeper powder too. 

And it was no surprise that this was the case, given the rocker in the nose, the long wide nose vs the narrower, shorter tail and a good amount of setback along the effective edge too. 

There was 59cm from the center of the front binding to the end of the nose and 42cm from the center of the back binding to the end of the tail - so you're a good bit back on this board, and you really felt that in the powder. 

It's just that little bit wider too, so it's really set up to ride powder. 

Carving & Turning

Carving: A great little carver. It's got plenty of camber and spring out of turns and just really fun to carve on. S turns are fun too. It's not so unforgiving that you can't ride it a little more casual too, when you feeling it. 

Maneuverability at slow speeds: It's not super agile, but it's not a tank at slower speeds either. Having that softer flex for a typical freeride board helps to make it more agile at slower speeds.  

Skidded Turns: Doable, but not ideal.

Speed

I was surprised at how stable the Skeleton Key felt after opening it out. When riding it slower it felt like it had quite a bit of flex to it, which usually makes a board feel a little wobbly when riding fast. But it surprised me. Not the bomber that stiffer boards can be, but still really good. 

Uneven Terrain

Handled uneven terrain really well. Forgiving enough in crud and going over bumpy terrain and nimble enough to go around bumps. The personality of this board adapts well to both slower, trickier terrain and faster terrain where you can open out.  

Let’s Break up this text with a Video

Jumps

Not bad for jumps. Not something I'd be doing too many spins on, but for straight air it's not bad. 

Pop: The pop isn't epic. It's not like what you get out the Paramount of anything like that, but it's decent enough. Decent spring off the tail.  

Approach: Nice and stable for approaches to larger jumps. Not ideal for smaller jumps or trickier side hits, but not bad either. 

Landing: Nice and solid on a landing, but forgiving enough too.

Side-hits: OK on side-hits. Not for doing 1's off sidehits, IMO, and not like super nimble for trickier approaches, but poppy enough and not bad overall. But certainly good for straight air over rollers, lips etc.

Small jumps/Big Jumps: Slightly more suited to medium to large jumps vs smaller jumps/hits. 

Switch

Felt weird to ride switch and looking at the specs it's no surprise. 

Spins

Not really one for spins, IMO. Just didn't feel like a natural spinner - and taking off and landing switch wasn't great. 

Jibbing

Not one for jibbing really. Doable if you really want to, but limited for jibs. 

Butters

It's got some flex in the tip and tail, but not really one for buttering and the tip and tail flex feels different, so it's just a bit weird to butter on. 

Overall, the Skeleton Key is a fun ride - nice and carvy with all that camber, but handles powder and uneven terrain really well too and isn't bad for jumps/ollies either. 

It's a great option for those looking for a softer flexing freeride board and one that's a little lower cost than most freeride boards.