Burton Talent Scout Review

Board: Burton Talent Scout

Price: $559

Style: All-Mountain-Freestyle

Flex Rating: 5-8/10 (Personality: Medium to Aggressive)

Flex Feel on Snow: Medium (6/10)

Rating Score: 89.3/100

Compared to other Women’s All-Mountain-Freestyle Boards

Out of the 23 women’s all-mountain-freestyle snowboards that I rated:

Overview of the Talent Scout's Specs

Check out the tables for the Talent Scout's specs and available sizes.

Specs

Who is the Talent Scout Most Suited To?

The Talent Scout is best suited to anyone who wants a more aggressive than average poppy board that excels in the resort and the park alike, for those who are solid riders. 

It's not super powder friendly, so if you see a lot of powder, you might want it as part of a quiver with another powder specialist board. But apart from powder, it's very versatile. 

Not for beginners and even lower intermediates might find it a bit challenging. 

The Talent Scout in More Detail

Bindings angles: +12/-9

Stance width: 530mm (20.9″)

Stance Setback: Centered

Width at Inserts: 254mm (10")  

Weight: 2540g (5lbs, 10oz)

Weight per cm: 17.05g/cm

Average Weight per cm: 17.38 grams/cm*

* based on just over 40 women's boards that I've weighed in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 & 2024 models. The Talent Scout was a little lighter than average on the scales and felt normal on snow.  

Tester: Meira

Rider Height:  5'4 (163cm)

Rider Weight: 130lbs (58kg)

Rider Boot Size: US Women's 8 (Burton Limelite)

Bindings Used: Union Milan

Powder

None to test in on the day, but based on specs, it's not going to float super well in powder, given it's a true twin, centered board with no rocker. 

Carving & Turning

Carving: For a twin this is one of the better carvers out there. I found it could rail a carve nicely. 

Ease of Turning/Slashing: It wasn't super hard to initiate turns and get it to slash, but it wasn't super easy/slashy either. 

Maneuverability at slow speeds: When you put the effort in and made sure you were using good technique it could get from edge to edge pretty quickly at slower speeds. Not lightning quick, but decently so. 

Catchiness: When riding slow it could feel quite catchy. That catchy feeling all but disappeared when getting some speed under it though.  

Speed

It's decently fast and nice and stable at higher speeds for the most part. And it feels at it's best when riding with a bit of speed under it. 

Uneven Terrain

Crud/Chunder: Does a good job of smashing through crud, staying fairly stable and felt pretty damp too.  

Trees/Bumps: Felt good in trees in bumps. You had to put the effort in to get it turning quickly in slower more technical sections and had to be on your game technique-wise, but when I was, it was very enjoyable. 

Jumps

About as good as it gets. 

Pop: Quite easy to access and also a good bit more pop when you load it up. Really liked the balance of pop in this board. 

Approach: A good mix of stable but also decently easy to adjust. For slower approaches you've got to be a little conscious that it's more prone to catching an edge, but otherwise felt very good on approach. 

Landing: Stomper! Can really stomp landings on this thing. But when you don't get it right it's pretty forgiving of errors too. Can land a little wonky and get away with it.  

Side-hits: Really fun. Only thing would be on the setup you've got to concentrate for anything tricky that takes some quick maneuvering but when you do that, the approach is good and that easy access pop makes side-hits super fun on this thing. 

Small jumps/Big jumps: Good for everything. Medium is probably the sweet spot, but more than capable of handling bigger jumps.

Switch

It's a true twin, so naturally rode switch well. You had to be a little careful on transitions, particularly if you were riding slow, but otherwise, very good board for riding switch. 

Spins

The only thing that marks it down a little is that it can feel a little catchy on setup for the spin, but everything else is well suited to spins. 

Jibbing

Good pop onto features and felt good on the jib. But the approach could feel a little sketchy, unless you were approaching with a good bit of speed under you. 

Butters

Takes a little bit of effort to get it pressing, but not too much. And once you get it locked in, it's really good for holding a press. 

Score Breakdown and Final Verdict

Check out the breakdown of the score in the table below.

The Talent Scout is certainly more aggressive than it is playful and you've got to approach it with good technique and a willingness to put a bit of effort into your riding. 

But when you do, then you reap the rewards, because it's a super fun, dynamic, poppy board that excels as well for speed and carves as it does in the park. Apart from powder, it's really versatile overall.