GNU Mullair Review: Freeride Snowboard Review

Hello and welcome to my GNU Mullair review.

In this review, I will take a look at the Müllair (called the Essential Service for 2021 model. The 2022 Essential Service is a completely different board. Once I’ve ridden that one, I’ll post a separate review for it) as a freeride snowboard.

As per tradition here at SnowboardingProfiles.com I will give the Müllair a score out of 100 (based on several factors) and see how it compares with other freeride snowboards.

NOTE: The 2021 model was the last model of the Mullair – and it was renamed for 2021 the Essential Service (not to be mistaken with the 2022 Essential Service which is a different type of board altogether).

Overall Rating

Board: GNU Müllair (Essential Service)

Price: $599 (USD recommended retail)

Style: Freeride

Flex Rating: Medium-Stiff

Flex Feel on Snow: Medium-Stiff (7.5/10)

Rating Score: 86.4/100

Compared to other Men’s Freeride Boards

Out of the 36 men’s freeride snowboards that I rated:

O.k. let’s take a more detailed look at what the Müllair is capable of.

Demo Info

Board: GNU Müllair 2019, 159 (250mm waist width)

Date: April 14, 2018

Conditions: With 27cm of fresh snow in the 24 hours prior it was the perfect day for testing freeride boards (which is what I mostly rode on the Saturday). Visibility (at least the part of the mountain where I was riding) was great. There was a bit of wind (which was surprisingly cold for April) but only noticed it on the chair lift. It was around -8 degrees with wind chill.

Bindings angles: +15/-15

Stance width: 580mm (22.8”)

Stance Setback: 25mm (1”)

Width at Inserts: 258mm (10.16”) at front insert and 256mm (10.08”) at back insert (a quite narrow board for a 159).

Powder

I’m always surprised when a board that’s mostly camber, and whatever rocker there is, is between the feet, actually floats quite well. It wasn’t an epic floater – but it was certainly really good and fairly effortless.

It does have a few things going for it that explain it though – it has a longer and wider nose than the shorter, narrower tail – and it has a decent setback.

Carving & Turning

This was one of favorite boards to carve on. It was just so fun railing the edge on this board and getting into deep carves on it. It held on no matter what and just locked you into and held you into a carve for as long as you wanted it.

It was also pretty agile and quick edge-to-edge – something that was fun in the trees. Even managed to be relatively agile at slow speeds, which is something that boards this stiff usually struggle with.

Not easy to skid turns on – there is certainly consequence there. This is certainly no beginners deck – but it wasn’t super-catchy either.

Speed

This board can seriously bomb and feels really stable when riding fast.

It held on and never felt washy no matter how hard I drove it. Good acceleration too – gets up to speed very quickly and glides well over flat zones/slight uphills. cat tracks etc.

Let’s Break up this text with a Video

Uneven Terrain

It’s pretty good in chopped up resort snow for a stiffer more aggressive board. Not amazing but fine.

Jumps

It’s got good pop in there, but it’s the kind of pop you’ve got to really load up. It’s not easily accessible.

It’s also stable on landings but with that narrow platform, not quite as stable as other slightly wider boards, I found. But the stiffness and the camber makes it a solid landing for big airs.

Pretty good on the approach.

Personally, this is something that would be best for big airs in the backcountry and for me, straight airs. For those of us that are mortals it’s not an easy jumping board – but for pros it’s probably good for that. But not a particularly strong point for this board, for me.

Switch

Not undoable at all, but with the taper (all be it quite a small taper) and the 25mm setback, not ideal either.