GNU Upgrade Snowboard Review

The GNU Upgrade is a versatile ride that straddles that boundary between playful and aggressive perfectly and has no definable weaknesses, at least none I could detect. 

As you get with boards that are good at a bit of everything, it's not top tier in any one particular area, but it's consistent across all the factors we test for. 

In this review, I will take a look at the Upgrade as an all-mountain snowboard, which we define as the do-it-all swiss-army knives of boards. 

As per tradition here at SnowboardingProfiles.com I will give the Upgrade a score out of 100 (based on several factors) and see how it compares with other men's all-mountain snowboards.

Overall Rating

Board: GNU Upgrade 2026

Price: $599

Style: All-Mountain

Flex Rating: Medium

Flex Feel on Snow: Medium (5.5/10)

Rating Score: 88.6/100

Compared to other Men’s All-Mountain Boards

Overview of the Upgrade’S Specs

Check out the tables for the Upgrade’s specs and available sizes.

* at time of writing

Who is the Upgrade Most Suited To?

The Upgrade is best suited to someone looking for a one-board-quiver - something that they can do a bit of everything on, without needing more than one board, particularly if you prefer your riding feeling a little more on the surfy feel side, rather than more locked in.

While it's pretty easy going, it's not beginner friendly enough for beginners, IMO. 

Upgrade DetailS

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

Demo Info

Board: GNU Upgrade 2025, 156cm (255mm waist width)

Date: March 3, 2025

Turning

Ease of Turning/Slashing: Nice and easy to initiate turns and to slash out the tail, particularly at slower speeds. Not beginner easy, but it's pretty low effort and forgiving.  

Maneuverability at slow speeds: Nice and agile at slow speeds. It has that little bit of a surfy feeling and you can feel that pivot point from the rocker in the middle. It's got enough camber that it doesn't feel super loose/rockery, but you can feel that rocker and that really helps to quickly use that pivot to help you get edge-to-edge nice and quickly, and with very little effort needed.

Catchiness: At slower speeds there was barely anything - if I wasn't feeling for it, I probably wouldn't have noticed it at all. But surprisingly, it got a little more catchy when riding faster. Still nothing that was enough to bother me, but I found it interesting. It's not the first board I've found can be more catchy when going faster on it, but it's certainly an exception. I find typically that boards get more catchy as you ride slower, but in this case it was the opposite.

Carving

Decent enough on a carve. I'd still put it in that above average category, but it has its limits. It felt best carving at slow to moderate speeds and began to feel a little washy at higher speeds. 

Speed

As mentioned above, it could start to get washy above certain speeds, but it does take a fair amount of speed to get it there. Stays pretty stable up to moderately fast speeds, but again, does have its limits. 

Powder

We didn't have powder to test in on the day, but based on specs and feel, the Upgrade should be above average, without being amazing in powder. It had a bit of a surfy feel, which should be fun in fresh snow and  it's 20mm (³/₄") setback on effective edge, longer nose than tail and hybrid profile, that has rocker in it, should all help with powder float.  

Uneven Terrain

Crud/Chunder: Smilarly to my comments in the carving and speed sections above, I felt the Upgrade was good, without being amazing in messy snow. It remained pretty stable and could smash through and remain on line to an extent, but again had its limits with how fast you could do it and still feel comfortable and depending on how uneven the snow got.

Trees/Bumps: The Upgrade definitely felt at home in the trees. That quick edge-to-edge maneuverability made it really fun to weave between trees and bumps. Should be decent enough in powdered trees too. 

Jumps

Nice snap and ease of setup. Only thing that slightly detracts from it is that mild looseness and that small bit of catchiness at faster speeds. Otherwise would score even higher the 4 I've given it. 

Pop: I found the pop nice and easy to extract from the Upgrade and had more to give when putting effort in to load it up. 

Approach: Stable up to certain speeds and nice and easy to make adjustments. Better for slower to moderate speed approaches than faster ones, for me, so best suited to small to medium jumps, IMO. 

Landing: Landings were nice and forgiving when you were landing a little wonky or a little tail or nose heavy and it was easy to make any quick maneuvers after landing, when needed. Again, not as good for bigger jumps, when you're landing at a higher speed - a little more wobbly on landings from larger jumps. But just about ideal for small to medium jumps. 

Side-hits: Really fun. That easy pop and good agility really help it here. 

Switch

Riding switch felt good, with a really similar feeling to its nose-first feel. Transitions were good. Faster transitions took on that little more of a catchy feeling, but still fine for the most part. 

Spins

I felt good spinning on this board. It had a slight tendency to over-rotate after landing, but not major. Easy to finish under- rotations on the snow. And easy to setup and land switch. Again, like is a theme here, not as well suited to going really big - at least not for us most of us mere mortals - but for everything else, was a nice spinner for me. 

Jibbing

Had some great elements for jibbing - easy maneuverability and easy pop, but not perfect for me. If I was going to be doing a lot of jibbing on this board, I would detune the contact points for sure. 

Butters

Not too much effort to press the nose and tail and both felt very similar - but it's not so flexy in the nose/tail that you could over-flex it. Or at least I couldn't. 

Score Breakdown and Final Verdict

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

The Upgrade is a lively, snappy board that likes to whip edge-to-edge quickly and pop off all the little hits it can find on the sides of groomers, or small to medium jumps in the park. 

It's not a beast for speed, but it's pretty decent and requires a fair bit of speed before it starts to get the speed wobbles. Really decent in icy conditions too.