Jones Stratos Review: Freeride Snowboard Review

Who is the Stratos Most Suited To?

The Stratos is best suited to those looking for a freeride board that can carve, bomb and float effortlessly in powder. It's a carvy freeride board, that's relatively stiff, so if you like things a little stiffer (not ultra stiffer) and carvy, but want to be able to hit powder when it comes, then this is a great option. 

Not for a beginner and even most intermediate riders probably aren't suited to this board. 

Bindings angles: +15/-15

Stance width: 560mm (22″) - but note that the reference stance is 600mm (23.6")

Stance Setback: Setback 20mm 

Width at Inserts: 271mm (10.7") at front insert and 270mm (10.6") at back insert  

Rider Height: 6'0"

Rider Weight: 175lbs

Rider Boot Size: US10 Salomon Lo-Fi

Bindings Used: Burton Malavita M 

Weight: 3060grams (6lbs 12oz)

Weight per cm: 19.25 grams/cm

Average Weight per cm: 18.36 grams/cm*

*based on a small sample size of roughly 80 models that I've weighed in 2019, 2020 & 2021 models. So, a little heavier than average and felt a little heavier than average on snow too. 

Flex

Jones rate this as 7/10. They rate the Flagship at 8/10 and the UMT at 9/10. This board felt subtly stiffer to me vs the UMT and Flagship - but that doesn't mean it's like a 9.5! The UMT to me felt closer to a  7 or pushing 7.5 and the Flagship more like and the Flagship about 7.5/10.

I felt the UMT stiffer in the past (an 8/10) but for the 2021 model more like a 7/10. I rode the UMT right before the Stratos, and the Stratos felt that little bit stiffer overall and certainly stiffer in the tip and tail, but overall flex closer to 7.5 by my feel - and more like 8 in the tip/tail.  

Damp or Chattery?

Really quite damp - a fair way up the Damp side of the scale. 

Smooth or Snappy?

Definitely more smooth than snappy - and again quite far up the smooth side of the scale

Powder

Feels really good in powder. Just nice effortless float. And the specs back that up too.

It's directional, has a setback stance, has taper, has rocker both at tip and tail, but more so in the tip and it has Jones' 3D Contour 3.0 base (the sides are spooned up).

Carving & Turning

Carving: Really nice on a carve. Has a carvy feeling and doesn't feel washy, even when carving at speed.

Turning: It's not an effortless turner - you've got to put some energy into it - but you do get it back from putting it in - and it's not something you've got to throw everything into or anything like that. 

Maneuverability at slow speeds: Not bad at slow speeds at all. Much better than I was expecting for sure. Making this a really decent option for powder days in the trees.

Skidded Turns: It's doable but not super easy to skid turns on. It prefers to be properly on edge - but it's not something that fights you to get it on edge - it gets on edge easily. 

Speed

Nice and stable at speed. This board was fun to open out and bomb with. 

And typical of Jones boards, particularly those with the Sintered 9900 bases, the glide on this thing is incredible. When it's this noticeable how good the board glides compared to the average board, it's impressive. 

Uneven Terrain

Good maneuverability for it's flex - so getting through tight spaces was actually pretty good, and going over bumps was fine too. 

And it feels really damp in crud and does a good job crashing through it. 

Let’s Break up this text with a Video

Jumps

OK for straight air, but not really what this board is made for. 

Pop: Nothing amazing but there's some there. It's not super easy to access though. 

Approach: Nice and stable on faster approaches. Not super maneuverable for trickier approaches but not bad either.  

Landing: Solid on landings. 

Side-hits: OK but not amazing.

Small jumps/Big jumps: Large is what it's best at. Something where you just send it without thinking too much about popping or spinning. Medium and small fine too, though just not that much energy for popping as you might want on those small guys, side hits etc  

Switch

Not the best!

Spins

Landing and setting up not ideal and getting the spin around wasn't ultra hard, but not easy either. Felt a little heavy for good spinning. 

Butters

Quite hard to butter on. Tip and tail feel quite stiff. 

Overall, the Stratos is a really well rounded freeride board, that covers the cores of what a freeride board should excel at (Carving, Powder and Speed) really well. 

It's a stick to the ground kind of board and is especially good when it comes to floating just above ground on soft fluffy pow and when you need to glide on straights, cat tracks, uphills etc to keep your speed up, it's, typical of Jones boards, one of the best in that respect.