Lib Tech EJack Knife Review

Hello and welcome to my Lib Tech EJack Knife review.

In this review, I will take a look at the E-Jack Knife as a freeride snowboard.

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

Overall Rating

Board: Lib Tech E-Jack Knife

Price: $599 (USD recommended retail)

Style: Freeride

Flex Rating: Mid-Firm (7/10)

Flex Feel on Snow: Medium-Stiff (7/10)

Rating Score: 86.4/100

Compared to other Men’s Freeride Boards

Out of the 20 men’s freeride snowboards that I rated:

• The average price was $599 (USD)
• The average score was 82.1/100
• The highest score was 91.8/100
• The lowest score was 57.1/100
• The E-Jack Knife ranked 5th out of 20*

*Note that ratings for all boards hadn’t been updated for 2019 at time of writing so this is based on 2018 ratings – and I hadn’t ridden the EJack Knife in 2018 so it wasn’t considered for the Top 5 list – but this is where it would have ended up based on the 2018 ratings.

O.k. let’s take a more detailed look at what the E-Jack Knife is capable of.

Demo Info

Board: Lib Tech E-Jack Knife 2019, 157 (253mm 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: 610mm (24”)

Stance Setback: 25mm (1“)

Width at Inserts: 259mm (10.2”) at nose and 260mm at tail.

Flex

It’s rated as a 7/10 in terms of flex, and in the case of the E Jack Knife, I have to concur with that. That’s how it felt to me.

Powder

It felt pretty good in powder. And no real surprises there. It’s got a long, wide nose compared to the shorter, narrower tail, to help the tail sink and the nose float. And it’s also got a 25mm (1”) setback in its favor.

It’s never going to be as floaty as a board with a good bit of rocker in the camber profile, IMO, but for a board with very minimal rocker, it floated very well.

Carving & Turning

Really nice board to carve on. One of it’s biggest strengths and the thing I had the most fun doing on this board. Not quite as nice on a carve as the GNU Mullair, which I also rode on the same day, but it’s not really fair comparing carving against that thing!

Relatively agile and was pretty good in the trees, but just a touch behind the Mullair and Never Summer Chairman that I also rode that day.

Doable for skidded turns if you get off your game, but only forgiving of it to a certain extent. Definitely prefers to be up on an edge.

Speed

I felt I could really bomb with this board and it could handle a lot of speed without feeling shaky. Not quite to the extent of the Mullair and Chairman, but definitely something you can bomb with.

Let’s Break up this text with a Video

Uneven Terrain

It felt pretty good riding through crud and over uneven terrain.

Jumps

Felt more natural on jumps compared to what I feel from a lot of freeride boards. It’s got good pop and I didn’t feel like I had to really put in a huge effort to get it to pop – it had a more easily accessible pop than a lot of freeride boards.

And certainly stable on landings and no issues with stability at speed on approaches.

Switch

It’s not crazy to ride switch on, but it’s also not a natural switch rider, IMO.

Changes from the 2018 Model

Looks like the 2019 model is very similar to the 2018 model. But they do have new sizes for the 2019 model, which has a 162 and 162W that the 2018 model didn’t have.