Hello and welcome to my Lib Tech T Rice Golden Orca review.
In this review I will take a look at the Golden Orca as a Freeride snowboard.
As per tradition here at SnowboardingProfiles.com I will give the Golden Orca a score out of 100 (based on several factors) and also see how it compares with other Freeride snowboards.
Overall Rating
Board: Lib Tech Golden Orca
Price: $849 (USD recommended retail)
Style: Freeride
Flex Rating: Mid-Stiff (7/10)
Flex Feel: Mid-Stiff (7/10)
Rating Score: 85.9/100
Compared to other Men’s Freeride Boards
Of the 40 current model freeride snowboards that we tested:
❄️ The Golden Orca ranked 9th out of 40
Overview of the Golden Orca’s Specs
Check out the tables for the Golden Orca’s specs and available sizes.
Specs
STYLE:
FREERIDE
PRICE:
$849 - BUYING OPTIONS
$849 - BUYING OPTIONS
Ability Level:
flex:
feel:
DAMPNESS:
SMOOTH /SNAPPY:
Playful /aggressive:
Edge-hold:
camber profile:
HYBRID ROCKER
HYBRID ROCKer - Lib Tech's "C2X" camber
SHAPE:
setback stance:
SETBACK 1" (25mm)
BASE:
Sintered | Lib Tech's "Eco Subliminated Sintered Base"
weight:
Felt a touch heavier than normal
Camber Height:
5mm - but harder to measure on a hybrid rocker board
Sizing
LENGTH (cm) | Waist Width (mm) | Rec Rider Weight (lb) | Rec Rider Weight (kg) |
|---|---|---|---|
150 | 260 | 110+ | 50+ |
153 | 263 | 120+ | 55+ |
157 | 265 | 130+ | 60+ |
161 | 267 | 140+ | 65+ |
Who is the Golden Orca Most Suited To?
The Golden Orca is best suited to someone with a full wallet! But in all seriousness, it's a really good option for someone looking for a freeride board that's versatile enough to be your daily driver, even if you're wanting to incorporate a bit of freestyle in your riding.
It does well across most factors, while being particularly good in powder.
It's not a super easy board to ride and it feels at it's best with some speed under it, so you'll want to be relatively advanced to get the most out of it, and even to properly enjoy it. It takes some effort to ride, but when you put the effort in, it does reward you.
THE Golden Orca IN MORE DETAIL
O.k. let’s take a more detailed look at what the Golden Orca is capable of.
Demo Info
Board: Lib Tech T Rice Golden Orca 2023, 153 (263mm waist width)
Date: March 22, 2023 (and again March 24, 2023 to get it in some powder)
Conditions
Literally not a cloud in the sky. Sunny and, of course, perfect visibility.
Temperature was around 4°C (39°F) - and 3°C (37°F) with wind chill in morning and 5°C (41°F) (and 4°C (39°F) with wind) in the afternoon. So super warm.
SW winds morning and afternoon at 5kph (3 mph) morning and 10kph (6 mph) in the afternoon.
24 hour snow: 0" (0cm)
48 hour snow: 0" (0cm)
7 day snow: 0" (0cm)
On groomer: Hard and borderline icy in spots but soft borderline slushy in others. Got softer and more slushy as the day went on. But to start with had some icy patches.
Off groomer: Crunchy and icy in spots. Soft patches, which increased as the day went on.
Set Up
Bindings angles: +15/-15
Stance width: 21″ (530mm)
Stance Setback: Setback 1" (25mm)
Width at Inserts: 10.8" (274mm) at front insert and 10.7" (272mm) at back insert.
Rider Height: 6'0"
Rider Weight: 180lbs
Rider Boot Size: US9.5 Adidas Response ADV
Bindings Used: Burton Malavita, M
Weight: 6lbs 11oz (3040grams)
Weight per cm: 19.87 grams/cm
Average Weight per cm: 18.71 grams/cm*
*based on a sample size of around 250 models that I’ve weighed in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 & 2024 models. The Golden Orca was a heavier than average on the scales and felt that a bit on snow too. But only slightly heavier than normal. It's a wide board, so you size down - and grams/surface area would likely be normal.
Powder
Had no powder to test in the first day I rode it, but then we got a good 7" (18cm) a couple of days later, so decided to take it out again. And it didn't disappoint. Felt great in powder.
No surprise really, given it's shape & taper and with the rocker in the middle of the board all helping with float.
Carving
Did well on aggressive carves. Whilst there's more rocker in the middle vs Lib Tech's C3 boards, it did surprisingly well to hold deeper carves at high speeds.
Turning
Ease of Turns/Slashing: You've got to work a bit for your turns on this board. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's hard to turn it, but it's not effortless either. Prefers a straighter turn as apposed to a tighter turn.
Maneuverability at slow speeds (nimbleness): While initiating turns took some effort, particularly sharper turns, once putting that energy in it was actually decently quick edge-to-edge, but not effortlessly agile.
Catchiness: Felt like you could catch an edge if you got too lazy. Quite stiff torsionally. But nothing super catchy or anything.
Speed
Was nice and stable at speed and felt at it's best when riding fast vs riding slow.
Uneven Terrain
Crud: Felt good smashing through chop/crud/chunder. Board felt pretty damp overall.
Trees/Bumps: Because you ride it shorter and because, with a little effort, it's pretty quick edge-to-edge, it's actually pretty decent. Preferring straighter turns holds it back from being amazing though.
Jumps
Pretty decent overall.
Pop: It's not super easy to access the pop - as is the case with most stiffer boards. But it's not super hard either. And total pop is decent.
Approach: Pretty stable for faster approaches. And not too hard to adjust, but not super easy to adjust either.
Landing: Decent overall. And enough tail you can get away with tail heavy landings to an extent.
Side-hits: Not ideal, but fine.
Switch
Transitions weren't ideal, with a slightly catchy feeling. But when through the transition, it actually felt really decent riding switch. Better than I expected. And this is more double ender than the regular Orca, so upon reviewing the specs, not a big surprise it felt pretty good.
Butters
Easier to press than I was expecting. Still certainly got to put some weight/effort into the tip/tail to get them to press. Is more double ender than original Orca too, so a more balanced feel - but still some tail and tip difference.
Score Breakdown and Final Verdict
Check out the breakdown of the score in the table below.
RATING | SCORE WEIGHTING | |
|---|---|---|
POWDER | 4.5 | 22.5/25 |
SPEED | 4.0 | 16/20 |
CARVING | 4.0 | 12/15 |
TURNS/SLASHING | 3.5 | 7/10 |
CRUD/CHUNDER | 4.0 | 8/10 |
TREES/BUMPS | 3.5 | 7/10 |
JUMPS | 3.5 | 3.5/5 |
SWITCH | 3.0 | 3/5 |
TOTAL after normalizing | 85.9/100 |
The Golden Orca is a more versatile board than I was expecting. Whilst it's not anything super playful or easy to ride, it's not super hard to ride either and it's the kind of board that rewards you when you ride it more aggressively.
It doesn't really have any major weaknesses, except perhaps the price tag.
More Info, Current Prices and Where to Buy Online
Check out the links below for more info on the Golden Orca, where to buy or if you are researching prices or available sizes.
If your keen to check out some other Freeride options or to see how the Golden Orca compares to other freeride decks check out the link below.
Hello Nate,
First of all, thank you very much for your incredible work.
I follow you from France, so sorry my bad English.
I would like your advice please to choose the best choice of snowboard.
I currently have 2 Twin directional all-mountain snowboards, because I love switch snowboarding. I usually snowboard with the angle of my bindings (-15) (+15). The Jones Mountain Twin (157) and the Salomon Assassin (156).
But this time I want to buy a freeride snowboard that would also allow me to perform well on groomed slopes.
Despite your great information, I’m hesitating between 3 snowboards and which sizes to choose depending on the choice of snowboard. (Unless, based on my descriptions, you have another, more judicious choice to offer me.)
Jones Stratos (But I’m afraid of stability in frozen conditions and on rough terrain)
Jones Flagship (probably the best in powder according to your descriptions, but less versatile? on piste than the other two?)
Lib Tech Golden Orca (too demanding?)
The priority would of course be freeride, but I would like to be able to use it to go fast and hard on frozen slopes while having good grip when powder is lacking.
I have been snowboarding for over 20 years, I consider my level between advanced and expert.
I’m 5.7 and weigh 150 pounds. My boots are size 10.
Which board would you recommend? And above all in what size?
A huge thank you in advance.
Math
Hi Math
Thanks for your message.
Stratos: I found it to have good stability in hard/icy conditions and overall good stability and edge hold. However, with the exception of speed, I preferred the Flagship for everything else over the Stratos. And it’s noticeably lighter than the Stratos and at your weight, I think you’d appreciate that extra lightness. So between those 2, I would be leaning Flagship, and I actually found it to be quite versatile, even though it’s quite directional. It would be a really good compliment to the rest of the snowboards in your collection.
The Golden Orca would give the best edge hold in hard/icy conditions, IMO, but the Flagship isn’t far behind in that respect. While the Golden Orca is certainly more demanding than the regular Orca, it’s not ultra demanding or anything. Both boards would work well and both be a good compliment to the rest of your collection. I personally preferred the Flagship for trees and generally for tighter, slower turns (e.g. like when you’re in trees), so if you ride trees a bit, then I’d be leaning Flagship. But if you don’t really go in trees, unless there’s fresh powder, and you want to maximize your hard/icy conditions edge-hold, then I’d be leaning Golden Orca.
Size-wise, I would put your “typical all-mountain length” at around 154. However, given the sizes that you’re used to riding and the fact you can ride freeride boards longer than all-mountain-freestyle boards (typically more of the length in the nose, outside the contact points), I would be looking at the Flagship in the 158 (if you’re worried about the width of that one, let me know and we can go into that). For the Golden Orca, I would still size down, because of its width and likely the 153 would be the best bet. I think the 157 would be a bit on the big side, when taking into account the length and width.
Hope this gives you more to go off for your decision.
Hey Nate,
Do you feel the 153 was the proper size? Lib Tech recommends 1-3cm shorter. I’m currently 190lbs and 6ft tall. My daily is a 158 yes typo (use to be a 159 assassin). I’m really torn between the 153cm and 158cm on this board.
Hey Mike
Thanks for your message.
I felt the 153 was good for me. I could have ridden the 157, but for a board of this width, I don’t think I would have liked it as much in the 157. I usually ride my all-mountain size in that 157-159 range and that’s assuming a pretty good width for my feet. I do see that Lib Tech recommends 1-3cm shorter, but I think that really depends on your foot size, so you could size down more than that with smaller feet – and with bigger feet, you wouldn’t need to size down at all, IMO.
For your specs, I would put your “typical all-mountain length” at around 160cm. So, the 157 might be your best bet, but the 153 wouldn’t be wrong, particularly if you have smaller feet. If I had like size 10.5 to 11 feet or something like that, then I would likely err more towards the 157, but I felt the 153 was just right for me.
Hope this helps with your decision
hello nate! Thank you very much for your work. You help a lot and we learn a lot thanks to you. I read in your review of the lib tech orca that you recommend the ion to another guy for the golden orca better than the photon step on I don’t understand. The ion is more rigid, the golden orca is medium-rigid flex. Wouldn’t the photon be better than the ion for golden orca? thank you so much !
Hi Jonathan
Thanks for your message.
Both boots would work, but personally I prefer to err a little stiffer in boots vs the flex of the board. Or match. But the Golden Orca feels like a board that would perform better erring a little stiffer in boots/bindings. The Photon Step On would certainly match it, so definitely not a bad choice, but the Ion aren’t a ton stiffer than Photon – they’re not like Driver Xs or anything, so you’re still getting a mid-stiff boot on there, just a little stiffer, which I feel would benefit the Golden Orca, based on feel when riding it – and the style of riding most would be getting the Golden Orca for.
But yeah, if you wanted to pair it with the Photon, it would definitely work.
Hope this helps