Never Summer Chairman Review: Freeride Snowboard Review

Hello and welcome to my Never Summer Chairman review.

In this review, I will take a look at the Chairman as a freeride snowboard.

As per tradition here at SnowboardingProfiles.com I will give the Chairman 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 Chairman.

Overall Rating

Board: Never Summer Chairman

Price: $629 (USD recommended retail)

Style: Freeride

Flex Rating: Stiff (9/10)

Flex Feel on Snow: Stiff (8/10)

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 Chairman is capable of.

Demo Info

Board: Never Summer Chairman 2019, 160 (256mm 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: 560mm (22”)

Stance Setback: 20mm (0.75”)

Width at Inserts: 258mm (10.16”) at front insert and 259mm (10.2”) at back insert

Powder

Floated well in powder and felt pretty effortless. Not epic in powder but still really really good. As good as most will need.

Carving & Turning

A really fun board to lay out good deep, long arcing carves on.

Skidded turns weren’t impossible – doable but not easy.

Preferred speed for turning but wasn’t unmanageable at slower speeds, by any means.  Felt quite agile in tress even when having to navigate slower, trickier sections.

Speed

This board is a speed demon. Can handle speed really well. Felt stable and damp at speed and just generally felt best when riding this board fast. A bomber!

Let’s Break up this text with a Video

This video is a couple of years old now – but the Chairman hasn’t really changed for a good few years, apart from the graphic. 

Uneven Terrain

For a board this stiff, it’s surprisingly good in messy uneven resort snow – and over undulations. It’s pretty damp, so that helps to reduce the chatter, so that’s gotta be part of it for sure.

Jumps

I preferred the Chairman for jumps than I do most freeride boards. Still not what I’d have as my stock and trade jumper but still pretty decent.

Good on approach and decent pop. Not what I would call easy pop – and what I mean by that is, that I felt I had to put in a good bit of effort to extract the pop – but when I did there was a good bit there.

Landings really solid.

Not much for spinning though, IMO.

Switch

Again, for a freeride board, not too bad.

The set back isn’t huge by freeride standards so that certainly helps in the switch department.

Changes from the 2020 Model

The 2021 model looks to be the same as the 2020 model, except for the graphic.

Changes from the 2019 Model

The 2020 model looks to be identical to the 2019 model, except for the graphic and the way they are doing the topsheet.

Changes from the 2018 Model

The 2019 model is, as far as I can tell, identical to the 2018 model, except for the graphic.

And it looks like they aren’t offering the Chairman in the 173 for 2019 (which they had in 2018). So one size less, otherwise looks to be the same board (but definitely no complaints about that).