Never Summer Dipstick Review: Freestyle Snowboard Review

* Note that the 2021 model looses 2 sizes. The 2020 model also had a 153X and a 159. 

Who is the Dipstick Most Suited To?

The Dipstick is great for anyone who predominantly wants to ride the park or wants a separate board to ride the park with.  

Also great for anyone just starting out in the park - or even just starting out snowboarding in general. Good beginner board option. But also good for more advanced riders for freestyle riding.

Best for smaller jumps/spins, side hits, buttering and jibs. Not as suitable for big air/big tricks. Also fun for double-direction shallow powder surfing. 

Not for bombing or doing aggressive carves - this is a buttery playful freestyle board. 

Bindings angles: +15/-15

Stance width: 550mm (21.7″)

Stance Setback: Centered

Width at Inserts: 265mm (10.43") 

Rider Height: 6'0"

Rider Weight: 185lbs

Rider Boot Size: US10 Vans Aura

Bindings Used: Burton Malavita M 

Powder

Never going to be great in deep powder, but quite a fun surfy feel in powder. And good when you want to ride switch in powder too as it's as good in both directions. 

Would be hard work to keep nose afloat in deep powder though - and certainly not best of the best going in one direction in powder. 

Carving & Turning

Super nimble at slower speeds - so it's great for technical, tight trees, in that sense. Also makes it really good for a beginner. Plus really easy to skid turns on, which also favors beginners. 

That nimbleness also helped with approaches to trickier access side-hits. 

Not really suited for big arcing or aggressive carves. But can carve - has a more snappy short sharp feel to the carve.  

Speed

As expected, this board starts to get wobbly when you try to open it out. For this flex, it's what was expected. You don't have to be going that fast before it starts to wobble a bit. 

Uneven Terrain

For bumps it's great for going in between them (really nimble) and absorbs well when going over. 

For crud those things also help, but it's not one to crash through crud, like some boards can. It will go over top fine though.   

Let’s Break up this text with a Video

Jumps

Doesn't have epic pop, but there's some decent pop there. And what's there is really easily accessible. You don't have to put much into it to load it up. 

Approach: Nice and nimble for trickier approaches but gets a bit wobbly for approaches where you need more straight line speed, like bigger jumps

Landing: Solid enough but for bigger jumps, it can feel a bit wobbly on landings too

Side-hits: Great for small side-hits - nice and nimble and with decent, easy pop and and really easy to spin. 

Small jumps: Really really good. Enough stability on approach and landings, easy to spin, and decent, easy pop. 

Big jumps: Not the best option for big jumps. A little too soft and playful for those. 

Switch

Basically as good as it gets for switch. 

Spins

This board is awesome for getting spins around. It feels light to spin, has enough pop to get you off the ground and gets around really effortlessly. For bigger tricks off bigger jumps, not as good - and a little more pop would have it scoring even higher, but overall a great little spinner. 

Jibbing

Really easy/nice for hitting jibs with. 

Butters

Super buttery. Really easy to butter. 

Overall, the Dipstick is a great all-round park/freestyle-everywhere-else board, if you're looking for something that's loose and playful. Pretty much ideal for anyone starting out in the park or anyone that just likes their park riding playful and doesn't tend to hit bigger features. 

Not a bomber, not an aggressive carver and not ideal for really big features but really fun and a great option for playful freestyle riding over the mountain or in the park. A really snappy, buttery, loose, spinny playful ride.