Never Summer Peacemaker Review

* note that the 158 was dropped for the 2022 model

Who is the Peacemaker To?

The Peacemaker works best for anyone wanting a softer flexing, super buttery board for riding freestyle in the park or freestyle over the whole mountain. It's a good bit softer than the average all-mountain-freestyle deck, so if that's what you're after and willing to sacrifice some stability at speed and hard carving, for a more playful option, then the Peacemaker might be the board for you. 

Good also just as a pure freestyle deck. The main reason I put it in here is the "Blower Stance" inserts which allow you to set the board back quite far for powder days. So if the above sounds like you but you also want to be able to set it back on powder days and get a nice surfy powder feel, then that's another tick for this board for you. 

It's really easy going all-round. Probably not for complete beginners, but certainly higher end beginners could happily ride this board.   

Bindings angles: +15/-15

Stance width: 560mm (22″)

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 

Flex

It's supposed to be a good bit stiffer tip and tail vs the softer center. But overall it feels very soft. And it butters really easily off tip and tail, so whilst the tip and tail might be stiffer than the middle, they certainly didn't feel very stiff at all.

Powder

Didn't have any deep powder to test it on, but there was some around and it felt like it had a nice surfy feel. On the centered stance it would sink pretty quickly in deeper snow (or at least be hard work to keep it on top) but the "Blower Stance" would certainly help there. 

Carving & Turning

Carving: For it's flex it's quite surprising how this thing carves. It's not a top of the heap, hard/deep aggressive carver by any means, but you can still put a carve on it. When it gets steeper and faster, it's not the best, but for slower, sharper carves it's not too bad. 

Maneuverability at slow speeds: Super nimble at slow speeds. Can turn on a dime. 

Skids: Really forgiving of skidded turns. Super easy to skid turns on - not catchy at all. 

Speed

Gets pretty wobbly when you start to ride it fast. Even at medium-fast speeds it starts to get a bit wobbly. It's certainly not a point and shoot bomber, IMO. 

Uneven Terrain

Nice and nimble for navigating bumpy terrain - and going over bumps and crud too. Hugged the curves well. Felt the chatter quite a bit and got bucked around too - but very easy to correct. 

Let’s Break up this text with a Video

Jumps

Nice and poppy and snappy. Felt light and great for ollies and side-hits, but landings were a bit wobbly and approach at any kind of speed could feel wobbly. 

Pop: Super easy to access and a good bit there too. 

Approach: On any approach that required a bit of speed it felt a bit wobbly.

Landing: Not that solid. It felt a little wobbly even on smaller jumps. Fine for them, nice and forgiving, but for anything bigger it's not the most solid landing platform. 

Side-hits: Really fun for side hits. Nice easy accessible pop and nice and nimble. 

Small jumps/Big Jumps: Definitely most suited to smaller jumps. For bigger jumps, the approach and landing just didn't feel solid enough.  

Switch

Really good and easy for riding switch on. 

Spins

So easy to get the spin around and the board feels light and poppy. Landing and taking off switch is awesome. Just all round a great board for spinning. Not as suited to massive tricks off big kickers though. 

Jibbing

A really fun board to jib on. Felt really confident jibbing on this board. And I'm not that confident a jibber most of the time. 

Butters

Ultra buttery. So easy to butter this board. 

Overall, the Peacemaker is a great little freestyle come all-mountain-freestyle board that has that blower stance to make it better in pow than it otherwise would be, giving you the option of having a predominantly freestyle board, that you can still enjoy on a powder day. 

It's buttery, snappy and just really fun to play around on - and given all of that isn't too bad on a carve either. 

Not a bomber of a board - definitely more on the playful side, but really fun if you're after something softer to play around on the mountain.