Nidecker Gamma Snowboard Review

Hello and welcome to my Nidecker Gamma review.

In this review, I will take a look at the Gamma as an all-mountain-freestyle snowboard.

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

Overall Rating

Board: Nidecker Gamma

Price: $519

Style: All-Mountain-Freestyle

Flex Rating: Mid-Soft

Flex Feel on Snow: Medium (6/10)

Rating Score: 83.9/100

Compared to other Men’s All-Mountain-Freestyle Boards

Of the 29 current model all-mountain freestyle snowboards that we tested:

❄️ The Gamma ranked 20th out of 29

Overview of the Gamma's Specs

Check out the tables for the Gamma's specs and available sizes.

Specs

Who is the Gamma Best Suited To?

The Gamma is best suited to anyone looking to tear up the whole resort, most ideally suited to someone who wants to get freestyle over the whole mountain, but at times also wants to ride with a bit of speed under them or lay down some moderately high speed carves. 

Could definitely be a one-board-quiver for the right rider, assuming you don't see a lot of deep powder. Would handle shallower, occasional powder fine, but probably going to be a back-leg-burner in the deeper stuff. 

Not for beginners, but not a board that's super challenging to ride or anything, so intermediate and up. 

The Gamma in More Detail

O.k. let’s take a more detailed look at what the Gamma is capable of.

Demo Info

Board: Nidecker Gamma 2024, 157 (256mm waist width)

Date: February 10, 2023

Conditions

Cloudy. Low cloud. Vis pretty bad at times. Like 40% in the worst spots and up to 75% in best.

Temprature 32°F (0°C). With wind chill was 21°F (-6°C) but wind eased by afternoon and was more like 30°F (-1°C) with wind. 

24hr snow: 0" (0cm)

48hr snow: 2" (2cm)

7 day snow: 20" (50cm)

On groomer: Medium firm to start with but then got somewhat slushy as day went on. There were some harder patches too.

Off groomer: A little crunchy in places but overall doable.

Set up

Bindings angles: +15/-15

Stance width: 21.3" (540mm)

Stance Setback: Centered

Width at Inserts: 266.5mm (10.5") 

Rider Height: 6'0"

Rider Weight: 180lbs 

Rider Boot Size: US10 DC Judge

Bindings Used: Burton Malavita M 

Weight: 6lbs 10oz (3000 grams)

Weight per cm: 19.11 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 Gamma was marginally over average weight on scales, felt normal on snow. 

Powder

We had no powder on the day to test in, but based on feel and specs, I would say it would be average in powder. It has a little bit of rocker in the profile which will help with float, but there's not much else to help it with powder float. 

Carving & Turning

Carving: I found the Gamma to be a really decent carver. Nothing super epic but can dig in the edge and hold it pretty well, even at moderately high speeds. 

Ease of Turning/Slashing: It's pretty easy to initiate turns on and you can release the tail and slash pretty easily as well. 

Maneuverability at slow speeds: I found I could get it going pretty quickly edge-to-edge at slow speeds. It wasn't effortless, but didn't take too much effort to get it flicking between edges. 

Catchiness: Not completely catch-free, but also not something I would call catchy. Normal/average in this respect. 

Speed

It's not an out and out bomber, but it's pretty stable at moderately fast speeds. 

Uneven Terrain

Crud/Chunder: Takes a bit to get thrown off your line in crud, but it's not a crud/chunder crusher. Decently easy to correct when you are knocked around a bit on it. 

Trees/Bumps: Nice and quick for weaving, especially once you put in some energy.

Jumps

Really liked this board for jumps. It had a good balance of all the factors that lead to a good jumping board. 

Pop: Pop was decently easy to access. Not effortless but didn't have to put too much weight into it to access it. Then there was a little more you could get out of it, when winding it up. Not epic total pop, but decent enough. 

Approach: Strikes a great balance between stability and the ability to speed check/adjust your line when necessary. 

Landing: A good amount of give on landings, making it not too unforgiving of errors, and could handle a tail heavy landing well. Wasn't quite as much of a stomper as the Gamma APX, which I also rode the same day, but still good stable landings. 

Side-hits: I preferred this to the APX version on side hits. Not quite as good in terms of effortless agility as my control board (Lib Tech Terrain Wrecker) but when you attacked them a little more aggressively, with a little more purpose, it was really fun. Pop was pretty easy to access too, which I like to have for side hits. 

Small jumps/Big jumps: Medium jumps were the sweet spot but would definitely be able to handle bigger jumps, and all good for small jumps too. 

Switch

Felt great to ride switch, which was no surprise. Transitions to switch felt good too. Maybe not as effortless in transitions as some, but so long as you were focused enough, it was great with transitions, setting up and landing switch for spins and for riding switch in general. 

Spins

Decently easy to access pop, wasn't difficult to get spins around and felt fine setting up and landing switch. So all round, felt good to spin on. 

Jibbing

Not the ideal jibbing board, IMO, mostly because I prefer something softer and even easier to maneuver, not that it was hard to maneuver, but for a strong jibber, shouldn't be an issue to jib with. 

Butters

You had to put a bit of weight in to press tip and tail - not effortless - but you didn't have to throw everything into it to get it pressing and lock in presses, or anything. 

Score Breakdown and Final Verdict

Check out the breakdown of the score in the table below.

Nidecker's Gamma was a new board for 2024 (which had an early release in the late 22/23 season). I found it super fun and versatile, able to handle a range of conditions well and strikes a great balance for being something you can get a little aggressive on when you want to and a little playful when you want to. 

No real weaknesses apart from deeper powder and, at least for me, not the ideal jibber.