Nidecker Odyssey Snowboard Review

Who is the Odyssey Most Suited To?

The Odyssey is best suited to the rider that wants a smooth, damp ride and for that ride that prioritizes powder when it's around and likes to carve up groomers when it's not - and needs a board that can handle some speed. 

Not a freestylers board - and not for a beginner, but for powder, carving and speed it's a good choice, especially for the budget conscious - it comes in below the average price for this category of board. 

Bindings angles: +15/-12

Stance width: 500mm (19.7″)

Stance Setback: Setback 10mm (0.4")

Width at Inserts: 255mm (10.04") at front insert and 253mm (9.96") at back insert*

* Nidecker actually publish width at insert stats, which is really cool, IMO! They get 255mm at back and front insert. So our back insert measurements differ slightly.

Weight: 2640g (5lbs, 13oz)

Weight per cm: 17.48g/cm

Average Weight per cm: 17.12 grams/cm*

*based on a small sample size of around 20 women's boards that I've weighed in 2020, 2021 and 2022 models. The Odyssey is just slightly heavier than normal.   

Tester: Jade

Rider Height:  5'7" (170cm)

Rider Weight: 145lbs (66kg)

Rider Boot Size: Women's US6.5 Thirty Two Exit

Bindings Used: Burton Lexa, Medium 

Powder

This is where this board shines. Though we didn't get to test it in powdery conditions, unfortunately, it has the specs to excel in powder - and the way it felt in cruddy, chundery, slushy conditions, made it feel like it would float really nicely in powder. 

It has a 5mm taper, 10mm setback on effective edge (but a much bigger setback - closer to 100mm - on overall length of board. The nose, as well as being wider than the tail is quite a bit longer than the tail as well (370mm nose versus 150mm tail on the 151M). That plus a healthy amount of rocker in the nose and it all points to really good powder performance. And you could always set it back more on powder days ig you wanted - but it already feels heavily setback at reference. 

Carving & Turning

Carving: It handled long/deep carves really well and had a very smooth damp feel overall. 

Ease of Turns/Shashing: Not as easy to turn or slash as the control board (Rossignol Frenemy).   

Maneuverability at slow speeds: It was a little slower to switch edges at slow speeds. Part of that comes down to the board being wider than normal - and the overall length/width was probably a little big for Jade. 

Skidded Turns:  Not terrible for skidded turns, but not super easy either. Some consequence there with that shorter tail - and the tail being camber all the way back (the rocker is only in the nose). 

Speed

The Odyssey felt fast and felt very stable at speed, which was pretty impressive today, given the conditions - it still felt stable on all that crud. 

Uneven Terrain

Crud: It smashed through or went over crud really well. 

Bumps: Not as good for bumps though. Not super quick edge to edge - probably largely down to the width compared to Jade's foot size - so weaving through bumps was a bit labored. 

Jumps

Not the ideal park board. Handles larger jumps/rollers OK. If side hits are your thing, this wouldn’t be the best choice.

Pop: Not a lot of pop, defiantly a more damp feel to this board. And you've got to put some effort in to get what's there out of it. 

Approach: Speed checking/adjustments weren't the easiest, but it was a very stable feel when you could pick your line and commit to it.

Landing: A very stable feeling on landings, but not super forgiving when you got it wrong. 

Side-hits:  Not the ideal board for side hits. It was a little more challenging to maneuver the board on the approach and the landings and there wasn't enough easy pop available.

Small jumps/Big jumps: Preference to bigger jumps

Switch

Not ideal riding switch with how directional it is. And landing and setting up switch for spins wasn't great either. Not a big deal as this isn't the kind of board that's designed for that. 

Overall, the Odyssey does well at what it's designed for. Don't expect a do everything board - that's not what it's made for.

But if you have very little interest in the park or freestyle and just want something that can perform well in powder and for carving and bombing, then the Odyssey offers a really affordable, really capable option.