Hello and welcome to my Ride Rapture snowboard review.
Below I’ll give you my opinion on the Rapture as a women’s all-mountain-freestyle.
In particular the review will cover:
- The overall rating
- How the Rapture compares to other similar boards
- Who the Rapture is most suitable for
- An in depth look at the Rapture’s qualities
- Final Verdict
Overall Rating
Board: Ride Rapture
Price: $329 (USD recommended retail)
Style: All-Mountain-Freestyle
Flex: Soft (2/10 on Ride’s Scale)
Rating Score: 76.5/100
Compared to other Women’s All-Mountain-Freestyle Boards
I looked at 20 women’s all-mountain-freestyle boards and:
- The average score was 82.5/100
- The highest score was 91.8/100
- The lowest score was 68.2/100
- The Rapture ranked 17th out of 20
- The average price was $447
Overview of the Rapture’s Specs
Check out the tables below for the Rapture’s specs and sizes.
Specs
Style: | All-Mountain-Freestyle | Flex: | Soft (2/10) |
Ability Level: | Beginner to Intermediate | Weight: | Feels Normal |
Shape: | True Twin | Camber Profile: | Flat to Rocker |
Stance: | Centered | Turn Initiation: | Easy |
Feel: | Stable | Edge-hold: | Medium Snow Conditions |
Sizes
Size (Length) | 138 | 143 | 147 | 151 | 154 |
Waist Width (mm) | 238 | 240 | 242 | 244 | 246 |
Weight Range (lbs) | 60 – 100 | 70 – 100 | 85 – 130 | 100 – 150 | 115 – 160+ |
Weight Range (kgs) | 27 – 45 | 32 – 45 | 39 – 59 | 45 – 68 | 52 – 73+ |
Who is the Rapture Most Suited to?
The Rapture is on the softer side flex-wise so is definitely on the more playful side for an all-mountain-freestyle deck. It has the qualities of an all-mountain-freestyle deck though but you will do just as well in the park as it does in freestyle riding on the rest of the mountain.
But to be honest it won’t do either awesomely well.
Whilst I wouldn’t recommend this board as an all-mountain-freestyle board for an experienced rider, I would recommend it as a beginner board.
Check out my top women’s beginner boards at the link below. The criteria for a beginner’s board are different and when matched with the beginner board criteria the Rapture does very well. In fact it scores an awesome 97/100 when rated as a beginner deck.
So this board is a much better beginner board than it is an all-mountain-freestyle board. So if you are a more experienced rider looking for an all-mountain-freestyle deck then I wouldn’t go for the Rapture unless you are on a really tight budget.
However, this board is great as a beginner deck and well priced.
Check out my top 5 all-mountain-freestyle decks at the link below for what I think are better options for all mountain freestyle riding.
The Rapture In Depth
Let’s quickly take a look at the performance of the Rapture in 8 different categories.
Powder
It’s got a flat-to-rocker shape and those rocker sections towards the tip and tail are going to help with float in powder – so it won’t be terrible in the deep stuff.
But it’s also not amazing and that’s partly down to its centered stance.
Carving
That softer flex will always hurt a snowboard in the carving stakes. And there isn’t anything special about this board to help it out either. It’s not a board I would trust doing hard carves down steep or tricky terrain.
Again, if you are a beginner then you don’t need these – as I said there are different criteria for beginner boards and this board does well there.
Speed
It’s not the slowest board in the world especially considered the Fusion 1500 base used on it is an extruded base.
It’s not the fastest either but again this wouldn’t be something you want as a beginner – and isn’t the most important thing for an all-mountain-freestyle deck either.
Uneven Terrain
The Rapture will do o.k. in the uneven stuff. That soft flex will mold to the undulations pretty well. Not great – but I think you’re getting the gist here that it’s not amazing anywhere. Again though – this isn’t an important factor for beginner boards so I wouldn’t worry about this characteristic if you are looking for a beginner deck.
Switch
One area where you will really appreciate the Rapture is riding switch. Its centered stance and true twin shape means that it will feel pretty much the same riding in your dominant stance and your switch stance (depending on your binding angle setup of course).
Jumps
Not going to be a great jumper but not a bad one either. I wouldn’t be going on anything too big on this board but it will handle small jumps well.
Jibbing
It will be pretty good jibbing. The soft flex will help with this.
Pipe
Not really a board that I would take in the pipe. I’d want something with a slightly stiffer flex and a sintered base. But it does have a centered stance so it won’t be terrible – you just might struggle to get heaps of height off the walls.
The Final Verdict and Score Breakdown
O.k. let’s take a look at the score breakdown for the categories above first and then see what the final verdict is.
Rapture Ratings | Rapture Points | ||
Powder | 3.0 | 6/10 | |
Carving | 2.5 | 5/10 | |
Speed | 3.0 | 6/10 | |
Uneven Terrain | 3.0 | 6/10 | |
Switch | 4.5 | 18/20 | |
Jumps | 3.0 | 12/20 | |
Jibbing | 3.0 | 6/10 | |
Pipe | 3.0 | 6/10 | |
TOTAL after normalizing | 76.5/100 |
It’s the funny thing about snowboards – they can rate not-so-good for one purpose but be great for another one.
So, like I have said, the Rapture wouldn’t be my first choice for all-mountain-freestyle riding for the more experienced rider. However, it would be great for a beginner and almost perfect for the intermediate rider looking to start riding in the park.
The Rapture doesn’t cost too much so it also has that in it’s favor. It costs a good $118 less than the average price for this style of board.
The average score for all-mountain-freestyle boards costing less than $400 was 77.3/100 – so it wasn’t far off the average for the price and it is a good bit below $400 so in terms of performance-to-cost value it does hold up pretty well.
Well that’s all from me. Thanks for reading and I hope this has been helpful.
For more all-mountain freestyle snowboard options check out the link below.
If you are looking for beginner deck options or want to see how the Rapture scored 4th place in my top 5 Beginner snowboards list check out the link below.
Hi Nate, brilliant detailed review between the two boards, the Ply wipes the floor with the Rapture, but somehow you still managed to give it a fair objective review. Which other boards have you got in mind to do a face off next? Maybe another contender has to face the Ply in a winner standing style? I’ll be really looking forward to that one (just before I buy the next one). Thanks for this great article, I have bookmarked it and will be checking what is new on a weekly if I can
Hey – thanks for stopping by! Next weeks review battle is between
two men’s freestyle boardscorrection: women’s freeride boards (doing two split boards this time) then men’s freestyle boards. I considered doing the “winner standing” type thing. I will think about this again – thanks for the suggestion. In the mean time I am creating some “catalogue” pages which will show all of the boards in a particular category and note their smart rating score so you can see them all next to each other. This will be in order of highest to lowest score.Hi Nate,
Really nice review of these two boards. I thought the Ride Rapture was going to win that challenge, but since it lost in the jump category…oh well. Thanks for a fun read. Cheers
Hey Ed
Thanks for visiting. Yeah the jumps was the main difference. But like I say it all depends on what you are looking for – if you are a beginner the Rapture would be a great board.