Salomon Ultimate Ride Snowboard Review

Who is the Ultimate Ride Most Suited To?

The Ultimate Ride is best suited to advanced to expert riders you like to bomb and carve hard. Even more ideal for those who do so with a freestyle twist. 

Not great for powder, but otherwise very versatile if you're looking for an aggressive ride. 

Definitely not for beginners - or the faint hearted!

Bindings angles: +15/-15

Stance width: 570mm (22.4″)

Stance Setback: Centered

Width at Inserts: 264mm (10.39") 

Rider Height: 6'0"

Rider Weight: 185lbs

Rider Boot Size: US10 Vans Aura

Bindings Used: Burton Malavita M

Weight: 2780grams (6lb 2oz) - according to Salomon (I didn't weight this one myself)

Weight per cm: 17.59 grams/cm

Average Weight per cm: 18.45 grams/cm*

*based on a small sample size of 51 boards that I've weighed in 2019 and 2020 models. Lighter than the average board - and felt a little lighter on snow, but only just on the lighter side of normal. 

Powder

It's not awful in powder. But also certainly not ideal. What rocker is in the profile is very subtle - and whilst it has a slightly longer nose than tail, it's otherwise not that directional. Certainly doable for shallow powder, but if you're going out after a storm, not going to be the best in deep powder. 

Carving & Turning

Carving: This thing was a carving machine! Just gripped and ripped. Once you got it on edge, this thing was super fun to carve up the groomers on.  

Maneuverability at slow speeds: It's not amazing at slow speeds, and not designed to be, to be fair. But it's also not that bad either. It's not like some boards that just feel heavy and almost un-rideable slow. The Ultimate Ride is actually OK.

Skidded Turns: For how aggressive it is, you'd think it wouldn't be something you can skid your turns on. But you can. Definitely not great for it, but also certainly not the worst for it either. 

Speed

This board is a bomber! It felt so good to ride fast. Really stable and just felt really confident opening it out. 

Uneven Terrain

It did pretty well in uneven terrain. Not the most forgiving in there and not ideal. But it holds it's own. 

Let’s Break up this text with a Video

Jumps

This board can really stomp landings and has oodles of pop. 

Pop: Really good pop. Some of it's relatively easily accessible without having to wind it up, but then there's a good bit more you can get out of it, when you do load it up. 

Approach: Nimble enough for trickier, slower approaches but not ultra-nimble. But for faster, approaches it's really stable. 

Landing: Stomps landings! On any kind of jump you can just really stomp it. 

Side-hits: Really fun for side-hits. Again for trickier approaches it's fine, without being ideal. 

Small jumps/Big Jumps: Has no issues with smaller jumps, but really comes into it's own when the jumps get bigger.    

Switch

Really good for riding switch. Even though the nose is a little longer, I really didn't notice it. This board, so long as your switch riding is decent, rides really well switch. 

Spins

Not the easiest to get a spin around - there's a reasonable amount of torsional stiffness there. But great pop and really good landing and taking off switch. So overall really decent for spins - especially for bigger tricks. 

Jibbing

Just OK. Not ideal, IMO. Doable, but I prefer something softer and a little more nimble when riding slower. 

Butters

It's not ultra buttery. But it's also not impossible to butter either. It's middle of the road in terms of butterability. 

Overall, the Ultimate Ride will be just that for someone who's looking for all the qualities that it possesses. It's stable, poppy, fast and carves like a dream.

It's aggressive and prefers to ride fast, but it's not a tank at slower speeds either. 

Did I mention that it stomps landings!