Welcome to the Never Summer Raven Review.
This review aims to determine how suitable the Raven is as an all-mountain snowboard for women.
Overall Rating
Board: Never Summer Raven
Price: $499 (USD recommended retail)
Style: All-Mountain
Flex: Medium (pushing medium stiff)
Rating Score: 86.9/100
Compared to other Women’s All Mountain Boards
Here are the stats of all of the women’s all-mountain snowboards that I rated:
- I looked at 26 women’s all-mountain boards
- The average score was 79.9/100
- The highest score was 90/100
- The lowest score was 66.3/100
- The Raven ranked 4th out of 26.
Overview of the Raven’s Specs
Below are the Raven’s specs and available sizes.
Specs
| Style: | All-Mountain | Flex: | Medium |
| Ability Level: | Intermediate to Expert | Weight: | Feels Normal |
| Shape: | Directional Twin | Camber Profile: | Hybrid Rocker |
| Stance: | Setback -25mm | Turn Initiation: | Easy |
| Feel: | Semi-Stable | Edge-hold: | Up to Hard Snow Conditions |
Sizing
| Size (Length) | 146 | 149 | 151 | 154 | 157 |
| Waist Width (mm) | 236 | 237 | 238 | 239 | 240 |
| Weight Range (lbs) | 90 – 145 | 100 – 155 | 110 – 160 | 120 – 170 | 130 – 180 |
| Weight Range (kgs) | 40-65 | 45-70 | 49-73 | 54-77 | 59-82 |
Who is the Raven Most Suited to?
The Raven was definitely more aggressive than most women’s boards. It probably isn’t the ideal board in the park but it will hold it’s own in there if it’s only somewhere you go every now and then.
So if you’re looking for a more aggressive all-mountain board then this is probably going to suit you well. If you’re after something a bit more playful then it’s probably not quite what you’re after.
In general it’s for:
- A woman (or a man with smaller feet that needs a narrower board)
- Likes to mostly ride the groomers but may occasionally go into the backcountry or the park
- Suitable for any conditions from powder to hard snow conditions
- Anyone with a budget around $450 and above
The Raven In Depth
Briefly let’s take a look a the different areas of strength and weakness for the Raven.
Powder
The Raven enjoys powder. This is partly because of the rocker sections under and between the feet which helps with float and party due to the Raven’s setback stance – it is setback 25mm.
Carving
Partly due to it’s quite stiff flex, partly due it’s “serrated” edges, partly due to the camber sections just on the outsides of the bindings and partly due to some other technologies that I won’t bore you with, this board is a really good carver.
Speed
While there are a few factors that count towards speed, the base is a big one. The Raven has a sintered base – so this board produces good speed (as long as you keep it waxed).
Uneven Terrain
This board has some pretty good dampening and some decent float. This, amongst other things helps it to ride over uneven terrain.
Switch
It’s stance isn’t centered and it doesn’t have a true twin shape so it won’t feel perfect riding switch. But the directional twin shape is the next best thing to true twin for switch and 25mm isn’t a huge setback so it does handle riding in your unnatural direction pretty well.
Jumps
The camber profile is pretty good for both launching off jumps, doing ollies and landing jumps.
Jibbing
The Raven isn’t the best jibber in the world – this is its weakest point. It’s not like it won’t jib, but it won’t be great.
This is partly down to the stiffer flex which isn’t ideal for jibbing. Also whilst those serrated, grippy edges are great for edge hold, they do make it more difficult to jib.
Pipe
The Raven is well suited to riding the pipe if that’s part of your repertoire or want it to become part of your repertoire.
The sintered base gives it speed to help power it up the pipe walls, the stiffer flex helps with stability and the edge-hold helps you with grip.
The Final Verdict and Score Breakdown
O.k. below is the Raven’s score breakdown so you can see more clearly where its strengths and weaknesses lie.
| FACTOR | RATING (OUT OF 5) | CONTRIBUTION TO FINAL SCORE |
| Powder: | 4.0 | 12/15 |
| Carving: | 3.5 | 10.5/15 |
| Speed: | 3.5 | 10.5/15 |
| Uneven Terrain: | 3.5 | 10.5/15 |
| Switch: | 3.0 | 6/10 |
| Jumps: | 3.5 | 7/10 |
| Jibbing: | 2.5 | 5/10 |
| Pipe: | 4.0 | 8/10 |
| TOTAL after normalizing | 86.9/100 |
As far as Women’s all mountain snowboards go the Raven is up there with the best. It is very solid against all categories (except maybe jibbing) which is exactly what you want out of a board that is designed to do it all.
Thanks for the great review! I’m set my eyes on Never Sumner Raven and this review has only confirmed my choice 🙂 the only thing I’m struggling is the right length for me. I’m 168cm and ridim GNU b pro 152cm at the moment. I’m buying this board for the pow riding. I was thinking to 154cm with this one but some one has suggested to go for 151cm for better manoeuvrability as I’m going to Japan in January and I been told the tree ride can be quite right there. Any advice what length I shod go for and how stiff this board is actually if there is anything like stiffness scale? Thank you.
Hey Jitka
Glad you liked the review.
In terms of length this is more down to weight more than height – you can check out my post on length here – if you don’t feel comfortable posting your weight here you can send me a private message via my contact page or go to my length sizing post and you can work it out for yourself using the charts.
For riding in the powder you want to go a little bit longer than normal – but as you say to get more manoeuvrability you’d want to go a little bit shorter. So somewhere in between would be good. Without knowing your weight I can’t really advise whether the 151 or 154 would be a better choice but if you send me that info I can give you a suggestion.
In terms of flex Never Summer rate it a mid-firm – about 3/4s up their flex rating scale. This is for the 2016 model. They didn’t have a flex rating scale before this year so this is new. So it’s on the stiffer side I’d say around a 6 or 7 out of 10 (with 10 being the stiffest). Or said another way – on the stiffer side of medium (if that makes sense!)
You’ve picked a great board by the way! Should definitely be great in powder and should be an easy board to turn too so the manoeuvrability should be good whichever length you go with I think.
Check out more on the 2016 model here
Have an awesome trip to Japan! I’ve never ridden there but from what I hear it’s killer
Great Review Nate! Love the tables comparison – makes it easy to make a quick pic! Personally, I would go for your basic, stable, wide flat based Santa Slay… as I’m pretty prone to falling (even without anything attached to my feet) 🙂
Hey Harry. That cracked me up! Can’t get the picture of someone riding down the slopes in a Santa Slay out of my head now! Thanks for commenting 🙂
Great site. The review is very thorough and informative. I like the use of graphs using the snowboard icons.
Hey – thanks Adam. Glad you like the graphs and icons. Hopefully it makes it easier to compare the snowboards in a more visual way. For me personally I like to look at images and graphs and find it a bit easier to digest the information. Thanks for stopping by!
Looking at the first stats, I thought the Never Summer Raven would win the battle. However, your in-depth review points out the other advantages and disadvantages of the boards. It is a great unique review.
Lis.
Hey Lis – thanks for stopping in. I’m glad you liked the style of the review. Trying to do something a little bit different with them.