In its four short years of existence Jeremy Jones’ snowboard brand has established itself as one of the leading freeride board manufacturers in the world. To a large extent this is down to Jeremy himself, whose reputation as the finest freerider or his (or arguably any) generation has certainly done nothing to hurt his company’s reputation. But the brand also owes a lot to the folk at the Nidecker factory, where the snowboards are manufactured. Their willingness to experiment with new shapes and technologies while still producing the boards at seriously competitive prices has played a large part in Jones Snowboards’ success.

The Hovercraft is a great example of these two factors working together. Allegedly inspired by a visit to Japan, where Jeremy was impressed by the crazy shapes built by the garage brand Gentemstick, the board features a massive spoon-like nose which, because of its width, floats as well as a much longer normal nose would in powder. This is combined with a swallow-tail and a setback stance which ensures that nosing under in the deep stuff is near impossible.

But while this board is obviously great in powder, what impressed us the most was just how well it handles on the piste. Whitelines editor Ed Blomfield borrowed one of these for a trip to Japan last season, but kept riding it long after he’d left the epic powder of the land of the rising sun behind. He said “It’s awesome on piste and super-stable at speed. It’s got a snappy flex too so you can get a decent air out of it. I was loving popping methods off little side-hits.” If you’re not fussed about rails and want a board that charges hard and then really excels on pow days, the Hovercraft may well float your boat.

Buy this board at: snowboard-asylum.com, ss20.com, boardwise.com, conspiracyboardstore.co.uk, sputniksnowboardshop.com, sickandwrong.co.uk 

Have you ridden this board? Got any comments that your fellow riders might find useful? Please add your reviews below.