The Ride Helix

It wasn’t exactly the most popular move when Ride announced they were canning the beloved DH and DH2 back in 2014 – they were some of the most sought after cambered park boards going at the time when rockered shapes were really kicking off. But when the replacement – the Helix – hit the scene it was love at first sight.

“We went so far as to make it our all mountain snowboard of the year, despite the fact that it’s a park board”

Essentially, they took the DH’s innards, added a little rocker at the tip and tail and made it asymmetrical – meaning the heel edge has a deeper sidecut than the toes, but otherwise it remains a true twin – before trimming the ends into a shape that made people damn sure it’s an asym, as well as giving it its classic outline.

Introduced with a special collab graphic from hipster design agency akomplice, we loved it straight away, and in its second year even went so far as to make it our all mountain snowboard of the year, despite the fact that it’s a park board. It not only handles but rips any terrain thrown at it, from rails to pow fields. For something with a flex pattern as playful as this it still blitzes through turns and for our money is still one of the best boards out there. Just be careful if you try and stand it up outside the bar…

Check out our review of the 2017-2018 Ride Helix here

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The Jones Hovercraft

Whilst some say it might not be such a coincidence that after Jeremy Jones came up with the iconic directional shape of the Hovercraft after visiting the Gentemstick showroom in Hirafu, Japan, it’s hard to argue against this board being worthy of a place in this list. In fact, it was seeing that gorgeous wooden topsheet and subtle swallowtail, almost unchanged again that sparked the idea for revisiting this theme in the first place.

“The float this thing has is unreal, but the magic happens when you take it to the pistes”

One of the first boards to take traditional camber and merge it with new rocker technology in the nose, the float this thing has is unreal, but the magic happens when you take it to the pistes and realise how well it carves on hard pack as well. It’s no surprise that it gained popularity around the same time that snowboarding’s first generations started needing something a little friendlier than a stiff, cambered twin to enjoy the mountain.

No surprises then that whilst Jones have introduced a raft of different versions of the Hovercraft – this coming winter there’s a super-duper carbon version, the Ultracraft, splitboard versions of both and a women-specific model – the design has stayed relatively unchanged, even down to the graphics. Simple is as simple does, this is a true modern classic.

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The Burton Flight Attendant

Yes, the Burton range has plenty of boards that be chalked up as classics, but we’d like to make a special case for the Flight Attendant – the only board bar the Fish that has stayed present in the turbulent Family Tree line since its inception. Good thing too as it’s a corker, nailing the trick the very best powder boards pull of by being equally at home on and off piste, achieving this with an absolutely nails tapered sidecut and one of the best camber between the feet/rocker in the nose profiles we’ve ridden.

No surprises really, as the board was originally designed by none other than Nicholas Müller, right before he jumped ship to GNU. It speaks volumes about how good this thing is that Burton didn’t bin it immediately – this year there’s even a new splitboard version to accompany it (spoiler alert, it’s as good as the real deal).

“When we asked him what it was like he simply replied ‘I was on a Flight Attendant.’ ‘Nuff said”

Whilst the graphics change depending on the general theme of the Family Tree rather than in keeping with its own lineage, you can spot a FA out of a line up with ease – the shape of the big, spooned nose is a dead giveaway, and it’s always a scrap within our test team each year as to who gets to take it out.

In fact, it was the board our esteemed editor finished out the season on during a May powder day in Kaunertal. When we asked him what it was like he simply replied “I was on a Flight Attendant.” ‘Nuff said.

Check out our review of the 2017-2018 Burton Flight Attendant here

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The Lobster Park Board

There’s rarely been a buzz around a snowboard brand before launch as big as the one that surrounded Lobster Snowboards in the 2010/11 season. With Eiki and Halldor Helgason both rocking the now classic LObStER base graphics before any sort of official announcement, and then the release of two ultra-offensive versions of the same boards (now annually known as the ‘Special Additions’), the hype was huge.

“The graphics alone merit the Park Board’s place in the snowboarding hall of fame”

Seven years later and both the original boards are still going strong – the Jib Board and the Park Board. We’ve chosen the latter for this list, but to be honest either would have been more than worthy. It was originally Halldor’s board before the brothers developed pro models out of the line – the one the infamous lobster flip was hucked about on at Air + Style – and for our money the one that rides best over the whole mountain. Triple Base really came into its own around the same time this launched and on here it ironed out rutted pistes, turned rusted rails into buttery boxes and even floated a little too if you managed to score some pow. Still does today.

But even if it didn’t ride as well as it does, the graphics alone merit the Park Board’s place in the snowboarding hall of fame, from the aforementioned base it launched with, the ‘Troublemaker’ first secret graphic, the ill-famed RV Juice, Trexunicornfathumanpig and Biker Penguins to collabs with the Party Snake crew – these boards take risks akin to skateboarding that are rare to find elsewhere in the snowboard world these days. Just like the Helgasons.

Check out our review of the 2017-2018 Lobster Park Board here

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The Salomon Gypsy

By far the longest running of our chosen classics, the Salomon Gypsy has managed to stay both bang on trend and instantly recognisable with each year – you can look at the range of graphics above and see the evolution of design over the last decade or so. Does one of them stand out in particular? Oh yeah, the 2013/14 model is the one Jenny Jones took home Olympic bronze with in Sochi.

“When you’re competing at that kind of level, you need something under your feet that you can trust”

When you’re competing at that kind of level, you need something under your feet that you can trust, and with the Gypsy that’s what we hear from our female test team every time one goes out. As inspiring as Jone’s and Desiree Melancon’s feats are, the board seems to give them the same confidence, with its ‘Rock Out’ hybrid camber profile providing catch-free stability and playful responsiveness all over the mountain.

So why does the Salomon Gypsy round out our modern classics? Simple, it’s proud to be itself and encourages female riders to be the same.

Check out our review of the 2017-2018 Salomon Gypsy here

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