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Snowboards

Gnu Free Spirit 2021-2022 Snowboard Review

  • Price: £470 / €530
  • Category: Freeride + Powder
  • Sizes: 143, 148
  • Flex: 8/10
  • Shape: Directional
  • Profile: Combo
  • 3D: No
  • Base: Sintered

When Jamie Anderson isn’t winning Olympic Golds, topping podiums the world over or filming ground-breaking video parts, she makes her home in Whistler, receiving over 11 metres of average annual snowfall it’s no surprise she wanted a powder specific slayer to make the most of her local mountain.

Its bodacious waist width, 3inch setback and healthy taper, make the Free Spirit a purpose-built powder cannon, but scratch beneath the surface and you’ll find a snowboard that’s more than capable of ripping when the tide’s low.

“It’s shorter running length and tight sidecut mean that the Free Spirit can turn on a dime, ideal for weaving between trees, threading tight lines or digging trenches on the hardpack”

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Who Is The Gnu Free Spirit For?

You’re a powder hound who chases the storms and wants something that you can ride with confidence in the blower pow, but you don’t want to have to relegate it to your garage come spring.

You’re not fussed about riding park, or you’ve got a quiver to make use of when you fancy spending the day between the ropes. With its stiffer flex and camber dominant profile you’ll need to be a confident rider to make the most of the Free Spirit, but if you can tame the beast, you’ll have a snowboard that can handle whatever you throw its way.

Shape, Profile and Sidecut

Of course, it thrives in the deeper snow, but unlike many powder specific snowboards, the Free Spirit runs with what’s essentially a camber profile. There is a mild rocker to speak of, but rather than sit at the nose to lift it out the snow, it runs between the bindings, with more aggressive camber sections flanking it either side.

Add in Gnu’s signature Magne-Traction edge profile for increased traction and you’ve got a snowboard that offers a hell of a lot of power and performance on firmer terrain, allowing you to push it on piste with stability at speed. It’s shorter running length and tight sidecut mean that the Free Spirit can turn on a dime, ideal for weaving between trees, threading tight lines or digging trenches on the hardpack.

“As befitting its status as Jamie Anderson’s powder hog, the Free Spirit makes the most of some of the best tech Gnu have on offer”

Construction and Materials

It has the surface area of a board much longer thanks to its increased width, which can make snowboards a little sluggish, especially when you’re pumping edge to edge, so Gnu have tricked out the Free Spirit with a responsive triax fibreglass weave to try and offset some of this delay.

As befitting its status as Jamie Anderson’s powder hog, the Free Spirit makes the most of some of the best tech Gnu have on offer. Using their lightest core, slick sintered base, bio fibre dampener to soak up chatter and a bio beans topsheet, the Free Spirit dressed to impress from top to tail. And of course, Gnu are bringing the eco-creds throughout the whole construction process, from recycled materials to zero hazardous waste.

“As befitting its status as Jamie Anderson’s powder hog, the Free Spirit makes the most of some of the best tech Gnu have on offer”

Roundup

There’s nothing quite like it in the Gnu line, Jamie Anderson’s Free Spirit is a short ‘n’ stubby wunderkind- floaty and fun when you want it, powerful and precise when you need it, the Free Spirit is far from a one trick pony.

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