Last year’s Buck Wild was one of those boards you saw everywhere. To a large extent this was thanks to its eye-catching base graphic which delivered a playful taunt to people with the message “I’m having more fun than you”. Unsurprisingly a lot of folk latched onto the idea of instagraming the base or sticking it on Facebook just before a particularly good powder line, or after a great day in the park. Nothing beats the feeling of making your mates jealous eh?

Having said that, even without that amusing graphic, we reckon this board would have been pretty ubiquitous because it’s relatively forgiving and easy to ride, but still versatile enough to handle high speeds and sizeable kickers. In fact the UK’s Billy Morgan stomped his first backside triple cork on the monster booters of Breckenridge on this exact board. The
carbon stringers or ‘pop-rods’ inserted into the core give this a lively, snappy flex of the kind you need to clear big kickers and the profile, which is largely flat, provides the stability you need to gather speed on the run-in without the board feeling sketchy or skittish.
At the same time, the slight lift around the tip and tail contact points means that the edges are quite hard to catch, something that intermediates will definitely appreciate. The general consensus among the test team was that the flex was slightly too stiff for this to be considered an out-and-out jib board, but for all-round park and piste shredding it was awesome. In the slushy conditions of the board test week, the words that cropped up most often in the reviews were “playful” and (perhaps appropriately) “fun”.

Buy this board at: granitereef.co.uk, absolute-snow.co.uk 

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