Alongside his friend and fellow Quebecois LNP, Albertan Jed Anderson and American Ethan Deiss, Louis-Felix Paradis is right at the forefront of the modern jib movement. He’s been
an exponent of the tight-trousered, narrow stance style for a few years, but it’s his tricks more than his appearance which have turned heads. His insanely technical combos, his innovative choice of spots and his habit of stringing tricks together in his video parts, skate style, has earned him a lot of fans amongst the rail-riding fraternity. The Salomon Villain is his board.

As you’d expect from a jibber’s weapon of choice, this is a true twin, with with a combo profile that lifts the contact points slightly, making them harder to catch. Louif has however elected to have camber under the bindings, giving this a more responsive feel than a conventional rocker board. It features Salomon’s specially sculpted ‘popster’ core, which is thickened specially in certain places to add extra ollie power, and their ‘royal rubber pads’ which help absorb the impact of heavy landings.

The flex on the Villain is soft, rather than totally noodly, which means that you can quite happily cruise around the piste at a decent speed without the board suffering from speed-wobble – not something you can say about every jibstick. The flipside of this of course is that it’s not as easy to press or butter as super-soft boards, but if you’re hitting medium to large kickers and bigger rails – like Louif – you’ll appreciate the extra rigidity. All in all, this is a great park and rails board, with a damn cool graphic to boot.

Buy this board at: snowboard-asylum.com, subvertboardstore.com, sputniksnowboardshop.com, boardwise.com

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