- Price: £454 / €499 / $580
- Category: All-Mountain, Freeride/Powder
- Ability Level: Advanced
- Size: 145,148, 151, 154
- Flex: 7/10
- Shape: Directional Twin
- Profile: CamRock
- Base: Sintered
- BUY DIRECT FROM BOREALIS
Borealis have two new women’s snowboards this year – the Botanica and Koi – but for those seeking the most dedicated of freeride weapons, the Pillow is still your go-to. Big enough for serious lines, forgiving enough for the playful lines, and nothin’ but good times.
The Blizzard Camber has proven to be the most popular and versatile option in the Borealis line. It blends positive camber between the inserts with a small section of early rocker rise in the tail and a longer one in the nose. Switch is definitely on the cards with the Pillow, but the directional nature of the profile, combined with the carbon stringers in the tail, make this one primed for charging best foot forward. The faster and deeper the better.
“Big enough for serious lines, forgiving enough for the playful lines, and nothin’ but good times”
Borealis have also used their Powder Paw, a carbon and Kevlar additive that features throughout many snowboards in their line. There are two beams configured from the tip to tail, running past the outside of the insert patterns. They add some pop and snap to the core but, more importantly, play a vital role in dampening out the overall ride when you release the handbrake and let gravity do its thing. There’s also the Vibragum topsheet which plays its part in smoothing things out.
The flex rating of the Pillow sits at 7/10. Not a barn door by any means, but it’ll take an experienced rider to get the most out of it. The core is pretty lively, even for its featherlight weight, using a combination of poplar, paulownia and bamboo rods. That’s sandwiched between a layup of both triax and biax fibreglass sheets. These generate a really responsive torsional flex pattern without becoming so unwieldy that the board is limited to with flat-based riding or full tilt carving.
Riders leaning towards this snowboard need to be confident in their ability and understand that, while freestyle isn’t totally off the cards, you should be clear that it’s a board made for committing lines to really benefit from the tech on offer here. After all, a ruffled mind makes a restless pillow, as they say.
