A fresh offering from the good folks at CAPiTA Snowboards – The sidewinder promises to be the everyman’s carving stick. So naturally we had to take a look under the hood and see if it holds up to the claims.
“CAPiTA may once have been known as a freestyle brand, but there’s no denying they’ve smashed into every facet of snowboarding over the last decade…”
An approachable, confidence-boosting trench digger that won’t break the bank? Sign us up.
It’s primarily a snowboard for resort raiders who have a penchant for painting surfy turns, taking down easy-going tree lines and a slash-first attitude. Thanks to the mellower flex, the barrier to entry here is far more accessible than other boards in this category, so don’t be afraid to ‘punch up’ here.
Some snowboards built for carving will kick your arse if you don’t have the credentials, but not so the CAPiTA Sidewinder. Carving’s turning at the end of the day, right? And the CAPiTA has tricked out the Sidewinder with all the tools it needs to turn like a charm without being unwieldy. The long, cambered midbody offers stability through the holding phase of the turn, as well as keeping the board dynamic underfoot when you’re pushing it edge to edge. A bit of forgiveness comes into play with the nose kick blending into a subtle flat zone just outside the contact point; this loosens up the catchy feel you can often find with a fully cambered snowboard, makes it a little more friendly and smooths out the ride when you’re initiating the turn.
A pretty significant taper runs from nose to tail, with the rear end of the board being 15mm narrower than the front, with the setback stance settling your weight over the tail of the snowboard to drive power and aggression from the back foot through the exit of each carve. The overall tighter sidecut gives the ability to pump into deep turns with far less power than you might think and gives that playful maneuverability that lends itself to this surfy style of riding.
“…riders with more experience looking for a fun, cruisey board for laying out turns will be happy to get their ticket punched by the SS Sidewinder. “
CAPiTA hasn’t gone crazy raiding the toy box trying to throw any and every bit of tech they’ve got at the Sidewinder. And that’s the beauty of it. It’s an accessible board, at an accessible price that you can progress both into and with. But that’s not to say it’s a slouch either; the Sidewinder employs a dual-wood, poplar/paulownia core for a consistent flex and feel underfoot. This is paired with a more forgiving biax fibreglass layup, which is partially where the Sidewinder gets that more mellow feel.
The Sidewinder gets a bit of pep in its step with some Carbon Aramid boosters; these are laid into the core and deliver some dynamic energy without disputing the overall flex pattern or torsional feel. Like a little shot of Espresso, enough to wake you up but not so much you’re shaking from the caffeine and can now smell colours.
Base-wise, the Sidewinder isn’t the most rapid out there, but again, we’re not here to break the land speed record, are we? This is all about fun- easy cruising, turning and burning without hanging on for dear life sounds like my cup of tea, to be honest.
CAPiTA may once have been known as a freestyle brand, but there’s no denying they’ve smashed into every facet of snowboarding over the last decade, and the Sidewinder is proof that they’re genuinely able to go toe-to-toe with the big dogs when it comes to surfy freeride.
Just because the Sidewinder is a softer snowboard doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a more basic one. While the mellower feel here does lend itself to easy-going confidence that you might be after if you’re looking for your first foray into the art of the carve, riders with more experience looking for a fun, cruisey board for laying out turns will be happy to get their ticket punched by the SS Sidewinder.
“This is a little softer than I expected, so initially I was slightly delicate and wary of committing to the carve. But I needn’t have worried; the edge hold was super gripped, and that softness made for a really smooth and adjustable turn where you can change pressure to change the radius of the turn easily. It honestly made carving feel as smooth and fun as buttering, which I loved. For mellow carving or a first carving board, this is the one.”
