- Price: $600
- Category: All-Mountain
- Ability Level: Intermediate, Advanced
- Size: 153, 156, 159, 159W, 162
- Flex: 6-7/10
- Shape: Directional
- Profile: Hybrid
- Base: Sintered
Forest Bailey’s 4 is all about taking his freestyle spirit to freeride terrain. By tweaking the geometry, adding a little setback and stiffening the flex of the snowboard Gnu have come up with an all-mountain beast for intermediate to advanced riders to step up to the plate in every condition.
The profile of the Gnu 4 is the same as Forest Bailey’s other board, the Head Space, but that’s where their similarities end. The C3 camber has traditional camber between the contact points with rocker in the middle for a more aggressive and grippy feel suited to choppy pow landings and charging the piste. The essential freeride trinity of directional shape, setback stance and tapered outline show you which side of the all-mountain spectrum it sits but none are so extreme as to put you off doing some park laps.
“It’s emblazoned with Forest Bailey’s signature art and constructed with GNU’s green manufacturing processes – a proper fusion of art and science”
There are two paulownia stringers running down each edge of the snowboard. That, along with the tri and bi axial glass fibers, give the board some snap and torsional stability, whether you’re using that to pop off pillows or rebound out of turns. Magne-Traction edges stop your day being spoilt by unexpected washouts on ice patches by having a slight wave along the edges, which gives more contact and grip when the snow is hard packed, but don’t compromise the predictability or stability when carving creamy smooth groomers.
GNU rate the 4 as having a seven out of ten flex. That stiffness will definitely come in handy for more tricky backcountry terrain or hooning around resort when stability is important, but it should be treated with caution by less experienced riders looking for an all-mountain snowboard.
It’s emblazoned with Forest Bailey’s signature art and constructed with GNU’s green manufacturing processes – a proper fusion of art and science. That black and white top sheet is eco-sublimated onto the board using a plastic derived from beans that is less environmentally harmful and built in the Mervin factory that produces zero harmful waste and runs on renewable energy sources. This is a board that’s made in harmony with nature, and rides in harmony with it, too. Wherever you point it.
