The Details:

‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ is all well and good, but there’s always something you can improve. Only minor alterations have been made to the Never Summer Cobra this year – it’s slightly stiffer, and the variable sidecut has been changed – but they’ve largely left this freeride-focused stick to do its thing.

Like all Never Summers, the Cobra features a profile that puts rocker in the middle and camber sections outside the bindings; in fact, the Colorado board-builders were actually the first to patent hybrid camber tech in the USA.

Shape-wise it has a slightly longer nose and blunted tail – it’s subtle, but makes a difference when you’re wanting to bash through slush or keep the nose up in deeper snow. Whatever the conditions, enhanced control and stability comes courtesy of carbon laminates and vibration-absorbing tech directly underneath the feet.

It’s no door, though, as the ‘NS Superlight’ poplar-and-birch core makes for a lively ride. A good range of sizes – especially when you include the Cobra X wide version – means there’s one of these for everyone.

If you’ve got the cash, that is; if you want a board that’s been designed, hand-built and tested in the mountains of Colorado, they don’t come cheap.