UPDATE: Check out our review of the 2018/2019 Ride War Pig here
- Price: £370
- Sizes: Small (148), Large (154)
- Flex: 4
- Profile: Flat
- Shape: Directional
- RIDESNOWBOARDS.COM
Ride would rather you didn’t worry too much about how long the Ride War Pig is from end to end; you won’t find the size written on its topsheet (although we’ve included the lengths here for consistency). Thanks to a wider waist – 26cm for the Small and 27cm for the Large – this board has a similar surface area to more conventional weapons. If you’re after something a little different in 2016/17, have a closer look at this one.
A shorter board tends to magnify the twitchiness of contact points, so Ride have sensibly made the War Pig almost entirely flat. There’s a little bit of upturn at the tail, and quite a bit at the nose, so keeping it on top of the powder will be easy even at slower speeds. The shape is also slightly tapered, which improves the ride when you’re in your standard stance.
“A breath of fresh air even amongst the growing short-board market, the Ride War Pig has been an instant hit”
While it’s doubtlessly a lot of fun in the deep stuff, the Ride War Pig’s origins lie on the groomers. Some manufacturers of short, stubby boards aim to maintain the sidecut radius as they scale down, but the one on this is much tighter. You need your carving head on to use this properly, at which point you’ll be slicing up the piste like never before. The steel edges are extra thick, so any unfortunate bashes shouldn’t do as much damage as you’d fear.
Under the hood it shares a lot of the same tech as Jake Blauvelt’s whip of choice, the Ride Berzerker; the combination of biax and triax fiberglass, sintered base, carbon enhancements and three-wood core, to name just a few. One major difference is that there’s no topsheet on this; what you’re looking at there is the top layer of fiberglass, with the graphics printed directly on to reduce weight. There’s also extra reinforcement around the urethane sidewalls, further improving its impact resistance.
A breath of fresh air even amongst the growing short-board market, the Ride War Pig has been an instant hit. Its all-rounder credentials are seriously strong, so even if you can only afford one board then this could very well be it.
