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Snowboards

West Salaz 2019-2020 Snowboard Review

  • Sizes:153, 156, 159
  • Flex: 6-7
  • Profile: CamRock
  • Shape: True Twin
  • Price: £579 / €609
  • BUY DIRECT FROM WEST

If snowboarding is an expression of creativity, you won’t find a more visceral, in your face, depiction than the salacious topsheet of the West Salaz. Move aside Capita – there’s a new weirdo in town.

This is West’s self-proclaimed freestyle toy. Though it delivers across the rest of the mountain, it has been purpose-built for the park. A true twin shape and camrock profile virtually come as standard for freestyle oriented boards these days, and the Salaz follows suit.

It’s a snowboard you’ll be hard-pressed not to judge by its cover. Surprisingly, though, most of the detail is hidden beneath. The wood core is predominantly built up from bamboo – a go-to choice when making a board as light and poppy as possible – but gets some reinforcements with ash and paulownia to keep it braced for impact on heavy landings.

“It’s a snowboard you’ll be hard-pressed not to judge by its cover. Surprisingly, though, most of the detail is hidden beneath”

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For keeping the board damp under speed and energised off the lip, West have added a composite of carbon, Kevlar and basalt stringers running lengthways, down the board, to just beyond the contact points.

There’s usually two schools of thought when adding reinforcement to freestyle decks: strengthen then nose and tail and keep the centre torsionally soft, or stiffen between the inserts and leave a little more wiggle room in the nose and tail. The Salaz opts for the latter, resulting in a board that’s solid on edge, stable through its centre, and delivers a decent level of pop, but keeps things softer at the ends for getting more creative with you flatland.

All this makes for a quality all-mountain freestyle performer where nothing’s off-limits. Not even a naked man reaching behind his arse to rudder a pontoon.

Tester’s Verdict

Rhys JonesTDC Snowboarding

“What a bonkers looking topsheet – it looks like something that happened after Salvador Dali and Monty Python took acid together and started painting on the first thing that came to hand.

Fortunately, it rides the same way. The Salaz brings out the creative side in your riding. The profile is pretty forgiving, especially in the nose and tail, but there’s enough in between the feet to build a solid platform for boosting sidehits or just having a hoon about the piste. It reminded me quite a lot of riding the Capita DOA a few years ago, not just in terms of both of their pretty bold statements in the graphics, but the outline and flex felt very similar. This may just be the hidden gem of all-mountain freestyle riding that is yet to be fully discovered by the masses.

“It looks like something that happened after Salvador Dali and Monty Python took acid together and started painting on the first thing that came to hand”

I rode the 156 which was a little on the small side for me but made for a couple of super fun jibby runs. I think if I was spending more time in the park and kicker line I’d be more comfortable going for something more my usual size of 159. In the air, it felt super balanced, but the extra length may have helped with some more stability on the landings.

Whatever your freestyle calling, there’s a size that fits. The West Salaz is about as crazy looking as they come, but it makes complete sense to ride.”

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