The Weston Backwoods just wants to slash and turn all over the mountain. It can win bank slaloms, rip groomers, or dance through trees. The powder inspired shape is outfitted with freeride characteristics that give it excellent edge hold and stability, and the blended core provides the board with a responsive and snappy feel. Given its directionally specific shape with limited tail, its switch performance suffers. The Weston Backwoods is for directionally minded riders looking to turn and surf the mountain snow or shine.
Weston Backcountry Backwoods Review
Agile like a Peregrine Falcon.
Price: $599 List | $598.95 at Backcountry
Pros: Responsive, snappy, maneuverable, durable topsheet
Cons: Backseat landings, switch riding
Manufacturer: Weston Backcountry
Cons: Backseat landings, switch riding
Manufacturer: Weston Backcountry
By Isaac Laredo ⋅ Review Editor ⋅ Nov 20, 2019
Our Editors independently research, test, and rate the best products. We only make money if you purchase a product through our links, and we never accept free products from manufacturers. Learn more
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Our Verdict
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 This Product
Weston Backcountry Backwoods | |||||
| Awards |  |  | |  | |
| Price | $598.95 at Backcountry | $636.45 at Amazon Compare at 2 sellers | $589.99 at Backcountry | $570 List | $407.96 at Backcountry Compare at 3 sellers |
Overall Score  |
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| Star Rating | |||||
| Pros | Responsive, snappy, maneuverable, durable topsheet | Floaty, precise edging, good construction, playful | Lightweight, well-made, fun, responsive, user-friendly, made in the USA | User friendly, turning experience, versatile, playful | Great value, versatile, stable, beautiful graphic |
| Cons | Backseat landings, switch riding | Tricky to size, unappealing graphic | Below average float | Top sheet scratches easy | Can slip on hardback |
| Bottom Line | Agility meets stablilty. | If we could only buy one, this would be it. | Blow past your friends. | High performance embedded with a consistently playful charter. | Industry leading value; we're certain of that. |
| Rating Categories | Weston Backcountry Backwoods | Yes. Optimistic | Never Summer Proto Type Two | United Shapes Cadet | Jones Explorer |
| Edging (25%) | |||||
| Float In Powder (20%) | |||||
| Stability At Speed (20%) | |||||
| Playfulness (20%) | |||||
| Pop And Jumping (15%) | |||||
| Specs | Weston Backcountry... | Yes. Optimistic | Never Summer Proto... | United Shapes Cadet | Jones Explorer |
| Shape | Directional | Directional | Asymetrical-Twin | Directional | Directional |
| Camber/Rocker | Directional Multi-Radial Camber Rocker | Hybrid-Rocker/Camber | Hybrid-Rocker/Camber | Camber | Hybrid-Rocker/Camber |
| Flex | Medium Stiff | Stiff | Soft-Medium | Medium | Stiff |
| Weight | 6.63 (lb) | 6.2 (lb) | 6.2 (lb) | 6.22 (lb) | 6.44 (lb) |
| Tested Length | 157cm | 151cm | 157 | 156cm | 159cm |
| Available Lengths | 152, 152 wide, 157, 157 wide, 160, 160 wide, 163, 163 wide, 167, 167 widecm | 151, 154, 157cm | 152,154,157,160,153X,155X,158X,161X,164X | 144, 152.5, 156, 159, 162cm | 152,156,158W,159,161W,162,164W cm |
| Construction Type | Sandwich | Sandwich | Sandwich | Sandwich | Sandwich |
| Core Material | Slayer (bamboo, poplar) | Carbon-wrapped wood | Wood | A11x (poplar, bamboo) | Wood |
| Waist Width | 25.6cm | 26.6cm | 26.3 | 25.6cm | 25.4cm |
| Radius | 7.5/6.8/7.8m | 6.5m | 7.6 toe/7.3 heel | 7.5m | 7.5m |
| Taper | 18mm | 6m | 0 | 20mm | 0mm |
Show full specification detailsHide full specification details
Our Analysis and Test Results
The Weston Backwoods may feel light, but it doesn't skimp on performance. It boasts quick, accurate, and powerful performance movements. It features a micro camber for most of the profile with rocker in the tip and tail and has a volume shifted profile, which means a wider waist width and short length, which allows you to downsize.
Performance Comparison
The Weston Backwoods is partnered with the National Forests Foundation. 10% of the proceeds go to support the foundation.
Edging
The Backwoods is like a Peregrine Falcon in its turning ability. This board excels at fast, short, and medium radius turns. Whichever radius you want, once you think about turning, you are already doing it; it's that easy to get on edge. The Backwoods is incredibly nimble to move around bumps and allow you to look at the mountain differently. It feels like you're surfing. The board is meant to be downsized, which unlocked this playful feeling without compromising security; it feels like you're riding the entire edge of the snowboard. The turning itself is powerful and consistent, which then is translated into a strong snap of the stiffer tail. We really enjoyed this turning style. It had a lot of response and power in a user-friendly package.
The Weston Backwoods can obtain plenty of edge hold on firm snow.
Float in Powder
The Backwoods is included in our spring 2019 update. Based on this timing, we have not ridden this board extensively in powder. This board was designed with powder flotation as the first priority, and testing is currently in progress. The shape of this board seems to indicate good powder flotation. The long nose - with a little bit of rocker - should provide plenty of surface area to promote float, in conjunction with the tapered tail.
Stability at Speed
The Backwoods provides a stable ride, especially considering its length and playfulness. The cambered profile and wider waist give you a solid platform to charge over things that are in your way. When we were straight-lining, the nose resisted chatter well. Our testers felt secure and enjoyed going fast down the mountain, making quick edge transitions.
Nimble and quick edge response for the Backwoods.
Playfulness
The Backwoods was playful in its versatility and styles of riding that it can support. If you are looking to really drive the snowboard, it can do that. If you want to slash around, its got you. If you want to win your local bank slalom, it can do that. In contrast, the Backwoods was hard to butter around the mountain. The nose was hard to initiate a butter and even harder to maintain. We were, however, able to rip turns and pop into butters which were still enjoyable, but we had to work for them and accept that we couldn't hold them as long.
Popping and Jumping
The Backwoods provided sufficient pop when taking off side hits and jumps. In didn't blow our mind, but we found that we could still jump over everything we needed to. The long nose is a good platform to load your ollie. The tail has a V-shaped stringer of carbon to stiffen it up, which helps with pop and landing security, but the shorter tail does take some adjustment to nail ollies and landings. When we needed additional support on hardpack landings, the tail provided adequate support. However, jumping and landing on park jumps is not a primary design goal of the Backwoods and still performed well.
Value
The 19-20 Backwoods is partnered with the National Forest Foundation. Ten percent of every Backwoods sold goes to support the foundation; that is rad! The board is priced competitively with other high-performance snowboards, and it's worth every penny.
Conclusion
The Weston Backwoods provides a refined and versatile ride in all conditions. It features a gently volume shifted profile that is quick on edge and stable at speed. Its design places the least amount of emphasis on jumping and landing, but we found it was proficient in this category. This board is good for intermediate to advanced riders who want to surf the mountain and have fun with every turn, whether in ice or powder.
The black base of the Backwoods is easy to repair.
— Isaac Laredo