 This Product
Weston Backcountry Backwoods | |||||
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| Awards |  |  |  | ||
| Price | $623.95 at Backcountry Compare at 2 sellers | $700 List $699.95 at REI | $549.95 at Evo Compare at 2 sellers | $500 List $499.95 at REI | $550 List $549.95 at REI |
Overall Score  |
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| Star Rating | |||||
| Pros | Responsive, snappy, maneuverable, durable topsheet, powder performance | Great edge hold, lots of pop, incredibly stable, torsional flex pattern | Float, precise edging, good construction, playful | Great value, pretty easy to ride, versatile, stable, beautiful graphics | Loads of pop, stable, fun turning experience |
| Cons | Backseat landings, switch riding | Narrow waist width, hard to butter, suited toward advanced riders, limited size offerings | Switch performance, harder to control in uneven terrain | Plank-like feel, decent edge hold in hardpack | Average powder floatation, pop is less user-friendly |
| Bottom Line | Agile like a peregrine falcon | Our first pick when we demand exceptional performance anywhere on the mountain and won't accept many compromises | Our board of choice for advanced riders on groomer and deeper powder days | A great value option for those looking for an engaging ride on a budget | A board that we could happily ride every day |
| Rating Categories | Weston Backcountry... | K2 Alchemist | Yes. Optimistic | Jones Frontier | Jones Mountain Twin |
| Edging (25%) | |||||
| Float in Powder (20%) | |||||
| Stability at Speed (20%) | |||||
| Playfulness (20%) | |||||
| Pop and Jumping (15%) | |||||
| Specs | Weston Backcountry... | K2 Alchemist | Yes. Optimistic | Jones Frontier | Jones Mountain Twin |
| Riding Style | Freeride | Big mountain | Alternative Freeride | All Mountain | All Mountain Freestyle |
| Shape | Directional | Directional | Directional | Directional | Directional |
| Camber/Rocker | Directional Multi-Radial Camber Rocker | Rocker/Camber | Hybrid-Rocker/Camber | Hybrid-Rocker/Camber | CamRock |
| Flex | Medium Stiff | Stiff | Stiff | Medium Stiff | Medium Stiff |
| Weight | 6.63 lbs | 6.8 lbs | 6.2 lbs | 6.44 lbs | 6.1 lbs |
| Tested Length | 157 cm | 157 cm | 151 cm | 159 cm | 157 cm |
| Available Lengths (cm) | 152, 152W, 157, 157W, 160, 160W, 163, 163W, 167, 167W | 154, 157, 159W, 160, 163, 164W | 151, 154, 157, 161 | 152,156,158W,159,161W,162,164W, 165, 167W | 151, 154, 155, 157, 158, 160, 161, 162, 164, 167 |
| Construction Type | Sandwich | Sandwich | Sandwich | Sandwich | Sandwich |
| Core Material | Slayer (bamboo, poplar) | Bamboo, Carbon, Wood | Carbon-wrapped wood | Wood | FSC Mountain (dual-density wood, hardwood bamboo stringers) |
| Waist Width | 25.6 cm | 25.0 cm | 26.6 cm | 25.4 cm | 25.3 cm |
| Radius | 7.5/6.8/7.8 m | 7.8 | 6.5 m | 7.5 m | 7.8 m |
| Taper | 18 mm | 6 mm | 6 mm | 0 mm | 0 mm |
The Weston Backwoods may feel light, but it doesn't skimp on performance. It boasts quick, accurate, and powerful performance movements, and features a micro camber for most of the profile, with rocker in the tip and tail. It has a volume shifted shape, which means there is a wider waist width and shorter length to downsize yet achieve the same levels of stability.
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 and moves around bumps, allowing 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. When turning, 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 off the stiffer tail, and faster turn finishes. We really enjoyed this turning style. It had a lot of response and power in a user-friendly package.
Optimal float in powder was one of the top design priorities of the Backwoods. It has all the components required to provide effortless floatation and a swift turning ride. The shape of Backwoods promotes effortless floatation thanks to its powder-inspired shape with a long nose and shorter, tapered tail. The shorter tail allows the board to be incredibly agile and snappy when turning in fresh snow. This board is very fun to ride in powder and has the stability and agility for whatever terrain you wish.
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.
The Backwoods is playful in its versatility and the types of riding styles that it can support. If you are looking to really drive the snowboard, it can do that. If you want to slash around, it's 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.
The Backwoods provided sufficient pop when taking off side hits and jumps. It didn't blow our minds, 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. Jumping and landing on park jumps is not a primary design goal of the Backwoods, but it still performed well.
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. Though its design places the least amount of emphasis on jumping and landing, we found it was still 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.
GearLab is founded on the principle of honest, objective, reviews. Our experts test thousands of products each year using thoughtful test plans that bring out key performance differences between competing products. And, to assure complete independence, we buy all the products we test ourselves. No cherry-picked units sent by manufacturers. No sponsored content. No ads. Just real, honest, side-by-side testing and comparison.
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