shredding gnar snowboarding blog

2010 is the first year for the RIDE Machete, and it’s been getting rave reviews just about everywhere. If you google RIDE Machete Reviews or check any of the sites like Dogfunk.com you’re going to see a lot of praise. So I jumped on the bandwagon and bought one over the weekend.

It had been shipped pretty late in the evening on Monday from the West coast, so I really wasn’t expecting to have it by the weekend at the earliest. But it showed up yesterday, so I took it out for the weekly Wednesday twilight session at Mount Holly, about 1 hour north of Detroit on I-75. Safe enough for the kiddies to be out after dark, but not far enough north to have decent vertical. Oh well…

Here’s the tech specs on this deck:

Available Sizes: 52, 55, 57W, 58, 60, 61W, 62, 64
Sidecut: LowRize rocker
Shape: Twin
Stance: Center
Flex: 6.5ish/10 stiff
Retail price: $429

Conditions: very-hard pack, light dusting of new snow (combo man-made + real snow) and some ice.
Temperature: ~22F and windy
Length: 161cm Wide

The Machete is flat between bindings and reverses from foot to tip/tail, a very mild rocker. I’ve been living in a cave for the last 5 years, so this was my first time on a rockered board—some people say that these take some getting used to but I thought adjusting to the different profile was pretty much effortless. The edges are beveled 1 degree, and I’m pretty sure this saved me once or twice on the icy.

Rode switch nicely, but this is to be expected on true twin. Pop was comparable to the X8. Amazingly stable landing ollies off rollers & small park jump (I didn’t go big). I did not have the same problem knuckling jumps that I did with the Burton X8 the last few weeks. This board carries speed nicely (more on that later) and handled well even after my dinner, which consisted of a three beers.

The Machete held its edge well on the very very hardpack, didn’t wash out on icy patches. I might have some reservations about riding this on blue ice, but then again, I have reservations about riding any deck on blue ice. I still feel like I don’t have the “stop on a dime” braking power of my old-ass NS but unless I buy another stiff board, I probably never will.

Whereas the X8 felt unstable to me, the RIDE Machete Machete handled better at speed which really suits me since – even though I want a “park” board – I’m really more of an “all mountain” rider who sometimes hits park jumps and very occasionally wipes his ass on boxes & rails. I attribute its ability to handle speed to the extra length/width – it is more similar in size to my regular board, but also to the “slimewall” tech. I think the slimewall ability to absorb chatter was really noticeable – in a good way. I’d ride over frozen snowmobile tracks expected to get that chop-chop-chop-chop but nothing. Smooth sailing broseph.

RIDE says the flex on the Machete is 6/10. They must be using different scale than Burton (who says the X8 is flex 3/10) because the Machete had waaaay more flex than the X8—I was able to double the height on my tail presses. This flex lends to the overall playful feel of this deck, but don’t be put-off by that.

The Machete handled speed very well (thank you, slimewalls!!!), landed jumps effortlessly, and pressed with the best of them. I probably wouldn’t use this for my “powder” board, and I might not prefer it for bombing black diamonds and steeps, but for an all-around board that’ll cruise the groomers and be equally comfortable rocking out in the park for a few hours, you can’t go wrong.

It’s almost February, and if you’ve been considering a new deck and you want to be able to use it for the remainder of this shred season, try and find one of these, but do it quick. The-house.com still has most sizes of the RIDE Machete snowboards in stock including the wides, but sources tell me that RIDE is selling out of the Machetes and quickly (Dogfunk.com only has the 160cm in stock), so when they’re gone, they’re gone.

Related posts:

1. Shredding on the RIDE Machete (video)
2. Burton X8 Snowboard Review
3. Burton Cartel Snowboard Bindings (Review)

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.