Board: Nidecker Escape Plus

Buy it here:
Evo: https://bit.ly/3FoVW7x

Size: 156

Camber Option: Traditional Camber

Bindings: Rome Black Label

Stance: 21.5 Wide 15 Negative 12 Goofy

Boots: K2 Thraxis Size 10

My Weight: 200lbs

Resort: Copper Mountain

Conditions: Sunny bluebird skies, zero wind, warm temps, a mix of firm frozen snow, ice, perfect corduroy, and hero snow.

Flex: This is your standard run of the mill middle of the road flex. You have a more play in the tips till about halfway back to the inserts then it stiffens up through the middle, but just by a little bit. The torsional flex is overly abundant.

Stability: This board gets chattery at top speeds and you feel it underfoot. It’s not a super lively board but it’s also not super damp, it just sort of exists in that middle ground that makes you prepare to get bucked around.

Ollies: With this board having Nideckers Pop Carbon Plus and full camber it has more snap than it’s regular counterpart. Does that mean it’s mind blowing? Nope, it’s there and that’s about what I can say in regards to the snap. You do load up the camber and that is a little more aggressive than other decks of this caliber but it’s not a chore so that’s nice. It rebounds and you pop. It’s very predictable which makes it an easy ride.

Pop On Jumps: It’s designed to hit jumps that’s for sure. Would I crank it right over to the big line with this thing? Nope, but small and medium features are fine. It just doesn’t have enough rigidity in the tips to stomp a bigger landing in my opinion. What’s nice is if you’re laid back it will throw you off the lip, but if you want to charge and snap you get a little bit more boost.

Butterability: The tips are soft which makes it playful. It’s very easy to manipulate this board however you want, but you do get a little bit of snap from the camber and carbon layup. It’s not enough you’re fighting it all the time, but more an added bonus to pop out of anything you’re doing. If you’re someone that doesn’t know how to butter you might have an issue with it, but for those of us that grew up riding camber we have this.

Jibbing: This board is playful enough to jib with which makes it a little versatile in that department. The tips press relatively easy which allows you to lock in without much fight, but you get that snap out of the end of the feature. When going sideways this board just hugs the feature and fully envelops itself around it.

Carving: Now they claim this is a “carving machine”, that makes me laugh. This is anything but that. I found the tail kicked out regularly on anything more than a medium carve. When I would lay it over it just didn’t have the power to carry itself through the carve as aggressively as other boards from Nidecker. Can it carve? Sure, but it’s more in that realm of it’s on edge and you’re just turning around features or doing set up carves. Maybe an occasional hard carve here and there. Overall it’ll get the job done but it’s not mind blowing.

Rider in Mind: Camber loving all mountain freestyle guy.

Personal Thoughts: It’s barely stiffer than the regular Escape. It gets the job done as an all mountain freestyle board but I’ve ridden better and I’ve ridden worse. It’s a snowboard and it does snowboard things. There’s nothing that stands out to me as this being anything remarkable. Would it be my first choice or last choice if I had to pick it? No, it sits in the middle of boards of the same caliber that you just sort of ignore.

Comparable Boards:
Ride Shadowban: https://bit.ly/3H4VUmj
Salomon Assassin: https://bit.ly/3gVG6aS
Bataleon Whatever: https://bit.ly/3H7Iypm

Binding Recommendations:
Nidecker Kaon X: https://bit.ly/3gR2AtT
Rome DOD: https://bit.ly/3Fnx1RC
Ride C-6: https://bit.ly/3up0LHI