The Best Women’s Snowboards of 2013
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Gnu Velvet Guru Snowboard
BEST FOR: PARK
“The only negative: most other boards I rode couldn’t live up to it,” one tester scribbled after a test run, during which she noticed how nimble and lightweight the Velvet Guru was in the park. Its camber-rocker-camber profile (the inverse of the Scarlet) and soft flex give it tons of pop and a low, fun swing weight. We were surprised at how well it plowed through chunder, but as expected, it was too noodly to hold an edge on hard-packed steeps.
High Societ Scarlet Snowboard
No surprise that the Scarlet earned the highest praise in our test: it has the same technology as our Gear of the Year-winning men’s board—a surefire camber profile (rockered everywhere but outside the bindings) and burly P-tex sidewalls—with a few women-friendly features (lighter weight and softer-flexing fiberglass). It charged steeps but was playfully agile through trees. “Poppy enough for airs, soft enough for moguls, solid enough for big landings,” summarized one tester.