Snowboards

Bataleon Party Wave 2021-2022 Snowboard Review

Tested and selected for our top 100 snowboard products of the year: the Bataleon Party Wave

Price: £380 / €450 / $450
Category: Freeride + Powder
Sizes: 145, 148, 151, 154, 157
Flex: 4/10
Shape: Directional
Profile: Camber
3D: Yes
Base: Extruded

Why we chose the Bataleon Party Wave Snowboard: The Party Wave is a truly modern 3D shape that actually delivers on the usual promise to change the way you ride. And it does so at a great price.

Surf-inspired boards are everywhere these days, though they’re normally aimed at grizzly freeriders with cash to burn on a quiver stick. The Party Wave bucks that trend. It’s a fun, competitively-priced deck that takes the volume-shift concept and applies it to all-mountain freestyle shralping. Hover over powder fields, wheelie through the slush, mow down bumps or chuck it off your favourite side hit. It’s party time!

“Shredders who like to get creative but who are more inspired by natural terrain than the park will find much to love about this board”

MORE INFO: BATALEON.COM

Who Is The Bataleon Party Wave For?

Shredders who like to get creative but who are more inspired by natural terrain than the park will find much to love about this board. It’s got that signature catch-free feel of Triple Base, paired with a ton of surface area and a stubby silhouette that invites you to thread tree lines or just throw spins off moguls and piste markers. If you’re done with rails but not yet ready to grow a beard and buy a (black) splitboard, this could be the shape to make you see the mountain with fresh eyes. A mid-life crisis of the best possible kind.

Shape, Profile and Sidecut

Bataleon claim that the Party Wave is ‘short and wide done right’. What this means in practise is that – in addition to being ridden 5-10 cm shorter than a standard shape – it features bevelled 3BT edges with exaggerated ‘Sidekicks’ at the wide points. The result is it’s quicker to engage a turn than an equivalent silhouette with a flat base. Still, don’t expect to win a slalom event on this thing; stability and float is the name of the game.

Like all Bataleon’s, the Party Wave features classic camber, and by pairing it with Triple Base you get that spring-loaded benefit without the twitchiness. That said, the camber on this model is super mellow – as is the sidecut – so you can expect it to feel pretty laid back all round. Lay out some early morning turns on the corduroy or point it straight down the bumpy home run safe in the knowledge this hog won’t buck you off.

“Stability and float is the name of the game”

Construction and Materials

The Party Wave is built on a traditional 100% poplar core with a biax topsheet to deliver a friendly flex. The ‘Super Slick X’ base claims to have the highest molecular content of any extruded P-tex, but at the end of the day it’s still not going to be as quick as sintered versions. All in all the materials are solid if unspectacular, though we guess they had to save a little money somewhere to bring such a cutting edge shape in at this price. And hey, if you want to push the boat out there’s always the fully spec’d Party Wave+.

The finish is as slick as we’ve come to expect from Bataleon, with a punchy new graphic that’s guaranteed to brighten your day.

“Lay out some early morning turns on the corduroy or point it straight down the bumpy home run safe in the knowledge this hog won’t buck you off”

Roundup

The Party Wave brings a surf-style aesthetic to riders who dig everyday resort riding just as much as (or maybe even more than) backcountry exploration. It’ll smash through chop, eliminate back leg burn in the pow, dart in and out of side hits and generally encourage you to do your best John John impression with the terrain at hand. It’s been around a few seasons now, yet we still struggle to find a more exciting board for the money, so in the immortal words of Garth Algar… party on.

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Snowboards

Bataleon Party Wave 2021-2022 Snowboard Review