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Snowboards

Nidecker Gun 2021-2022 Snowboard Review

  • Price: £595 / €600 / $620
  • Category: Freeride + Powder
  • Sizes: 174
  • Flex: 10/10
  • Shape: Directional
  • Profile: Combo
  • 3D: No
  • Base: Sintered

If you’re a follower of surfing, you’ll know that there’s been a resurgence of bigger boards over the last few years, many of them based on retro templates. As Rob Machado puts it, “Foam is your friend.” Drawing inspiration from this idea, Nidecker went back to their own lengthier designs of the 1980s to re-imagine what a modern freeride snowboard could look like. Taking its name from the giant dart-like boards used to paddle into big waves, the Gun is a balls-out charger that delivers high speed stability and maximum float.

“Taking its name from the giant dart-like boards used to paddle into big waves, the Gun is a balls-out charger that delivers high speed stability and maximum float”

MORE INFO:
NIDECKER.COM

Who Is The Nidecker Gun For?

Powerful riders who aren’t afraid of a big snowboard, or going very, very fast. Chances are it will be a second deck that they pull out on powder days to recapture the original spirit of surf le neige. It also works well to intimidate the competition at a ‘fun’ banked slalom event.

Shape, Profile and Sidecut

The Gun is about as far from a twin tip as you can get. It’s basically a rocket ship in snowboard form: long pointy nose, long drawn-out waist, stubby pintail. And with the kind of roosters this thing throws out in powder, it looks a lot like a rocket when it’s moving, too.


At a whopping 174cm long, there’s plenty of edge to work with at all times – even though the nose is lifted up via extended rocker to rumble over crud and ensure that this thing positively glides across deep snow. Under the feet it deploys classic camber to keep the whole thing feeling engaged, and the sidecut features a shallow 10m radius. This all adds up to a board that excels doing huge, fast turns, whether you’re on hardpack or off-piste. It was never designed to be a nimble fish that thrives in tight tree lines (if that’s your bag, check out the Mosquito) but if you like to just let go of the handbrake and //point it// then the Gun won’t go wobbly at the knees before you do.

“This all adds up to a board that excels doing huge, fast turns, whether you’re on hardpack or off-piste”

Construction and Materials

As with the Smoke and the Mosquito (the two other models in Nidecker’s Snow Surf Quiver), the Gun commands immediate attention not just for its shape, but for it’s flawless finish. The stunning matt black and tinted resin topsheet mixes cap construction at the tips with a thin version of sandwich construction along the edge, where it wraps around to meet a 2mm sidewall. It’s a refined construction job indeed, with both triax and biax fibreglass used to dial in a flex that’s as aggressive as you’d expect. That is to say, viagra levels of stiff.

Underneath is a fancy poplar, paulownia and beech core that keeps the weight down (essential in a board this size) but which still has the necessary backbone. As for the N-9000 sintered base, it’s as fast a bit of P-tex as money can buy. You know the burning tyre tracks the DeLorean leaves behind it in Back to the Future? That.

“There was a reason snowboards were long and pointy back in the day: they surf powder like nothing else”

Roundup

There was a reason snowboards were long and pointy back in the day: they surf powder like nothing else. The Gun taps into those roots but brings plenty of modern build quality to bear on a design that is very much on the pulse. You’ll need to know how to turn properly to appreciate it, and it probably won’t be your only board, but if you’re looking for a powerful steed to pull out on the biggest of days, so to speak – when mere mortals can only watch from the shore – then this is the one.

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