Snowboard Review: Burton Fish mtnweekly.com

By Soren McCarty Ranked #8 - Snowboards September 26, 2011

First Impression: I had heard that the Burton Fish was the board to ride on deep powder days. The look of the board is old school and reminds me of some of the first snowboards I have ridden over the years. I was excited to check it out and see if the fish lived up to the hype or if it was fish stories told by park rats who actually got on a powder board for the first time. I picked up the Fish from the new Burton store in Vail Village, I had my bindings set back on inch from the standard set up, I literally had about 8 inches of tail and tons on nose. It reminded me of the first board I ever owned the original K2 Gyrator, I was stoked to see how old school board shapes and new school technology would mix to come together to make the ultimate powder board.

Shape: Directional board, with a swallow tail and S-Rocker shape, this allows the nose to get up on the snow with camber under the feet for improved stability and quickness in the turning radius. The Fish has a tapered Tip and Tail to keep you up in the fluff.

Weight: The Board is extremely light, and has a Carbon I-Beam technology to increase pop while keeping the board light. It’s important to have a light powder board, it the board is too heavy it will submarine and you will have to fight to get the board back on top. The Fish is lightweight and shaped to keep you on top even in strange snow conditions. The Fish floats easily through wet spring snow, as well as light fluff, the weight is a treat and takes the burden off your front leg on the lift rides on those blower powder days. The Fish comes with Slimrail, which allows the board to be lighter, and still maintains a stable edge when riding through crud, chop and variable snow conditions.

Flex: Burton rates the Fish at a 5 on their flew meter, 10 being the stiffest. The board was built with Directional Flex allowing the tail to be spring-loaded, with pop for jumps and ollies. The nose maintains flex to carve through bowls, trees and moguls. The Fish rides like the boards of yesteryear with the flex of the boards we ride today, a great meeting of the ages.

Turning: The Fish turns quickly and is agile in the powder and floats with ease. I was surprised how well the Fish handled the hard-pack at the end of the day; it rode with power and precision. The board was easy to turn and great in the trees, bowls and moguls, I liked how the nose was always on top in the powder and it turned quickly when not in powder as well.

Control: The board is easy to control and with the tapered shape the nose drives through the snow for you making the ride more enjoyable and allowing the rider to use less energy to control the board. It was fun to ride past kids on their twin tips and blow past them in the deep stuff, the ease of control is a huge plus and the main reason to ride this board on days over 8 inches. The Float of this board is astounding and fun, to witness.
Pop: Due to the directional shape of the board there is plenty of pop in the tail. This allows the rider to get some pretty good air off small to medium sized jumps. The tip of the board pops through the snow and always gets you on top giving you the feeling on floating.

Switch: The Fish has a swallow tail and is not designed to ride switch, I was able to land several jumps switch and you can ride short spurts switch, the tail is kicked up enough to get away with it, but this board is meant to be riding straight ahead for the deep stuff. The Fish Sniffs out the powder and is on a mission to slay it, that is the sole purpose this board was designed for.

Testing Location: Vail Colorado

Snow Conditions: Powder, Packed Powder, Trees, and Groomed

Sizes: 156, 160, 164 (160 Used for Testing)

Overall Impression: It is a great board for powder and it was a fun board to ride. It took me back to when I first started snowboarding over 20 years ago, it had a similar shape, but with many improvements. This board would be great for Wolf Creek, and any mountain that get hammered with snow. I would love to have this board in my quiver, but would only take it out on the big snow days. I recommend the Burton Fish; it was a great board and was responsive and floated with ease. The Burton stores in Vail have some and it’s worth paying to Demo the board on those big snow days.

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