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Burton Monkeywrench Snowboard Review

$449

Intermediate to Expert Freestyle to Street
Camber Twin Shape With Spoon Nose/Tail and Waist
Burton has some hybrid camber boards out for 2012 but many snowboarders miss good old camber. Enter the Monkey Wrench with some new tech that makes this camber board a lot more catch free. The Spoon Nose and Mid Spoon tech gives you turned up rail in the waist and tip/tail so it is catch free everywhere except between the bindings. It seems like a Burton Engineer wanted to make something similar to Bataleons Triple Base Camber Freestyle boards that have been out for years. Still this does a good job at giving you the old familiar feeling of pop that camber offers and a catch free feeling similar to many rocker boards out there. This is kind of like a higher end camber version of the Burton Whammy Bar in many ways. Burton's tech group has done some work to help make this camber board perform better in powder but it still rides like a camber board in powder. It works a little better than a regular camber board but it's no rocker board. All in all the Monkeywrench could be a good call for Lighter freestyle riders that wants a camber feel with a rocker catch free ride in the jib park.

How It Rides
Groomers	Average	Speed	Good	Flex	Soft	Rails/ Jibbing	Excellent
Powder	Average	Weight	Light	Carving	Good	Pipe	Rough
Turn Initiation	Easy	Edge Hold	Average	Switch	Excellent	Jumps	Average

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The Good Ride Take

The Good Ride Take on Burton

Burton is huge. They have developed or acquired most of the technology that we use today. Burton is one of the only companies that can provide you with everything you need to snowboard from boards to beanies. Burton even owns arguably the best surfboard company Channel Islands because Jake likes to surf. They are like the Yankees of snowboarding because they can always outspend their competition to win.

The positives- Burton provides more products for each gear/clothing/accessory category than any other company. Burton has possibly the best customer service in the snowboarding industry. Burton continuously spends more money than almost any company to develop new tech or just make what they have better. Burton sponsors more pro’s and get’s more high level user feed back than any other company. They have some of the best boots, bindings and boards in the industry. They also have great clothing.

The Negatives- Because Burton spends so much money on sponsorship and tech they have to pass this cost along to the products they sell. They relentlessly continue to jack up the prices every year. You are almost always going to get a good product from Burton’s higher end line but some mid to low level products don’t stack up to the competition in the same price range. Burton always tries to make proprietary tech like the channel tech and 3 hole binding tech so you can only ride Burton Gear which sucks! We wish they wouldn’t act like the Microsoft of snowboarding.

The bottom line is Burton is the 800lb patriarch of our industry that makes good stuff and backs it up with good customer service. The snowboarding world owes soo much to them but at the same time they can be very frustrating when it comes to price and proprietary technology.

Specs

2012 Burton Monkey Wrench Specs


BOARD SIZE	150cm	154cm	157cm	159cm
RUNNING LENGTH	1020mm	1060mm	1090mm	1110mm
WAIST WIDTH	251mm	253mm	254mm	255mm
SIDECUT DEPTH	19.2mm	19.95mm	20.5mm	20.9mm
SIDECUT RADIUS	6.78m	7.05m	7.25m	7.38m
STANCE WIDTH	530mm	530mm	530mm	560mm
NOSE WIDTH	289.4mm	292.9mm	295mm	296.8mm
TAIL WIDTH	289.4mm	292.9mm	295mm	296.8mm
EFFECTIVE EDGE	1140mm	1180mm	1210mm	1230mm
STANCE LOCATION	12.5	12.5	12.5	12.5
WEIGHT RANGE	110-160 lbs. / 50-73 kg.	120-170 lbs. / 54-77 kg.	125-175 lbs. / 57-79 kg.	130-180 lbs. / 59-82 kg.
BINDING SIZES	Medium/Large	Medium/Large	Medium/Large	Large

Pictures

2012 Burton Monkeywrench

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User reviews

Average user rating from: 1 user(s)

Overall Rating:

4.0

Burton monkey wrench (by Jeremy Jones)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

Awesome board, the flex is just right, handles like a dream, handles jumps better than any other board I have ever ridden. Edge hold on ice is good but not perfect. Perfect for boxes and rails. It is definitely easier to ride a rocker board in the park, but if you know what you are doing and you are used to a camber board - MonkeyWrench is for you - very poppy and amazing at speeds.
I paired it up with B.Mission EST bindings and loving the EST with lots of padding. I was skeptical when buying EST-s, but the padding REALLY makes BIG difference when landing big jumps.
I don't know if its the beveled edges or the spoons on nose and tail - but the board feels very loose and catch-free when going flat base - once again a good thing.
Of course a directional shaped board handles nicer in some cases, but IMHO you just have to adjust your riding style a little. Twin shape def. a plus if you ride switch a lot.
If you are looking for boards with similar tech. look at:
Bataleon boards-they have spoon-like shapes too, but even more pronounced than on the Monkeywrench. Can be tricky to ride on slush. But still lots of pop with traditional camber.
Burton Whammy bar - same as monkey wrench but softer and it doesn't have camber, so if you are into rocker and looking for a super-catch free board wilt less pop and which is mostly good in the park...
Hope this was helpful!

Overall Rating:

4.0

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Reviewed by Gleb
April 22, 2012

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