Burton Freebird Snowboard Review

Burton Freebird $599

Intermediate to Expert All Mountain Freesyle
Hybrid Camber (S-Rocker) Directional Split Shape

For 2012 Burton re-incarnated the old Burton S Series and brought a lot of new tech along with a very attractive price tag for a split board. It's called the Burton Freebird and the biggest change over the old S-Series is the new S-Rocker shape that makes a smaller board float better in deeper powder while still giving you a good amount of pop off the tail when it comes time to ollie. We haven't met an S-Rocker board that we don't like and the Burton Freebird split isn't an exception. Here is the thing with backcountry. If you do this you know the risks but if you don't know that people can and often die in the backcountry. If you want to do this take an Avalanche Safety course and get certified. Before going out you should at least have an Avalanche 1 cert. There are many split boards out there this year so lets not have the ratio of backcountry deaths to split board sales parallel one another. This has a similar ride to the Burton Barracuda but it's a bit more aggressive to handle some of the inconsistent conditions you might encounter when not on a groomed run. All in all this is a great choice for anyone who wants to have some money left over for an Avy class.

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

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The Good Ride Take

The Good Ride Take on Burton's S-Rocker

As you can see from the S-Rocker image from Burton there is a smaller camber in the back and S-Rocker after the front binding. This to us is another form of hybrid camber but we are splitting hairs here. This works very well with any Powder or freeride board and delivers a little more pop off the back tail.

s-rocker

The Good Ride Take on Hybrid Camber
For the most part there are two types of hybrid camber that we see out there these days.
1. Mostly Rocker Hybrid Camber
This type of ride, like many boards, has camber and rocker but unlike other rockered boards the center has a mini camber. This is usually 1-3mm high, sits only between the bindings and then curves up right after. From a distance this board looks like a rocker board but when you look closer you see the little camber between the feet. This is not as loose as hybrid rocker but it’s very close. It is very stable between the feet and easy to one foot or flat base in any condition out there. Mostly Rocker Hybrid Camber is very versatile. You will see this design on anything from Freestyle to Freeride style snowboards. This will work well with all ability levels and riding styles.

2 Mostly Camber Hybrid Camber
There are all types of designs but this type usually looks like a Camber board and rides much closer to an old school Camber board. ONe thing you will notice is usually when you step on the board the tip and tail rise up a lot more than a normal camber board will. Some are mostly camber and others have a bit more rocker but you will always notice they have camber. This allows for a stable, fast carve friendly feeling you get with camber but also makes it more catch free and floaty in powder. This doesn't float effortlessly like hybrid rocker, mostly rocker hybrid camber or flat to rocker but it does better than camber. You will mainly see this on aggressive freestyle to all mountain to freeride style snowboards.

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 Freebird Specs


BOARD SIZE	158cm	162cm
RUNNING LENGTH	950mm	980mm
WAIST WIDTH	253mm	255mm
SIDECUT DEPTH	17.9mm	18.7mm
SIDECUT RADIUS	6.31m	6.43m
STANCE WIDTH	560mm	560mm
NOSE WIDTH	292.3mm	295.9mm
TAIL WIDTH	285.3mm	288.9mm
EFFECTIVE EDGE	1130mm	1170mm
STANCE LOCATION	12.5	12.5
WEIGHT RANGE	130-180 lbs. / 59-82 kg.	150-200 lbs. / 68-91 kg.
BINDING SIZES	Medium/Large	Large