Gnu Turbo Gremlin 2026 Snowboard Review

A Real Breakdown Of How the Gnu Turbo Gremlin Rides Review by The Good Ride

• User Reviews
• Product Specs
• Product Images
• Questions?

How The Gnu Turbo Gremlin Was Tested:

Precious Good Ride dollars were spent buying and reviewing this.

I got this in a wide variety of conditions, but had a really bad season up here at Mount Bachelor. It was one of the worst on record, so it took me a long time to get enough conditions to feel like I could put together a review.

But I compared it against a wide variety of boards. You can see those comparisons on Patreon for paid members. Most of what I got was firm-but-fair snow, too. Sometimes firm, often snowmenty, and even a touch of ice. Then I got it in a little bit of thick, hard-to-ride uneven powder, but it’s enough to get a review up.

Size: 155
Days: 4
Conditions: Firm and fun to snowment and wet thick pow on top of hard uneven snow. 
Riders: James (Size 9 E, 5’10”, 185-190lbs). I’ve tested and compared 850+ boards, 200+ bindings, and 120+ boots
Davey (Size 12, 240lbs, 6’4”)
Boots: Nitro Team BOA, Nitro Team TLS
Insoles: F.I.T. Gamechangers
Bindings: Union Force, Union Atlas Step On
Redundancy: Strapins in case boots or bindings break.
Jacket: Skyline Fuse Jacket, Jones Mtn Surf Anorak
Pant: Skyline Fase 3L Bib Pant, Skyline Faze Pant, Jones Mountain Surf Pant
Helmet: Smith Method, Smith Scout
Goggle: Smith 4D Mag Low Bridge Fit
Gloves: Burton AK Clutch Mitt, Burton AK Tech Leather Glove

James’s Set Up: 21.5” Wide. Stance Angles +18/-3, +18/+3, +24/+6. Close to Reference on groomers and Set all the way back in powder.

Similar Boards We Like (but not the same):

Gentemstick Mantaray 156, Jones Hovercraft, Gnu Gremlin, Korua Transition Finder, Salomon Dancehaul, K2 Excavator, Amplid Surfari, Cardiff Powgoda, Jones Mind Expander, YES PYL Uninc, Stone Farther

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Sizing

How it Fits Me

This 155 felt great for me, but a touch on the small side. That’s what I was going for when I bought this. I wanted this as a super-quick turning board that was easier to control all day, and I was willing to sacrifice speed and carving power for much more maneuverability. When it’s hard, boards go faster, so I wanted control.

Now, if I were going for more of a powerful high-speed morning groomer carver, I would have definitely sized up to the 58. That’s how I feel with a regular Gremlin, too, in a 52 for more control and a 55 for more speed and carving power.

I’m very 158 curious, and if I have it in the budget next season, I’ll pick up a 158 as that would be a better all-around ride for my specs.

A Breakdown of how to size this for you

Sizing is very subjective and personal. Never assume your way is the right way, and there is no right answer.

Here is the best way to figure out what board will work for you. I rarely use “all caps to emphasize something, but this is really important. NEVER TRUST ANYONE who doesn’t ask or reference boot size, weight, and height.

Boots

You should always start with your boot size first. If your boot is too wide, you can’t turn it; if it’s too narrow, you get the dreaded Toe & Heel Drag. This is the most important part of sizing a board, which is why so many snowboards come in various widths, such as Narrow, Normal, Mid-Wide, Wide, and Ultra-Wide.

Most brands don’t include a recommended boot size because it’s very complicated and time-consuming. This brand includes the width over each insert, so it’s easy to determine whether your boot’s footprint will have too much overhang, so reference that against your boot.

Here is more or less the sweet spot to turn the Turbo Gremlin on easily without getting booted out. You can go wider if you carve really hard, which is something fun to try with the Turbo Gremlin

155: 8-9
158: 9.5-10.5
161: 10-11

Weight

Your weight determines how the board will flex underfoot. Give you more or less pop, speed, etc. The Turbo Gremlin can handle a pretty heavy rider, and it will take a lot to overflex this.

Height

Next, check the length in relation to what you want from this board. The length of the board determines the swing weight/control or longer effective edge, depending on what you want from a board.

Stance Width

Also, check your Stance width against their reference stance to see how well it will work for you on reference and set it all the way back.

Boots and Bindings Response

Next, factor in your boot and binding’s responsiveness to determine how well you will be able to turn/control a board.

Personal Preference

Lastly, you need to factor in how you like to ride. Some prefer control, so matching the boot size first for easiest turn initiation is the priority, with weight second. Others prefer dampness over control, want to charge, and like to size up in width and length. Others like to ride wider boards with very responsive boots/bindings to carve harder.

Construction / Durability

GNU always makes one, an environmentally friendly board. And they’re more environmentally friendly than any other brand out there. They were working on green technology in the 90s when most people didn’t even know what that was. But they still make a board with very good construction. These are very durable boards. Yeah, the topsheet gets some scars. It’s got a few scuffs and scars, especially over the binding area. And then it has that same thing with all Mervin boards, where the edge ends before the nose and tail, and it has more impact-friendly construction with most types of impact.

So I think it’s a very durable board, especially for being a Turbo, an ultra-poppy version of the regular.

It’s pretty light but that can vary greatly board to board.

Shape & Setback

Now, when it comes to shape, this is tapered, directional, and pretty setback, just like the regular Gremlin, but in a longer, narrower width. But it doesn’t have a super tapered feel, and I like that. This shape and setback are pretty typical of what we call Alt Freeride.

Camber/On Snow Feel

Other than a touch of early rise before the nose and tail, this is basically full camber. There is a passive bend in the middle, like all C3 boards, that helps it load a little more and give you a little more pop over the inserts. But this is a healthy bow of camber. It is technical. It is catchy. It is more for advanced to expert riders. Committed intermediates could get thumped with this.

This tracks so well, one-footing, flat basing. It just has that old-school full camber feel that I think a lot of people out there will appreciate, including yours truly. Just not the board you really want to be on when you’re feeling a little off your game and you’re skidding turns.

Edge Hold

The Turbo Gremlin a mellow Magne-Traction going through it. It’s not as aggressive as the regular Gremlin, but this still grips and holds like a champ. I recommend this a lot for people who see hard to icy snow and want an excellent carver. This is amazing.

Flex Personality

The Turbo Gremlin has a pretty medium-stiff flex that is pretty stiff in the tail, but very stiff between the feet. There’s a touch more give in the tail than in the center, where there’s a lot of carbon weave. The nose is softer, but still medium to bordering medium-stiff.

It’s not an easy board to butter and play around with. But look at this pop. It is just so poppy, and the ollie power and spring out of a turn is exceptional.

Uneven Snow

And when it comes to uneven snow, I would say the regular Gremlin does a little better in hard, uneven snow because it has extra grip and it has a little quieter edge, a little less pop. But this is very competent, very comfortable in hard, uneven snow. And when it comes to soft, uneven snow, it handled it much better than I thought it would for having all this carbon.

It’s just really good for being an ultra-poppy board. It’s still not as good as some boards out there, and the regular Gremlin is going to do better there. But it’s much closer than I thought.

Turning/Carving

And when it comes to turning, this initiated a turn really quickly for me because it’s more set up for a size 9 boot. I could really get back and forth on this edge-to-edge quickly, and when I set the edge and engaged in a carve, this camber profile had so much pop and spring out of the turn.

If you love to jump turn, this is your board. I just couldn’t believe how much more pop out of the turn there was than the old Gremlin 152 I owned in the past, and any other board I compared it against. Check out all the boards I compared it against on Patreon for paid members.

I couldn’t believe how well this did, and I’m so happy I have this in my quiver. This is just exceptional for carving. I found that I could weight my turns any way I wanted. You can front-foot weight your turns with this pretty well, and as long as you’re a little cognizant about the tapered tail, it won’t feel washy.

You can center weight it, and back-foot weighting out of a hard carve really just makes this board spring. But you can weight it any way you like, and you’re going to get incredible pop and drive out of a turn.

And you can make a wide variety of radius turns. This, of course, circle carves very well. I think I like the Gremlin a little better than the Turbo Gremlin for that, but across-the-groomer carves are excellent, and this can pick up some speed and make some very good down-the-line carves.

Even with this deep sidecut, it did not fight me at all when I wanted to make those narrower, longer drawn-out S turns.

Speed

And if I needed to point it and really go fast and really get speed and straight-line, this did fine for what it is. There are many better boards out there, but this is not bad at all for having such a turny sidecut.

Base Glide

This Turbo Gremlin’s a knife-cut sintered base has a lot of structure, which is good, but it’s still slower and thirstier than most sintered bases. So at least it’s not like a lot of the other knife-cut bases that arrive and aren’t well-tuned. Parts of it are dry and fuzzy, so it definitely needs a new structure before you even go out and ride it if you want it to feel right.

But I will say I like this new structure they put into it, and it allowed me to really cake in a lot of wax. This can hold almost two days, whereas the old tune of the knife-cut sintered base will only hold one day or half a day, and then you need to wax it that night.

So I like the improvement there, but I really would love to see Mervin introduce a new sintered base that’s more in line with the rest of the industry. They’re behind here. It might be a deal breaker for some.

This wasn’t a deal-breaker for me because it has so many other amazing qualities, but if you need a faster, easier-gliding base that holds wax better, it might be a deal-breaker for you.

Powder

Now, when it comes to pow float, I love the stance range on this. I could set this all the way back, and I was surprised. This floated better than I thought in the crappy, thick, wet, often uneven powder I rode it in.

It’s not a dedicated powder board, and if you like boards like the Orca or the Lib Tech Mayhem Rocket, those will be much better for you.

But for a full-camber, hard-carving board, you can have an okay time in powder, for sure.

Final Thoughts

And overall, I love the Turbo Gremlin. The pop, the drive, the carving power out of this board is truly exceptional. It made me forget about the thirsty knife-cut sintered base. The grip is very competent, and it’s a very recommendable hard-to-icy snowboard for those who want to carve harder than the regular Gremlin, even though it grips a little bit better. This just has more pop, more spring, more drive, and it truly is a pleasure to turn.