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Never Summer Infinity R Snowboard Review

Women's Snowboards - Women's Snowboard Reviews

 
User rating
 
4.5 (2)

Never Summer Infinity R Snowboard Review

Infinity-11.12_101x550Infinity-11.12.base_116x550
$499
Intermediate to Expert
All Mountain
Hybrid Rocker Twin Like Directional Shape
Good Ride Favorite!
The Never Summer Infinity is one of their most popular boards and this is for a good reason.  There are only a few companies out there right now that understand how to make an all mountain hybrid rocker board and the Infinity is one of them.  All of the best rockered boards have a little extra edge hold in the middle of the board and add some traditional cambered aspects back into shape to make it more stable.  The Never Summer Infinity R also is pretty stable at high speeds which is uncharacteristic for most hybrid rocker boards.  For 2011 they have made the Infinity more damp and reduced the squirly feel when flat basing on hard pack.  The 2012 model feels very much the same but seems just a bit better flat basing on hard pack or one footing off the chair.  Maybe we are getting use to hybrid rocker but it seems like things have changes. This is one of our favorite all mountain rocker snowboards. Read the rest of this review below. 

How It Rides

Groomers Excellent

Speed Good

Flex Medium

Rails/
Jibbing
Average
Powder Good
Weight Medium

Carving
Excellent

Pipe Excellent
Turn Initiation
Super Easy
Edge Hold Good

Switch Good
Jumps Good

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The Good Ride Take


The Never Summer Infinity Snowboard Review by The Good Ride

Thanks to Never Summer and also to P3 in Mammoth
Days on the INFINITY- 10+

The Never Summer Infinity is a great choice for a women's hybrid rocker all mountain board and one of our favorites.   Lets face it there aren't many in the women's dept but still this would be a top board if it were in the mens/unisex dept. We took this twinish shaped board in powder, groomers, trees, the park and steeps.  The Infinity handled everything better than we could of imagined for a hybrid rocker board and great for any kind of all mountain board.  We have ridden the 2010, 2011 and 2012 models.  Very little has been changed when you look at the grand scheeme of things between the 2011 and 2012 models.  The one thing we noticed is the Infinity keeps

Groomers-  We were really were surprised at how well this board held up on groomers at high speed.  One of the surprises is that for a reverse cambered board it held well on a hard carving turn.  The Infinity is really fun when the conditions are good but the true test is when there is firm or even hard snow.  Again we were surprised with its performance on the less than ideal conditions.   On one day the Infinity held its edge well on a steep icy entry and then was a pleasure to turn when it turned into firm to hard pack down the run.  This is one of the longest steepest groomed runs on our mountain so it was a great test.  We experienced a lot less of the squirrely feel that some rocker and camber boards have when the Infinity was flat based.  That might be our only complaint.

Turn Initiation- Very easy to turn but it still has that traditional snowboard feeling when it comes to edge grip.  It's not like a skate board as some rockered boards are.  After you initiate the turn the Infinity hangs in there if you want to carve a big turn.   The hybrid rocker shape helps you keep from washing out through the course of turn.  The one thing we noticed was the Infinity seemed to be a little washy when making a skidded turn.  It still doesn't have the same feeling like a camber or hybrid camber board but it solved the rocker turning issue.   It's pretty easy to get this board from one edge to another in any condition but gives just enough resistance to make you work just a little bit for it.  This is what we like more than the super easy turn-ability of other boards.  If they are too responsive then they take the fun out of turning.  We would say that the turn initiation would be border line excellent.

Powder- There are so few powder days in a season so it's hard to understand how a board will perform when it gets deep. We had many days with not much over a foot but finally had some deep days.  The float is very effortless and easy for a board of it's shape and size.  It's no powder board but you wouldn't of expected a ride like this from a board like this before reverse camber.

Speed- The Never Summer Infinity is pretty stiff  compared to most boards in the All Mountain category. Well let's elaborate.  The Board seems to us to be stiff between the feet but a softer at the tip and tail. Straight Lining this board was pretty easy and there was minimum chatter from the rockered nose and tail.  We expected more chatter and we were pleasantly surprised.

Weight-  The Never Summer Infinity is on the heavy side like all Never Summer boards.  However they are one of the only companies that have a 3 year warranty so it's worth a little extra pressure on your leg when riding the chair.

Edge Hold- We were also really surprised with the edge hold of the Infinity.  The Infinity did hold a edge at Infinity low speeds quite well but without sacrificing high speed performance.  It had the ability to hold an edge on hard pack days.  It wouldn't be ideal for the ice coast but will do well in most conditions sane people consider worth riding in.

Stiffness- More stiff than your average all mountain board but still playful.

Jibbing- Usually stiff boards aren't that fun to Jib but the Infinity conquers that with their rocker & camber tech.  There are better boards for jibbing but for an all mountain board this rocks.

Switch-  This is a twinish board but not a twin.  The contact of the nose and tail is minimal and that helps the Infinity ride better switch than a cambered version.  There is still a difference between regular and switch but you get use to it over time.

Rails and Boxes- The Infinity does a good job.  The Never Summer Pandora is a better choice for rails and boxes but this will be fun if you hit them on occasion.

Pipe- It has enough edge hold and speed to climb a 22ft pipe but at the same time the hybrid rocker shape will help you land when you come back down.   At the end of the season we love to lap the half pipe all day and this is a good board to do it with. 
Jumps- It's fun to hit jumps with the Infinity.  Really fun! Some people still love a cambered board when landing the mid to large jumps but we are seeing more people on hybrid camber boards like the Infinity do a great job going bigger.

All in all this is a good choice for anyone looking to get a do everything board.

 

The Good Ride Take on Hybrid Rocker

This is what we call a snowboard that has rocker in the center and then a camber bend at the tip and tail.  The end result is the tip and tail are still off the ground but it helps bring some good qualities that people liked with camber. The camber usually keep’s the board from washing out when you lay into a harder carve and for the most part provide a more balanced ride compared to continuous rocker. This is still nothing like camber board. It provides a loose forgiving and catch free ride.  Hybrid Rocker comes in all riding styles from freestyle to freeride and to us this is a solid next step from continuous rocker which is what started it all. Hybrid Rocker is usually pretty poppy. The one complaint is it can still be unstable flat basing or one footing in some conditions like hard pack or ice. The major companies are working on this problem and it’s been getting better since this was introduced. Most love this loose feeling and get use to the squirrely nature in certain conditions. We at The Good Ride feel this is one of the better shapes out there so give it a try.

Company Information

Never Summer Infinity R 2012

Type: Women’s all mountain freestyle

This award winning, high performance women’s board has all the same design features as the SL, but is narrower, softer and is lighter in weight. This is hands down the best women’s specific, all mountain freestyle snowboard money can buy!

Damp & Flex Meter

Never Summer Infinity R 2011

Infinity
Rocker and Camber
Type: Women’s all mountain freestyle

This award winning, high performance women’s board has all the same design features as the SL, but is narrower, softer and is lighter in weight. This is hands down the best women’s specific, all mountain freestyle snowboard money can buy!

Technical Features:

BI-Lite Fiberglass
Carbon VXR Laminate Technology
NS Custom Flightcore
RDS 2 Damping System
Sintered P-tex Sidewall
Durasurf Sintered 4501 base
P-tex Tip and Tail Protection
Full Wrap Metal Edge

Damp & Flex Meter

Never Summer Infinity R 2010

type: women's all mountain freestyle

This award winning, high performance women’s board has all the same technical features as the SL-R, but is narrower, softer and is lighter in weight. This is hands down the best women’s specific, all mountain freestyle snowboard money can buy!

TECHNICAL FEATURES:

  • BI-LITE Fiberglass
  • Carbon VXR Laminate Technology
  • NS Custom Flightcore
  • RDS 3 Damping System
  • Sintered P-tex Sidewall
  • Durasurf Sintered 4501 Base
  • P-tex Tip and Tail Protection
  • Full Wrap Metal Edge
  • Rollover each for description

Specs

Never Summer Infinity R 2012 Specs

Set back on effective edge .5"
Setback on Material .75" 

Size Charts

Never Summer Infinity R 2011 Specs

Size  Charts

Never Summer Infinity R 2010 Specs

Size Waist Edge Sidecut Tip/Tail
145 23.4 112 VARIO 664* 27.5
147 23.4 115 VARIO 680* 27.6
149 23.6 116 VARIO 702* 27.8
151 23.8 118 VARIO 709* 28.2
154 23.9 121 VARIO 742* 28.4
156 24.0 123 VARIO 742* 28.6
in centimeters    *multiple radius average

Pictures

Never Summer Infinity 2012

Never Summer Infinity 2011

Never Summer Infinity R 2010

 

User reviews

Average user rating from: 2 user(s)

 

Overall Rating:
 
4.5
 
 

love, love, love!

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful
I've spent months researching boards and I've also had the chance to demo at least 4-5 of the most popular boards this season (from Burton to Gnu), including the infinity, and and this board just steals the show. So stable, can slice through anything, easy to turn and carve...this board does everything amazingly well. Yeah, it's a little heavier than other similar boards, but it's less than an inconvenience for everything else you get with this board.
Overall Rating:
 
5.0
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Reviewed by tovah
December 22, 2011
 
 

Love it!

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful
Hi!
this winter i finally saved up enough money to buy my first board, i always rented boards for the last 6 years and i didn't understand anything about the shapes and technologies, so i thought i'd buy a burton because they're well-known and good boards. Then i found your site and finally got the difference between all the shapes so i bought my own never summer infinity R and she's amaaazing! worth every cent! The only reason why i didn't give her 5 stars is because she's a bit heavier than my friends' boards but i hope that way she'll last many years, as i'm not planning on buying a new one anytime soon!
Thank you so much for the very understandable and great advice :)
Anouk from Belgium
Overall Rating:
 
4.0
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Reviewed by Anouk
December 31, 2010