Never Summer Shade
| OVERALL RATING 5/5 | $479.99 RETAIL | SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SNOWBOARD SHOP |
Never Summer Shade Snowboard: Who Might Ride It
Ahhh… the Never Summer Shade, an all-new women’s snowboard for the 2020 season. Where do I begin? Probably with who might ride it. Which, it turns out, is probably you. And you and you and you. And me, definitely me.
As a true twin through and through, the Never Summer Shade speaks loudly to my years of riding twin boards in east coast parks. Part jib rat, part freestyler, the Shade is the stuff dreams are made of. Thanks to certain engineering feats I can’t really explain (just know there’s a straight line of carbon included in the Shade that leaves it torsionally soft for pressing, jibbing, and doing all manner of other fun shit—but that also helps retain a lot of outward energy), the pop is off the hook. Combine this carbon element with the board’s Original Rocker Camber profile, and the Shade just rips. I seriously have not wanted to put it away.
““Whether you’re a playful rider who sees the entire mountain as one giant playground... a lover of halfpipe walls, flat boxes, metallic pills, rainbows, and every natural feature you can possible find and ride, then dear reader, the Never Summer Shade is for you.”””
To get to the point. Whether you’re a playful rider who sees the entire mountain as one giant playground, a side-hit seeker who likes to tap a little tree bark while lofting shifty straight airs; a lover of halfpipe walls (it doesn’t matter how high you get up there—it’s all about how the transition makes you feel), flat boxes, metallic pills, rainbows, and every natural feature you can possible find and ride, then dear reader, the Never Summer Shade is for you.
On-Snow Feel
Soft flex, snappy response, and a seemingly low rotational weight make the Never Summer Shade a beauty of a beast on snow. In between runs this past spring, in mostly springlike conditions (think: corn snow, frozen corn snow, slow snow, fast/wet snow, snow snow), I thumbed notes into my phone about the Shade. As if I would forget how fucking rad this board is. The notes read something like this: Such a glorious, almost effortless loft to it. A perfect park board, especially for this time of year. And so on. And now, I cannot wait to test this thing out in a little bit of powder (I say little bit because while I think the Shade will perform just fine in some inches, I don’t see it becoming the powder board of choice—obvs). But it will be a minute before we see some white piling up here in the PNW. I am willing to wait for it, though. Always and forever.
Why Steer Clear of this Board
I literally have nothing to say here.
OK. Maybe a few things. Because different strokes for different folx, right?
If you want a board that’s strictly for powder, the Never Summer Shade probably isn’t going to be where you land. Also, while it is extremely adept at making quick turns (thank you, torsional flex) and offers a good amount of stability, the Shade might not be what you want if you're looking for a more all-mountain machine. That’s better left to the Lady West, women’s Proto Type Two, or the Infinity (review coming soon!). Or even last year’s all-time favorite, the Never Summer Aura.
Why Buy the Never Summer Shade
In addition to all the other reasons I’ve enumerated throughout this Never Summer Shade review, I’d like to add a few more to the list of reasons why you should buy the all-new women’s Never Summer Shade snowboard.
As noted in the previous section, the forgiving torsional flex of the Shade allows for tight, lightning-speed turns—great for quick maneuvering among trees and zippy turns everywhere. As well, the Never Summer Shade is built like a brick shit house. Which means it will endure however many days you take to the hill, and then just keep on enduring.
Another sweet thing about the Never Summer Shade is that it offers a truly women’s-specific shape. What the fuck does that mean? Usually women’s snowboards are birthed through models and shapes first found in the men’s lineup. But with the Shade, the shape is nowhere to be found among the men’s models. That’s because the Shade was specifically designed with women in mind, and can only be found in the women’s lineup. In other words, and to reiterate with subtlety, the Shade is NOT BORNE THROUGH THE REPACKAGING OF A PRIOR MEN’S MODEL. From profile to sidecut to graphics and everything else in between, the Never Summer Shade is a total babe designed with total babes (that’s all y’all) in mind.
““...this board is so badass, maybe it will eventually trickle down and make its way over to the men’s line. Maybe.””
No, Never Summer does not claim some bullshit like how this board “works better for a woman’s body.” What they are saying, and what I had to inquire about in order to fully comprehend, is that the Never Summer Shade was not created with men’s wants, needs, or desires in mind. It was created with ladies in mind, and built specifically for the women’s lineup. If nothing else, fucking brava to that (some companies are starting to do this; many are not). In fact, this board is so badass, maybe it will eventually trickle down and make its way over to the men’s line. Maybe. But if not—bruh, regardless of which gender pronoun you prefer, you can just ride this thing cuz it’s dope. We been riding men’s boards for, like, ever.
Final Notes On The Never Summer Shade
Basically, the way I feel about the Never Summer Shade is the way Wayne Campbell feels about certain electric guitars…
This past spring I became obsessed with working on hand plants. Yeah, I know, more than 20 years of snowboarding and I’ve never tried one. Don’t hate. The thing I want you to know is this: the first consistent inklings of a hand plant came through while riding the Never Summer Shade and, by the end of the season, I could consistently nail these weird but fun hand-plant layout things on vert. I ain’t sayin’ the Shade was the magic ingredient. But it certainly played a hand in the planting. Mostly because of how comfortable and confident I feel on it, and because of how it makes me smile every goddamn time I affix it to my lower half, pop in some tunes, and slide.
Speaking of tunes and things I am OBSESSED with, Get Up Get Out has got it going on. Great track to ride and live by…
Tunes to Ride by With the All-New Never Summer Shade Women's Snowboard
Get Up Get Out by Born Dirty.