This mid-stiff little number comes straight out of Snowboarders snowboarder Bode Merrill's mind and if you know Bode's style you can imagine that the Ultimate Ride isn't going to be a one-trick pony.
Salomon have included carbon beam inserts in the tip and tail, carbon inlays in the sidewalls and a lightweight paulownia wood shaped core. This makes the board poppy, stable at speed and great at absorbing impacts. Add to this a quad camber profile with varying degrees of camber and small areas of rocker in the tip and tail and you've got the recipe for a great all mountain freestyle snowboard. To really take advantage of the freestyle characteristics of the Ultimate Ride you need to be a pretty capable snowboarder, butters, presses and rails aren't going to be as easy on this as on a softer snowboard but the trade-off is you can hit bigger features in the park with more stability and speed. If simply charging hard and fast down everything is where you're at then the Ultimate Ride will also serve you well.
Edge hold in high and low speed turns is excellent, the sidecut is quite aggressive and the edges bite into the snow, it's fast edge to edge and generally just a great carve board.
Overall a sterling effort from Salomon and Bode Merrill, if you like a stiffer snowboard with great pop, stability and edge hold then the Ultimate Ride might well be for you.
