Expert Review: Ride Twinpig Snowboard · 2022

About this Review: This review is my honest opinion of the snowboard, which I purchased with my own money in November of 2021.

My take

The Ride Twinpig is an incredible all-resort freestyle board for the intermediate to the expert rider looking for a versatile and playful board with loads of pop. It is a top-performing park board that is easy to press and butter on, has great edge hold, and offers loads of versatility from side hit sessions, carving up the groomers, laps through the trees, and bringing out the stoke every day on the slopes.

About the board I own

• Model: 2022 Ride Twinpig
• Size: 151

About me

• Height: 5’10”
• Weight: 185 lbs
• Experience: 10 years of snowboarding

Test conditions

• When I bought this: November 2021
• Days tested: 20
• Mount position: +12, -12
• Boots: Ride Lasso
• Boot Size: 10
• Bindings: Now Pilots and Union Force
• Where I’ve used it: Keystone, Kirkwood, Heavenly, Northstar
• Terrain: All terrains one can think of—park, hardpack groomers, icy conditions, chunder, mash potatoes, light and fluffy pow, spring slush conditions.

How it performs

What I was looking for

I was looking for a board to add to the quiver, designed for flat ground freestyle, jibbing, and park riding. In addition, I wanted a board versatile enough to handle some hard riding all around the resort, which generally requires a freestyle board to be mid-flexing and have plenty of camber.

Why I chose this gear

I selected the Twinpig because I love jibbing and pressing off natural features and wanted a board for stepping up my game on boxes and rails. I have never been much of a park rider, but as I age into my 40s, I have found my new love for park riding. I do a lot of small tricks around the groomers, looking for side hits, throwing 180s and 360s, and love buttering around. The Twinpig is ideal for that style of riding. I was also looking for a board with good edge hold, a snappy feel in and out of turns, and decent at carving.

I looked at some other boards, including the Salomon Huck Knife, Rome Gang Plank, Bataleon Evil Twin, and the Nitro Optisym. However, the Twinpig has my favorite style of profile: a hybrid camber, equipped with plenty of camber in-between the bindings and lots of rocker to the tip and tail. It’s the perfect recipe for a playful yet responsive freestyle board. Furthermore, I have become fond of volume-shifted boards (short boards w/ a wide waist), so I was extra intrigued about the design. Lastly, Ride snowboards are known to be featured in many video parts and ridden by some of the most creative freestyle riders, and I was excited to pick up one of their more unique decks from the Pig series, which has a lot of hype.

What I love about it

• Edge hold: This board has phenomenal edge hold and edge control. It has a sidecut known as a quadratic sidecut, creating multiple radii, which creates more points of contact along the effective edge of the board, increasing precision on the edge. The board also has an asymmetrical shape, which shortens the heelside cut to enhance the edge hold on the heelside. The heelside edge hold is enhanced in icy conditions and at speed.
• Turns: Turn initiation is lightning fast on this board and excels at short, quick, fast turning. Again, this is from the quadratic sidecut radii and the short/deep sidecut radius. Quick note on sidecut radius: shorter or deeper sidecuts create a fast, more responsive quick turning board, and a long or shallow sidecut is best for speed and long arching carves.
• Groomers: This board is a blast on the groomers because I spend all my time searching for side hits, buttering around and carving. I try to be like Ryan Knapton, but I won’t pretend I am anywhere near that level. I am not the groomer rider who points downhill looking for speed, and this board is perfect for the rider who slows it up a bit and would rather jib off of a tree stump or a skier on the ground. It is mid-flexing, so it has the stability to rip some groomers.
• Trees: This board is a blast in the trees because it is short, nimble, and quick. I call it the Ninja Pig. It’s great in tracked-out snow conditions in the trees but not ideal for a pow run in the trees.
• Park: The Twinpig is a park board. Enough said. It has great pop and is so easy to preload into ollies. I have launched myself off a small jump to the flats because of the pop off the tail. Just be aware. I am an intermediate box rider, and it's my favorite board I have ever hit a box with. It handles medium to large jumps well and has good landing gear on large jumps, with extra shock absorption from the impact plate laminates underfoot. I am not a rail rider but try to dabble, but this board is designed for the rail rider. It’s a dream for pressing and nose and tail lock into presses effortlessly. The edges are equipped with Cleave Edge steel, which is more resistant to edge cracking from impact on rails and other features.
• Durability: Durability is excellent. The Pig series is designed for hard thrashing maniacs. The slim wall technology enhances damping underfoot, with impact plates under the bindings. The Twinpig has a sintered 400 Ptex base, which is very durable, with high-strength aspen, bamboo, and paulownia wood core, so this board is lightweight and strong. It also has a urethane topsheet, which is slightly textured, almost scratch-resistant, and very durable.
• Weight: It is a lightweight core construction, and the board is ridden shorter, making it feel light and easy to maneuver.
• Switch riding: I love riding switch and often will run laps top to bottom with my kids in my switch stance. I have a goal of riding switch as good as regular one day. It’s a true twin shape, and I can set up center, so it’s the perfect recipe for switch riding.
• Stability: This board has exceptional stability for a freestyle mid-flexing twin. I mentioned all the technology in the Durability section, which are the same features creating a stable ride. It has great pop, dampness, and precise energy transfer from edge to edge. Now I did feel quite a bit of chatter underfoot at higher speeds on chopped-up groomers and rough terrain off-piste. On corduroy groomers, there is zero chatter unless I hit 40+ mph.
• Other: As I have mentioned in this article, I love buttering, swiveling, and sizzling on the flats, making every skier nervous about which way I am going next. So, I want to highlight how great it is at freestyle riding out of the park. It’s really fun at low speeds if I’m playing around and learning how to spin around and press my nose and tail on the flats. I call this “old man-rad-dad” riding.

Issues I’ve encountered

• Speed: This board has a short or deep sidecut, a relatively short effective edge, and the flex softness up outside the bindings, so it’s not the type of board I expected to have great speed to begin with. It is not designed for that. That being said, it does have a fast-sintered base, and I can haul pretty fast on this board and feel the wind in my face. It’s just not a speed demon.
• Powder: I took this board into a lot of different powder conditions, hoping that it would wow me for being a true twin, and it just did not impress me. I have read it has good float, and I disagree. It is fun in soft snow that is tracked out. It’s quite amazing at that, but it is not ideal for first tracks in deep powder. I don’t believe Ride cares if it’s good in pow, which is why they have the Warpig and Mntpig for powder conditions.
• Moguls: The board isn’t horrible in moguls, but I can get bucked around because of the softer flex to the nose and tail. I’d say it's okay in moguls, given it is a short and agile board, and if one really loves blasting moguls, it will probably do the job.
• Backcountry: The Twinpig is not designed for backcountry, and I did not test it in backcountry, but I did ride it a lot off-piste in the side country in bounds at Kirkwood. I do not recommend this board if someone is looking for a board for backcountry or off-piste riding. Backcountry boards are generally ridden a bit longer than a resort or park board and have a freeride shape which is a directional shape, so the rider is set back in stance, the profile is set back, and the nose is longer than the tail, promoting more float in powder. Backcountry-style boards are also stiffer throughout the midsection, especially in the nose and tail, which increases stability and the boards' ability to track through rough terrain and deep snow. In conclusion, the Twinpig is not ideal for backcountry riding because of the board’s true twin shape and freestyle flex, the nose and tail are the same width and length, the rider is set up center on the board, and the tips of the board are softer for flexing and pressing.

Favorite moments with this gear

My favorite moments with this board were always hitting boxes and medium jumps in the park—especially when throwing down spin tricks, like 360s and 180s. With the blunted tips, lightweight core, and short length, this board is really easy to spin. Landing into switch off a jump felt effortless and smooth.

Value for the money vs. other options

There’s no doubt that this board is a great bang for one’s buck. It is jam-packed with technology, making the board poppy and high performing. It looks so rad in person too. It is difficult to compare this board to other freestyle twin-shaped decks because it is volume-shifted, and there are not many volume shifted twins on the market. If someone’s looking for a comparable board in performance and style, they might look at the Capita DOA, Salomon Huck Knife, or the Neversummer Protoslinger.

Final verdict

The Twinpig is a freestyle fun stick that can support the highest performance needs of an expert park rider or the intermediate rider just getting into freestyle and tricks. It will make any rider want to turn the whole resort into a terrain park or film a video in the streets.