About this Review: This review is my honest opinion of the snowboard, which I tested for one day in January of 2023.

My take

CAPiTA’s The Outsiders Snowboard is not an entry-level freestyle board. It’s for the skilled park rider who understands how to pop their board into the air and wants to step up to the large/extra-large features in the terrain park.

About the board I tested

• Model: 2023 Capita’s The Outsiders Snowboard
• Size: 156Wcm

About me

• Height: 5’10”
• Weight: 150lbs
• Experience: 10 years of snowboarding

Test conditions

• When I tested the board: January 2023
• Days tested: 1
• Mount position: Regular, front foot +15, back foot -15
• Boots: Vans Aura OG
• Boot Size: 10.5 U.S. Men's
• Bindings: 2023 Union Stratas (Large)
• Where I’ve used it: Winter Park Resort (CO)
• Terrain: Park, Groomers, Trees

How it performs

What I was looking for

I’m lucky enough to work at a local snowboard shop and can demo snowboards for free. I wanted to try a freestyle-specific board that would handle jumps and airs well.

Why I chose to test this gear

I wanted a board that could handle some speed and airtime without feeling sketchy. Therefore, I decided on CAPiTA's The Outsiders because it’s a freestyle/all-mountain snowboard with a medium flex and a large section of camber in the middle of the board. These two characteristics (especially the camber) are known to provide lots of pop and are often seen in boards that excel on jumps.

What I love about it

• The “Pop”: This board gets into the air, and it does it well. With its profile being predominantly camber, this board wants to fly to the moon when popping ollies. It takes a bit of work to “load up” that camber, but once someone does, expect to pop much higher than one would on any rocker board or even boards with less aggressive camber. This boost from the camber profile is most noticeable when hitting jumps or side hits as one’s airtime is seriously increased from what it would be with a less poppy board on the same feature.
• Stability: As mentioned above, this board is predominantly camber and has a flex just a bit more than the middle of the road (CAPiTA rates it as a 6/10 flex). These two features combined provide a ton of stability when carving groomers, riding into jumps, and landing after hitting airs. The camber grips the snow very well and provides a locked-in feel, and the medium/stiff flex keeps the board feeling firm even at high speeds. (There was very little noticeable chatter).
• Carving: While this board is marketed as a freestyle option, it can easily carve up a groomer. That’s because the camber in this board extends almost all the way to the nose and the tail, meaning almost the entire board is in contact with the snow when riding and fully locked in. I could really slingshot myself in and out
• of turns and lay down nice deep and long carves with ease. The extra width on the 156W version helped get this board up on edge more, but I’m confident that even the non-wide versions of this board could easily rail turns.
• Versatility: As mentioned above, this board has exceptional carving abilities and is quite stable all over the mountain, despite being a freestyle snowboard. Therefore, this board provides a lot of versatility and can be enjoyed on groomers and light variable conditions as well as in the park. While I wouldn’t call it a “daily driver” board, it can handle much more terrain than some freestyle boards.
• Ease of Turn Initiation: Due to a stiffer flex, this board responds quite quickly and is very easy to carve from edge to edge. Therefore, it’s very easy to initiate turns either from a flat base or from one edge to the other.

Issues I’ve encountered

• Butters: This board can butter; it just doesn’t want to. With a 6/10 flex, it takes some work to get into a press on this board, and even once I got into presses, the board didn’t really “lock into” these presses or want to hold them. While this board can do presses on rails or boxes, it’s not the best choice for someone who wants a playful butter-friendly board.
• Weight: This isn’t the lightest freestyle snowboard on the market, nor is it meant to be. It’s a board built for speed and stability in the air. However, this means it’s a heavier board, and throwing it around to do spins or other technical tricks isn’t going to be a walk in the park. I suggest downsizing to the smallest size within someone’s weight range for this board if they want to do more technical tricks.
• Powder Flotation: This is a twin board, and twin boards simply don’t do as well in powder as directional boards. I took it through a couple of powder stashes about 2-3 inches deep, and it handled fine. However, it’s not a board I would ride in more than 6 inches of snow, and it isn’t a great daily driver option for those who ride fresh snow frequently.

Favorite moment with this gear

My favorite moment with this snowboard was taking it off every single little side hit I could find. The mountain I demoed this snowboard at is my local mountain, so I’ve hit the same side hits hundred times on my personal freestyle board (the 2022 Rome Party Mod), which is a rocker/flat board. However, hitting these same side hits on CAPiTA's The Outsiders was like a whole new world because of how much pop it had. I could catch way more air than normal without exerting any more effort. I even overshot the landings a couple of times because this board sent me way higher and further than I expected. It was such a blast to try and catch as much air as possible.

Value for the money vs. other options

There are plenty of other freestyle snowboards that feature camber predominantly, have a similar flex, and boast of being poppy. Examples include the 2023 Salomon Huck Knife, the 2023 Rome Agent, and even CAPiTA’s most popular freestyle board: the 2023 CAPiTA D.O.A. CAPiTA’s The Outsiders comes in at a price point that is slightly higher than all of these boards, as well as many other similar boards with the same characteristics, and I feel the extra price isn’t worth it for most freestyle riders. Even after only one day of riding this board, I could tell it was made for advanced park riders who hit large and extra-large jumps and rail lines, and the average park rider simply doesn’t need a board like this. Instead, they can spend less money on a similar board and still get all the freestyle performance they need.

Final verdict

Capita’s The Outsiders is a snowboard meant to conquer the biggest jumps and metal features one’s terrain park has. It offers an insane amount of pop and stability and is for the rider who likes to go fast and have total confidence in their board when hitting large freestyle features.