Jesse reviews the Soldier

After some serious testing Jesse has written a review of the Never Summer Soldier. Our serious downhill race board. You have already seen him ride the board now you can see what he has to say about it.

First impressions of the Never Summer Soldier

This board is seriously stiff but still lightweight and thin. The rocker/spoon and dropthrough mounting makes the board low and keeps it stable at high speed. The deck is light and easy to maneuver and chuck around but not too light that it feels like your riding nothing. The board is wide in all the right places giving good leverage over the trucks so you can really dig into the corners and take sweepers fully tucked. The wheel cut-outs are generous allowing up to 80mm wheels with no bite but still leaving good room for foot placement right behind the front truck.

The deck length is ideal, long for stability and a big enough platform to get fully tucked and have room for error, but short enough to handle twisty courses and tight hairpins and throw stand-up speedchecks at 20+. Concave is smooth and doesn’t hurt the feet when carving, but it’s sharp when it needs to be and feels like your feet are strapped to the board through aggressive corners. This board is as stiff as plank and has no torsional flex and doesn’t deform through corners and is sharp an responsive.

The dropthrough lowers the board and makes for smooth and fast drifts, but it can still grip aswell as a topmount. This board can handle anything at it from 40mph straights to twisty technical courses and is always fun to skate weather its sessioning a driveway with your mates, or racing a downhill championship. The board goes where you want it to an does what you tell it to, no questions asked.

View Jesse's video of his Soldier session.