Jones Hovercraft 2.0 Snowboard Review: For Big Powder Days

The Hovercraft 2.0 features a spot of serration successful the edges that Jones calls Traction Tech, which bites into hard snowfall but someway doesn’t interrupt carving. I don’t deliberation Traction Tech is rather arsenic reliable arsenic Lib Tech’s Magne-Traction (same concept, but with a fewer further bumps), but this committee held its borderline highly good successful captious terrain.

It's besides the champion committee I’ve ever utilized successful the trees. Despite its width, it turns nimbly successful unpacked snow, wherever those speedy directional changes are critically important. In March 2024, I took this committee connected a roadworthy travel done Northern California, Idaho, Montana, and Washington. At immoderate of those stops it hadn’t snowed successful days, and everything that was successful the unfastened was tracked out, but erstwhile I took this committee into the trees I was ever capable to find immoderate pockets of caller goodies. On those peculiar occasions erstwhile I got it into a big, steep snowfield the committee had a casual, surfy consciousness to it. It glides nicely implicit level spots, too.

The Hovercraft 2.0 is besides arguably the astir sustainable snowboard ever produced. It’s the archetypal snowboard made with Jones’ caller Re-Up Technology, which upcycles components from utilized surfboards. Jones recovered that 95 percent of a snowboard tin beryllium recycled, and that’s wherever this board’s wood halfway comes from. It besides features recycled alloy successful its edges, recycled ABS successful its sidewalls, a carbon-neutral flax fibre topsheet, and a bio resin that reportedly cuts CO₂ emissions by 33 percent compared to accepted epoxy. It besides comes pretreated with a Wend earthy wax that’s biodegradable and contains nary fluorocarbon everlastingly chemicals specified arsenic PFAS.

This shouldn’t beryllium surprising, arsenic laminitis Jeremy Jones is not lone a legendary snowboarder but besides the laminitis and president of Protect Our Winters (aka POW). But it’s bully to spot companies enactment their wealth wherever their mouths are.

Ultimately, there’s truthful overmuch to similar astir this committee and precise small to dislike, but it’s for a circumstantial benignant of rider looking for a circumstantial experience. If you’re mostly focused connected groomers, this committee is good, but it doesn’t truly basal retired connected the hard pack. For intermediate to precocious riders who privation to walk arsenic overmuch clip arsenic imaginable hunting pulverization successful ungroomed terrain, surfing down steeps, slashing large turns, exploring the trees, and inactive bash immoderate playful carving connected their mode backmost to the assistance line, the Hovercraft 2.0 is an implicit delight.

It’s conscionable a axenic amusive instrumentality that’s taken maine down immoderate of the astir memorable runs of my life. It has usurped my beloved K2 Excavator arsenic my go-to committee for pulverization days. If that’s your thing, this committee comes highly recommended.