Snowboard Tested and Rider Specs:
A-Frame Size: 158cm
MSRP: $649
Bindings: Union Falcor
Boots: Vans Infuse
Stance: 22.5″ +15 Front & -15 back
Rider Height: 6’0″
Rider Weight: 195
Conditions/Terrain Tested: groomers, powder, chop
Product detail:
- American Black Walnut / Black Hand Dyed Ash Power Ply
- Highland Core
- Sintered Base
- Mixed Glassing
- Carbon A-Frame Board Reinforcement
- Tapered Tail
- A 360 degree, fully wrapped sidewall
- Knucklehead Tip Profile
- Three Year Warranty
- Flex: 9/10
About Arbor Snowboards:
Arbor launched its brand in 1995. They started as a snowboard company and added skateboards a few years later. They’ve stayed true to their roots, making high-quality, handmade, environmentally friendly snowboards.
Review:
The Arbor A-Frame returned to Arbor’s line last year with a new shape, Grip-Tech, and Uprise fenders. The A-Frame is a true directional board designed for all-mountain riding. The new shape has a big nose with a knucklehead tip and a little bit of taper. Arbor manufactured these boards with RWD Carbon A-Frame reinforcements running diagonally from the front and rear contact points to the inserts, making turn initiation a breeze and providing torsional stability. This quickly became one of my favorite boards to ride and handles exceptionally well in the deepest of powder and on groomers. The Grip-Tech contact points and Uprise fenders make it extremely fast and stable and provide amazing turn initiation on groomers. I found it to be super stable, even at high speeds.
I am not a huge fan of the park, but I love my pow days more than anything. This board definitely did not disappoint! Its big nose (31cm), setback, and slight taper in the tail made for an extra floaty ride. The base is Arbor’s sintered base, containing a higher molecular weight and offering up added durability and some serious speed. The A-Frame’s core is the Highland Core, their highest-end core that is made from a blend of estate-grown Poplar and Paulownia that provides a lightweight performance that makes it ideal in deep powder. The combination of shape and materials offers up smooth turns, extra control, and significant speed. The A-Frame is rated a 9/10 on the Arbor’s flex scale, I found this to be pretty accurate. The A-Frame is stiff, you’ll really have to work to butter on this board.
The A-Frame, like all of Arbor’s line, is environmentally friendly. New for their 2020 line is Entropy Bio Resin, a replacement for a traditional petroleum-based resin that doesn’t affect performance or usability. The ingredients that go into Entropy Bio-Resin are sourced as co-products or waste products of other industrial processes and are manufactured employing green chemistry techniques that reduce the carbon footprint of the material by up to 40% (when compared to its petroleum-based equivalent). This board also features the R.A.P. Topless Technology, in which the Bio-Plastic Topsheet featured on numerous Arbor boards is eliminated, giving you a lighter, eco-friendly ride.
Overall:
The A-Frame is an All-Mountain hard charger. It excels in powder but will lay down some really fun carves on corduroy. If you are looking for an intermediate to advanced All-Mountain board consider an A-Frame, it will not disappoint!
Pros:
- Stunning top sheet
- Grip Tech sidecut
- Excellent float
- Sintered CrossLink Base is fast
- Eco-friendly
Cons:
- none
| Price: |  (4.0 / 5) |
| Performance: |  (4.9 / 5) |
| Design: | (4.9 / 5) |
| Overall: |  (4.6 / 5) |
Hey Old Guy,
How does it perform in crud – that end of the days stuff when the powder is scraped into mounds and there are frequent transitions between ice and carved up powder?
Hey Ben,
With its blunt tip it really powers through crud and chop. It’s pretty stiff so you also don’t get tossed around by board flex in uneven terrain. Hope that helps!
Dave