This review was done through Board Insiders and will be featured on their site as a review with video of me explaining the board and riding it. I’ll update this link to that when it goes live.
Location: Stevens Pass, Washington
Snow Conditions: Snowing with powder on runs, some groomed areas.
Setup: I rode the Bataleon Evil Twin with Union Forces and my Rome Vamps size 8.
First Impression: Fun board to play around with, inside the park.
Size: 151cm
Weight: lighter than average
Flex: At first I thought it was stiffer overall but then I found the stiffness was in the nose and tail with some softer forgiveness in the center between the bindings, making it torsionally quick to turn and responsive. Even with the stiffer nose and tail, it’s still capable of butters and presses. I was riding a smaller size and I felt with that size that it was best to ride in the park. I did notice is going around bumps was the best on the evil twin, going directly over bumps was a little too much for the board and it didn’t handle as well.
Turning: The TBT on Bataleon’s makes it really easy to turn and you won’t catch an edge when you are turning. I found quick responsive turns from the evil twin the best and as a park board it suits that very well. When trying to ride longer drawn out turns, it wasn’t as stable and the contact length isn’t much. Even with the sidecut being deeper, you didn’t feel like it would catch an edge when riding. TBT makes carving easy, even on the evil twin.
Stable: I ended up in some powder spots on the side of runs and this board definitely didn’t hold up but it’s also shorter in length and a park specific ride. For just groomers and in the park, it was fine but if you went up to higher speeds it wasn’t as stable.
Pop: I played around with the evil twin off the rollers and small features in the park and the halfpipe, the ollies were super easy with good pop and easy to maneuver around into presses or butters.
Switch: I didn’t have a problem riding switch with it, rode the same regular as it did switch.
Overall Impression: It is Bataleon’s park board and it definitely rode like that. I stayed in the park with it and didn’t feel as comfortable riding any powder with it mostly from the size and how it handled on groomers with speed. It was very fun, playful and poppy which made it perfect for park riding, easy to throw around and I was able to make turns with just freeriding but it should stay in the park.
I took this board down the chute to the park and from there you have to gain a lot of speed to get over a flat area, the evil twin was easy to get quick responsive turns in the chute and it handled the speed to get over the flat area.
Shay’s Honesty Box: This is the park board for Bataleon, outside of park it’s not as well handling as say the Riot is but it’s a fun poppy true twin board that is great inside the park boundaries. For my own riding I liked the Riot better (sintered base) but I’m not riding entirely park so I like having a board that handles the whole mountain.
*This Review was done in February 2009, please be aware that products may change.
Ready to buy? Head over to evo for the 2011 version of the Bataleon Evil Twin or shop their full line of Bataleon snowboards
Zachary Lytle
June 23, 2009 at 2:13 pmI have ridden last year’s version of this board and I loved it. I have been thinking of buying it for a while – Until I saw the new graphics. I could puke. Sometimes, if you really like a board, then you just ignore the terrible graphics (like I do every time I buy a Lib-Tech board) but this is so bad I wouldn’t buy it if it were the best board on the planet. Horrible.
Ian
June 24, 2009 at 1:37 pmagreed 🙁 Bataleon have really really missed a trick with this years board graphics. Espcecially after such a strong past couple of years or so. The evil twin of this year and last were superb, as well as last years fun.kink and the one before that (butcher = genius). The clockwork orange inspired goliath was just that, inspired 🙂 so to see this years was very dissapointing. even the new riot they’ve managed to mess up…
anyway! great review Shay. always good to hear your point of view, as opposed to the magazines ‘opinions’.
keep them coming!
kimbo
September 30, 2009 at 11:36 amah. can you elaborate on how the evil twin handles on pow?
ive been doing alot of reading on this board and REALLY want it, but whats holding me back are user reviews on how this board doesn’t hold up too well in pow. the last thing i want is to get stuck in pow! (i used to get stuck in my trs btx too).
i’m planning to ride in pow-filled mountains this season but also a lot of groomers and icy conditions since i’m over on the eastcoast (usa). i plan on riding park/jumps/jibs 50-60% of the time and the rest is freeriding (while doing a lot of flat ground tricks). i know the evil twin isn’t an all-mountain board, but could i make it an all-mountain with more focus on tricks?
Shay
October 1, 2009 at 6:42 pmThanks Ian!
Kimbo, it sank in pow and it’s not meant to be in pow. My suggestion if you plan to ride pow filled mountains is to get a pow specific board for those days if you are considering the evil twin as your main board. You could always go for a park inspired rocker board that would still give it the float in powder. Surprised to hear your TRS BTX got stuck, what size are you riding and what’s your weight?
It also depends on what “mountains” we are talking about. Small mountains or hills this board would be fine for but big mountains, backcountry, powder…the evil twin won’t hold up unless you go for a bigger size.
2009-2010 Snowboard Review – Shayboarder.com
October 12, 2009 at 11:12 am[…] 09-10 Bataleon Evil Twin […]
me
February 17, 2010 at 7:40 pmI want to challenge this review! My husband rides for bataleon and both of us are HUGE fans… He rides an evil twin ( like a 153 and he is 6′ ) in the pow ALL the time, wet heavy NW pow and he can drop anything, can straight line bumps what eves, so it is actually pretty stable outside of the park. I personally think if one is a strong rider they can take it where ever they want… I also think that saying that the evil twin is the go to park board is not necessarily true anymore…. the aerobic and fun kink are far more popular as park boards now.
Shay
February 18, 2010 at 9:59 pmme, awesome to hear your experiences with your bataleons! I only get certain amount of time on boards and my reviews are just my experiences with the boards. I also rode a small size which I point out in the review didn’t help in powder because it was on the smaller size so good to know that you find it in pow just fine.