Conditions
As I write this review (in flat, cold and grey the Netherlands) there is a major powder dump going on in the Alps. And I just wish so much that I could have ridden the Burton Barracuda the coming week. With many, many centimeters, inches, feet and even meters of fresh pow. I rode the Barracuda during a week in the little Alpine Resort of Gargellen. Snow conditions varied, we had two days of fresh powder, though not very deep, but also encountered quite icey pistes and day end slush. Temperatures varied between minus 5 and plus 14 degrees celsius.
The Burton Barracuda is the third Burton I tested the past season and once again it was a joy to ride the Burton. But where the other two boards (the LandLord and Tough Cat) were camber boards, the Barracuda has a camber profile for the nose to the waist of the board board changing it up to a camber under the back binding. The position is setback, with a fairly large nose and a short little tail. It makes riding switch a bit les attractive than with less directional boards.
The edge to edge is really smooth with Barracuda, and the flat/rocker part of the base just makes it really easy to initiate turns. The bit of powder we really went looking for and were able to find, made us feel the great float and powder potential of the Burton Barracuda. That’s really where this board would excel. But unfortunately we couldn’t find those really fat powder runs where it would just fly.
On piste the Barracuda is also a good ride. It holds its edge fairly well, but when I really pushed it to higher speeds I could feel that the board was not as stable as I would like and which would help you bomb even more. On a couple of occasions, at higher speeds on hard packed groomers, especially on heel side carves the edge did not hold and I washed out.
So not the best board for early morning icy groomer, but when the corduroy softens a bit, or you manage to find some powder, you’ll have a blast. Not a board to bomb down pistes, but on powder days this board should excel. Like I said, unfortunately we weren’t able to hit really deep powder, but the few bits of fresh snow we were able to find hinted of powder surfing greatness on the Burton Barracuda.
I am not a park rider myself, and didn’t have the opportunity to ride anything serious apart from a little kicker and a box. But the Barracuda is not designed for park, jibbing or rails anyhow. So don’t buy it for that.
