Never Summer Shapeshifter

The Never Summer Shapeshifter is an update to the Shaper Twin, which pretty much continues the old board with a new name and slightly different shape.

The Shapeshifter does have a quite unique shape. It is twin from tip to tail, but it has a directional profile, with more camber at the tail and an easier smoother nose.

On top of that, it has 10mm of taper, which means that the nose is 10mm wider than the tail, which is not at all a common shape on non-directional boards.

How the Never Summer Shapeshifter rides

My setup

Bindings: Burton Cartel X

Boots: Vans Infuse

I generally run a similar setup on all the boards that I test out, and this one was pretty standard. +12 on the front foot, -9 on the back with a narrowish stance width that is normally around 21 1/2 inches.

Testing conditions:

I was riding the Never Summer Shaper Twin at Mt Hotham in Victoria, Australia, in spring conditions. Quite firm and fast snow in the mornings, that turned slushy in the afternoon.

Profile

I’ve ridden the Fusion Rocker Camber profile on the Harpoon and the Swift, so I was already pretty familiar with how it felt. It isn’t an overly agressive profile, so you aren’t forced to ride it hard, though it has potential there if you do want to.

Flex

The Shapeshifter does have a medium flex overall, with a stiffer feeling tail. The stiffer feeling of the tail is probably helped by the more pronounced camber section.

Overall the flex makes the board feel quite solid and reliable, and has a very similar feel to the Proto Synthesis. Powering through chopped up snow is made pretty easy on this board, especially considering the hybrid profile.

Turns & Edge Hold

Turning the Shapeshifter is great. Smooth and quick edge to edge even though it is wide. Easy to start a turn with the big cruisy nose, taper seems to speed the whole thing up and the stronger camber in the tail wants to push you nicely out of the end of the turn.

Like all Never Summer boards that I have ridden, this has very strong edge hold. I am guessing that it is mainly thanks to the combination of the hybrid profile and the sidecut, but however it is doing it, it works.

I find it to be grippy all around, but especially strong in the middle of a turn, where it almost feels like you couldn’t make the board slip out even if you tried.

Speed

This was a freshly waxed board, so I didn’t have any issues keeping my speed up, even on flat sections and boring cat tracks.

Who would this board suit?

Really I think that this is one of the Never Summer boards that almost everyone would find fun, even though it doesn’t have the name or reputation of their big boards like the Proto Synthesis. Twin in length for the people that are still scared of riding an actual directional board, but with almost all the benefits. On top of that there is the Blower Stance option to set your bindings way back if you do get a big powder day, which just makes it a little more useful.

Does it come in wide models?

For normal Never Summer boards the wide models are called “X”. For example, a 155X means that it is wide.

There aren’t any specific wide models of the Shapeshifter, but with the narrowest having a waist width of 260mm, they realistically all count as wide boards.

So, even if you ride with big boots and are used to buying wide boards, these will have plenty of width.

Similar Boards

Never Summer Harpoon

This is the only board that I would say is sort of similar to the Shaper. To me the Shaper is a toned down Harpoon, with a much less full on shape, but the same overall set of features. If you want a more regular looking board, go for the Shaper, if you want to take everything up a notch, the Harpoon.

Features of the Never Summer Shapeshifter

Sizes Available:

• 153cm
• 156cm
• 159cm

Technical Specs of the Never Summer Shapeshifter

Size (cm)	Waist Width (mm)	Edge (cm)	Sidecut	Taper (mm)	Nose/Tail (mm)
153	260	116	Vario 783	10	310/300
156	262	118	Vario 812	10	311/301
159	262	122	Vario 824	10	313/303