Nitro Drop

Nitro Drop 2020 Review

The Nitro Drop is an all mountain, directional board that is designed to be the one board you can take anywhere, no matter the conditions. The Cam-Out profile gives it a solid feel if you are carving on groomers, and the directional shape gives it extra float in powder.

Features of the Nitro Drop

• Directional Shape
  It has a longer nose than tail, which helps the float in deeper snow, as the tail naturally sinks. helping the nose to float above the snow.
• Cam-Out Camber
  Pretty much a regular camber profile, that has a smoother and earlier transition into the nose and tail of the board. It basically has all the benefits of a traditional camber board, but being a little less “catchy”.
• All Terrain Flex
  Around about a 6/10 flex rating, that is stiff enough to handle faster and more aggressive riding, without making it feel like you are riding a plank you can’t flex.
• Sintered Speed Formula HD Base
  A hard and fast sintered base material.
• Power Pods
  Small extensions under your feet, which give some extra grip in icy conditions.
• Bi-Lite Laminates
• Powercore

Sizes available:

• 146cm
• 149cm
• 152cm

How it Rides

Who am I?

Hi, my name is Elle. I’m Australian and only started snowboarding about 4 years ago but I absolutely love it! This was my first season working at a resort but I have been lucky enough to ride in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Canada. I worked with Lachlan this last season (2019/2020) at Big White and he taught me a lot about what all the technical jargon around snowboards actually means. I like to ride everywhere and everything; in the park I’m comfortable on boxes, ride-on rails and small jumps- this year I pushed myself in attempting street-style rails and medium jumps. I like to ride fast and ollie off everything; I’m not the best rider but I give most things a go!

Board size: 149cm

Boots: Salomon Pearl Boa 2018 U.S 8.5

Bindings: Nitro Team 2019

This review is based on me (169cm, 70kg/154lb) riding the 2020 Nitro Drop in a variety of conditions at Big White; mostly during powder days or when it was tracked out, with mounds of snow. I had my bindings set to +9 on the front and -9 on the back, in a goofy stance (as this board is directional).

Camber Profile

The “Cam-out” camber of the Drop just means that, due to earlier and smoother transitions to rocker at its tip and tail, the board has a lowered rise in its centre. This makes for a more forgiving ride with easier turn initiation, however, I can’t say I specifically felt this; the Drop felt like a regular cambered board (which I like!).

Flex and Pop

The Drop is rated a 6 flex, which is relatively stiff for a woman’s board. I felt like it handled bumpy and crusty snow well, without being too rigid. The Drop also has a directional flex pattern, which allows for easier movement in the front and a stiffer tail for extra pop- which made it good to ollie with.

Edge Hold

This board has decent and predictable grip. It always felt reliable on hard-packed snow and turned easily in deeper powder and groomers alike.

Float

The Nitro Drop handles powder really well. Being directional, it’s longer nose and setback stance keep the board above the snow with little effort, whilst the short, stiffer tail means this doesn’t sacrifice its responsiveness.

Speed

The Drop has a sintered base so it never felt slow, regardless of the conditions I rode it in.

Pros:

• Good in powder
• Sintered Base
• Great charger through mounds of snow and choppier conditions
• Good pop

Cons

• I don’t mind the graphics of the 2020 board but I really don’t like the colour-scheme or the font on the 2021 version

Overall

The Drop is a good all-mountain board that handles powder particularly well. I found it most useful in choppy/tracked-out snow, where it transitioned easily between powder and icier conditions. I think there are better powder boards and better carving boards but the Drop is a good all-rounder. I didn’t take the board into the park and probably wouldn’t, because of its setback and directional nature, however I did do some small jumps with it and felt it was stable with relatively good pop.

I rode the 2018/2019 size 146 Nitro Drop and found it a similar experience to the 2020 version. The ’19 board was slightly easier to manoeuvre, given its smaller size, however it didn’t float as well in powder. I also usually ride size 148 so I felt a bit more at home on the 2020 size 149 board.

Similar boards that would be a good option:

Salomon Pillow Talk. This is an extremely similar board to the Drop. Some of my friends, who also rode both boards, preferred the Pillow Talk but I found it was a bit softer and therefore, less forgiving on tracked out and lumpy snow.

Salomon Dancehaul. Although I didn’t ride the Dancehaul in deep powder, its shape, and the way it handled what little snow I did ride it on, makes me believe it would be a fantastic powder board. I think, if I wanted to choose a good powder board that was also a great at carving, I would go with the Dancehaul over the Drop.

Nitro Drop 2020 Technical Specs

Length (cm)	Running Length	Waist Width (mm)	Sidecut (m)	Weight Range (lbs)	Weight Range (kg)
146	990	235	6/4/6	Up to 130	Up to 60
149	1020	239	6/4/6	100-145	45-65
152	1040	243	6/4/6	110-155	50-70