Lobster Aaron Schwartz Artist Edition

Lobster Aaron Schwartz 2020 Review

The Lobster Aaron Schwartz (which is pretty much just a Bataleon Party Wave) is a short, fat and wide, soft flexing surfy powder board.

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Features of the Lobster Aaron Schwartz

3BT
This board has the quite wide Pow 3BT, which has a large amount of lift on the sides of the board, making a very exaggerated spoon shape.

Sidekick

Medium Soft Flex
Lobster have the board rated as a 4/10, though

Flip Flop Base
While one version of the board will have a black base with white writing, the next version will have the opposite white base with black writing so that cutout of the base materials aren’t wasted.

Slick X Base
A fancy name for an extruded base. Although slower than sintered, they don’t need much maintenance (waxing) and are easy to repair if you do damage them.

Core Core
A mainly poplar wood core, that has two hardwood stringers that run from tip to tail along the insert area to give some extra strength.

Bi-Ax Laminate
Two directions of glass fibers, which keeps a softer flex in the board, and also makes it easy to twist (torsionally).

Sizes available:

• 148cm
• 151cm
• 154cm

How it Rides

Board size: 148cm

Boots: Salomon Launch Boa 27.5

Bindings: Rome D.O.D.

This review is based on me riding the 2020 Lobster Aaron Schwartz, which was ridden over a couple of days in fresh powder conditions, as well as on chopped up and packed powder. I had the bindings set to the recommended stance width, at my regular angles of +12 on the front and -9 on the back.

Camber Profile

Although there is a little bit of camber in the board, it hardly seems like it has any, which I think would be because of the super exaggerated Pow 3BT base shaping, and the really soft flex.

Flex and Pop

To me the 4/10 flex rating that Lobster have given this board seems generous. It is super super soft, extremely easy to press and flex.

Edge Hold

For such a soft board, the edge hold is decent, but I think that most of that is because of the super wide width, that lets you put it right over onto the edge without your boots coming close to dragging the toes or heels.

The combination of the 3BT and the Sidekick does make turns nice and smooth, and for a board this wide it really doesn’t seem like it takes too much effort to swap from edge to edge.

Float

This would be the one area that it does super well in. Short fat boards, in deep snow are always fun just because it doesn’t take much effort to keep it afloat, and tight turns can be made so easily. This is by far the softest board I have ridden, even compared to the roughly similar Capita Slush Slasher.

It has a nice and surfy feel, though the soft tail takes some getting used to, if you are landing from a drop, you have to make sure not to lean back too far, as the tail will just flex out of the way and you will wash out.

In deeper and heavier snow, you can feel the board flex with you as it turns, and it has a pretty nice fluid feel. If you get to terrain where you are riding patches of deep snow that turn into packed snow, you have to be careful to quickly change your riding position from a surfy one to a centered one, so that the soft flex doesn’t wash out straight away.

Speed

It has a cheap extruded base, and it felt noticeably slower than other boards I have been riding recently. Once you get going fast enough, it almost feels like it breaks away from the dragging feeling, but on cat tracks and flatter terrain is slows right down.

Pros:

• Cheap
• Floats very easily in powder

Cons

• Rides like a cheap board
• Too soft for me

Overall

The Lobster Aaron Schwartz is a fun board in deep snow, it has such a cruisy and surfy feel, though the soft flex means that it takes quite a bit of getting used to. If I wasn’t riding on deep snow, I didn’t really like it. It is just too soft to be useful for me, the smallest bumps make the ride much more unpredictable. If you get a chance to ride it, it is definitely worth a shot – it is one of those boards that people seem to love or hate.

Similar boards that would be a good option:

• Capita Slush Slasher
• Bataleon Party Wave

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Lobster Aaron Schwartz 2020 Technical Specs

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