Salomon Huck Knife

Salomon Huck Knife Review

The Salomon Huck Knife is a twin shaped, camber park board with a medium flex. Since 2017 it has stayed the same, but for the 2024 model there are a couple of fairly small, shape and measurement changes.

Features of the Salomon Huck Knife

EQ Rad Sidecut
This is a blend of EQ (equalizer or flat sections) blended with Rad (radial) sections, to get a balance between fun and respone.

Quad Camber
The Quad Camber is made with a combination of camber sections, with regular camber between your feet, more aggressive camber under your feet out towards the nose and tail, and a small rocker section at the ends.

Gunslinger Sidewalls
There are carbon inlays that run the whole length of the board, that help absorb shock.

True Twin
The Ultimate Ride is a twin, centered board, so there is on difference no matter which way you ride it. The core is symmetrical, with the same tip and tail lengths.

Medium Flex
Middle of the range flex, that will give you enough support for riding fast, but enough flex that you can still press and butter it.

TriaxGlass
Three directions of glass.

Popster Booster
The wood core had varying thicknesses throughout the board, to have flex and strength where it is needed. The Popster Booster part are carbon stringers which extend out from under your feet to the tip and tail of the board, to give you extra pop.

Aspen Select

Slingshot
There are carbon inlays in the sidewalls that are made to help load and release energy.

Freestyle Edge Bevel
The tip and tail of the board are already detuned, and there is a 2 degree base edge through the board, which changes into a 3 degree angle between your feet. The idea is that the board will still give you good edge hold on ice and hardpacked snow, while the 3 degree section between your feet will still let you ride rails without having to give it a big detune to stop it catching on rails.

How the huck knife Rides

Board size: 155cm

Boots: ThirtyTwo TM-TWO

Bindings: Burton Malavita set with a 22″ stance width, at +12 and -9.

I originally demoed the Huck Knife in early 2016, and I was impressed enough that I ended up buying it when it was on sale in the 2017 season. The original review was written when I had only ridden the board for a few laps on one day, but now that I own it, I have around 30-40 days riding it in all kinds of snow conditions.

Camber Profile

Overall the Quad Camber profile feels and rides like an old school camber board. Just like on a full camber board, the Huck Knife is stable at speed, holds a good edge, and has good pop.

To get around the “catchy” feeling that you get on regular camber boards, the Quad Camber has small reverse camber sections on the contacts of the board, which I feel gives it a very nice and usable mix of camber types.

Flex and Pop

The medium flex of the board is nice, it gives you a nice solid push back for ollies and nollies, and it still holds up if you are landing nose or tail heavy from jumps. For a board that has a nice solid flex, it surprisingly doesn’t take too much effort to press and butter the board. I don’t know exactly how it has done, but it is a very nice mix of being soft enough to press, but still stable enough to land jumps wrong, and ride hard through chopped up snow without being thrown around.

Edge Hold

Although most of the time I am able to ride the board on fairly soft snow, there has been quite a few days where the snow is super firm, and it does quite well. On those hardest days, it still does a good job at digging into the snow, and feeling solid right through the turn. On softer snow, it grips and turns really nicely. It has the EQ Rad sidecut, which is a combination of flat and radial (curved) sections of the sidecut, which I was already used to from my Salomon Villain.

I bought this as a park board, so it gets ridden on rails and jumps quite a lot. According to Salomon, it has a 3 degree edge bevel between the feet, and 2 degree everywhere else. The idea is that you can still keep the edges sharp for good edge hold, but you are less likely to catch an edge between your feet while you are riding rails.

I rode it in the park for the first few days it was new without any problems, but I did end up rounding the edges between my feet just to be safe. There is nothing worse than catching an edge on a rail, and I detuned mine enough that it doesn’t ever catch, but I still have good edge hold for regular riding when the snow is hardpacked.

Speed

There is no problem riding fast on the Huck Knife, it has a pretty stable speed, even riding it with a flat base, which would normally have an catchy-er feeling on a camber board. My guess is that it is due to the small rocker section on the tip and tail that help give it a bit more forgiveness. It does a bit better than I would have expected at high speed considering the medium flex rating of the board.

One big plus for this board (especially at this price point) is that it has a sintered base, which will keep you riding fast as long as you keep it waxed.

Overall

Overall the Huck Knife is a fun park board, which has a nice fun camber, that is not too aggressive or too loose. It has a really good edge hold in firm snow, even with the 3 degree base edge between your feet.

I don’t really think that the topsheet graphics look that good, but who really cares about that, it’s all about how it rides, and it rides well.

If you are looking for a board that has really good value for money, I don’t think you can get much better than this. The camber, pop and flex rating will let you push the board even on big jumps, the base is still fast and the price is cheap. If you have a little more money to spend, the Salomon Ultimate Ride (board has now been discontinued) has a similar ride, but with and upgraded base, core and a different sidecut. The Ultimate Ride is a very nice board, but at the end of the day I couldn’t justify the big price difference between the two, and ended up buying the Huck Knife, which I am very happy with.

Where does the Huck Knife sit in the salomon line?

Salomon Huck Knife Technical Specs

Size (cm)	148	152	155	158	155 Wide	158 Wide
Waist Width (cm)	24.8	25.1	25.3	25.5	26	26.3
Min/Max Stance (cm)	48.4 / 59.6	49.4 / 60.6	50.4 / 61.6	51.4 / 62.6	50.4 / 61.6	51.4 / 62.6
Tail/Tip Width (cm)	29.2	29.6	29.8	30.1	30.6	30.9
Effective Edge (cm)	113.5	117	119	121.5	119.5	122