Salomon Sleepwalker 2018 Review
The Sleepwalker is a new board for the 2018 season, and I’ll call it now and say that this is going to be a pretty popular board. Overall its a twin jib/park board, that rides like a Villain, but costs a whole bunch less.
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Features of the Salomon Sleepwalker
- Soft Flex
- Rock Out Camber
A hybrid camber profile (mix of a bunch of styles), but overall has a camber sort of feel to it. The flat section between your feet and the camber under your feet give you s strong stable platform for fast riding and hard turns, and the rocker sections on the nose and tail give the board a bit more forgiveness and keep it playful. - True Twin
The Sleepwalker is symmetrical with a centered stance, so it won’t make any difference if you are riding regular or switch, it will ride exactly the same. - EQ Rad Sidecut
A mix between equalizer (straight – blue and black sections) and radial (the orange) are made to keep the board quick and easy to turn, but still fun if you have a looser riding style. - Extruded EG Base
A bit harder (which is a good thing) than the normal extruded base, which should keep you moving fast, without having to worry about waxing it all the time. - Popster
This is Salomons name for their core shaping or profiling. The thickness of the core varies from thick to thin, and is designed to give the board a more skatey, direct feeling when you ride it. - Aspen Strong Core
The Aspen strong core is (obviously) made with aspen wood, which has high density FSC certified wood strips in the insert and rail zones, to toughen it up in the spots that need the most strength.
Sizes Available:
- 151cm
- 153cm
- 155cm
- 155cm Wide
- 158cm Wide
How the Salomon Sleepwalker rides
Board: 158cm
Bindings: Burton Malavita
Boots: ThirtyTwo TM-Two
Angles: +12 -9
Stance: 22″
Weight: 150lbs
Height: 6′
The snow was quite hardpacked, windblown at the top and a bit softer at the bottom of the hill.
Flex & Camber Profile
The Rock Out Camber is a profile that I had ridden on the Salomon Villain that I own, so there were no big surprises there. Overall it has the feel of a loose camber board, with just enough forgivness that it won’t catch an edge and throw you off if you don’t get a spin all the way around, but it is still a long way away from a sloppy feeling rocker board. The soft flex isn’t too soft at all, it was still easy hold a press, but it didn’t feel unstable riding fast and hitting chunky patches of snow.
Edge Hold
The snow the day I rode the Sleepwalker was pretty hardpacked, so it was a good test to see how well it did. For a soft flexing board, it did quite well, I didn’t have any problems with it slipping out in any part of a turn, but I was also riding a new board, with sharp edges, so that is always going to help.
Shape
It’s a true twin park board, so riding it switch was completely fine, just like riding it regular.
Speed
I was used to riding the fairly similar Villain fast, so as long as I kept my weight centered on the Sleepwalker, it could handle speed fine without any problems at all.
Pop
For a softer board, you normally wouldn’t expect to be able to get too much pop out of it, but it didn’t take much effort to get solid ollies out of it. I guess it is the Rock out Camber profile that keeps the pop in the board, even though it is softer flexing.
Overall
Overall the Sleepwalker is a super fun board, that I would definitely buy if I didn’t just buy my Huck Knife. For the price, I don’t think you will be able to beat it in the 2018 season. Retail is going to be about $500 Australian, and $400 Canadian, so it might end up being a little cheaper in the US too.
The Rock Out Camber is solid enough to handle riding everywhere on the mountain, and the soft flex isn’t so soft that it becomes unstable at high speed, it just makes presses fun and easy. The base is only extruded, which is going to keep the cost of the board down, but if you are buying it as a board for park riding and jibbing (like it is made for), extruded is just fine. If you didn’t have a problem spending a little more money, you could make the upgrade to the Villain which has quite a similar ride, but a bit of extra tech and some higher end materials in it. I can see why Salomon have this board all over ther instagram from their team riders, it is a fun and cheap board that really impressed me. I’d expect to see lots of these around in the next couple of season, once word gets out about them.
Pros
- Nice camber profile
- All around a fun board
- Cheap
Cons
- Extruded base
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