Best Stepchild Snowboards: Reviews by OutdoorEquipment.com

While we don’t like Stepchild Snowboards marketing strategy, they do make quality rides. Read our Stepchild snowboard reviews of the LatchKey, Hammerhead & more.

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When it comes to flex, durability, versatility, strength, and response, you really can’t go wrong with a Stepchild board. It’s unfortunate, then, that their marketing strategies are so obnoxious.

When you visit their website, you’ll find an I-don’t-care attitude that reeks of both self-deprecation and ego-mania. They are obviously trying so hard to look like they aren’t trying at all, which really just makes them look kind of pathetic.

Instead of letting their boards speak for themselves, they’ve put on this act–if it really is an act–that seems to be trying to attract a punkish consumer base. In this regard, they’re pretty similar to Santa Cruz snowboards–only Stepchild does make a slightly better product.

Their website is full of grammatical errors and misspellings, quotations from the owners are rife with expletives, and some of the models have questionable names–like the Stepchild Whale Cock or Stepchild PMS snowboards–and poor taste graphics.

But all of that aside–and unless you’re buying a kids snowboard, do you really care about the marketing?–Stepchild snowboards are fantastic rides for every experience level, every style, every age, and every gender.

If you like the Stepchild hype, that’s great. If you don’t, try tuning it out long enough to get an idea of what these boards are like–because, honestly, they are pretty spectacular.

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Best Stepchild Snowboards: Reviews of the Bestselling Boards

Looking beyond the arguably poor taste of Stepchild’s marketing and imagery, the decks they have to offer are pretty flippin’ fantastic.

They have great boards for beginners and experts, for men and women, for free riders and free-stylers. Whatever your bag is, there’s a board that will fit perfectly inside of it.

If you’re interested in learning a bit more about Stepchild Snowboards, take a look below at a brief rundown of the three bestselling models in the catalogue:

Stepchild LatchKey Snowboard
Stepchild Hammerhead Snowboard
Stepchild Corporate Snowboard

Each of these has its own unique set of advantages. And we’ve picked out one Stepchild board for beginners, one for insane park-riders, and another for the best in deck durability.

Stepchild LatchKey Snowboard Review

This may be the best park-riding board that you’ll find for less than $250. The LatchKey is an ultra forgiving snowboard with a soft-ish flex, but don’t worry, with the carbon stringers this guy still has plenty of pop.

You can run tricks all day and night with the LatchKey and it will never give you anything but the best in lightweight response and tough action.

But this isn’t exactly a board for advanced riders. The LatchKey is a progressive model made for beginners who want to grow into intermediate riders. And what a brilliant teacher it is. You’ll be popping, locking, jumping, and jibbing with the best of them in no time with the LatchKey beneath your feet.

Does this give the Burton Clash snowboard a run for its money? You bet it does. Even thought the Clash may have a few more tricks up its sleeve than the LatchKey, it’s a heck of a lot more expensive to own.

Here’s a peek at some of the Stepchild LatchKey’s best traits:

Super durable Armocore construction
Pre-cured biax fiberglass
Ten inserts for each foot
Reverse camber shape

Stepchild Hammerhead Snowboard Review

Like the Corporate, the Hammerhead is a total park killer. This is a board that has been around the catalogue for several years, and has recently gotten some pretty major updates.

New to the Hammerhead is a softer flex that was achieved by shaving a fraction of an inch from the board’s core and an added layer of fiberglass protection for extra stability.

A fantastically burly sidewall construction also succeeds in giving the Hammerhead some real strength, allowing you to trick out the park to your heart’s content without having to worry about busting your board in half.

A few of the Stepchild Hammerhead’s best features include:

Sintered 440 P-Tex base with StrucTurn finish
Tip-to-tail all wood poplar core
Lite quadraxial bottom glass
Quadraxial with Carbon top glass
Binding reinforcement plate

Stepchild Corporate Snowboard Review

The name of this board is apparently ironic, as it’s really meant for people who refuse to be cubicle zombies and want to really stick it to the man.

Well, maybe you can get revenge on Big Business and maybe you can’t, but one thing’s for certain: with the Stepchild Corporate snowboard you can definitely tear up the terrain park.

This is labeled as an all-mountain board, but it really comes alive in the pipes and on the rails of the park. It’s also an incredibly decent powder runner, with its directional twin shape.

In style, the Corporate is similar to the Riders Choice BTX from Gnu Snowboards and the OG model from Signal snowboards, except you can own one for a lot less cash.

Some of the Corporate snowboard’s better features include:

Kicker 2 core with poplar and beach
Armadillo Plate reinforcement for insert
Structrum sintered base
Quadraxial glass

Stepchild Snowboards: Summary

If you dig Stepchild’s attitude, then you can definitely stomach their awesome snowboards.

If you can’t stand the poor taste of Stepchild’s manner, do yourself a favor and try to look past it for a moment to the wonderful products hiding behind all that bluff and bluster.

These are some truly great snowboards–responsive, durable, lightweight, and kickin’ in all sectors of the mountain–and affordable to boot.

The designs are highly recommended; the company’s marketing strategies…not so much.

Short History of Stepchild Snowboards

Stepchild Snowboards was founded by Sean Johnson, a self-proclaimed washed up pro snowboarder from the 90′s, and his childhood friend Brad Richmond.

What began as a relatively small operation has since grown into an international company, with offices in Vancouver, Canada and Laguna Beach, California. The management has also grown in size, from the original two founders to today’s four owners, adding pro boarders JP Walker and Simon Chamberlain into the mix.

Today, Stepchild Snowboards sells more than a dozen models and issues its own magazine called Blunter.

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