Jones  Hovercraft 2.0 Snowboard - 2023/2024

Best All Conditions Board

I'm 6'2", 150lbs, 22 years of riding experience. For an early Christmas, my wife bought me the 156 Hovercraft 2.0. I rode at the reference stance (22.8") with my 2022 Jones Mercury bindings, set at +6/+18 stance angles, size 10 K2 Holgate Boots. It was an all conditions day at Schweitzer Mountain. They had only seen a couple inches of fresh snow in a week, but it was the first day they opened the lifts on the back side. So, the frontside had bullet proof ice on the groomers while the backside had untouched powder off piste. Amazing board! While it's much shorter than the 160's I usually ride, it has a longer effective edge and all that surface area, so in the deep/steep technical terrain you can whip that shorter board around much easier. On groomers, it carves like a dream, I was able to lay some circle carves no problem. In the powder, it floats insanely well, I'd say it is impossible to sink that nose if you tried. On the hard ice, it easily kept it's edge, where my previous gear would have lost an edge for sure. That disrupted side cut gives you a lot of confidence. The base is crazy fast. That long cat track to get back to the front of the mountain had me leaving skiers and boarders in my dust as they struggled to keep speed on the rollers. Want a board for any condition? This board does it all, you won't be disappointed. Cons: Do the indents in the tail actually make a difference? Maybe they do, and I'm not skilled enough to notice. But I like tuning/waxing my own gear. They make the wax job a pain, maybe I'll let the board shop wax this guy. Will I like the white base? Looks nice when it's new. Only time will tell.