This is a quick review of the K2 Fuse men’s snowboard. Full disclosure, what I’ve ridden is the 2016/17 version though I doubt that they’d drastically change the core features of this board.
Quick Background
This was my first ever snowboard! I tried snowboard once or twice and I knew I’d be committed and I’d love the sport so I walked into a SportChek and consulted with the shop experts. I simply just asked for an entry-level, cheap snowboard I can start with. I loved this board and it definitely served its purpose! It will give its all even if it doesn’t have much to offer but after its done introducing you to the world of snowboarding, you’d be in the mindset of moving on, progressing, and acquiring specific gears anyways.
After several rides and when I discovered the type of riding and snowboarder I’d want to be, I ended up having to replace it with a more appropriate snowboard; something more aligned to my riding style ( all-mountain/off-piste/park[jumps though] ) and so a soft board is not good for those.
If you are a beginner snowboarder, a park person, or you’re looking for your first beginner snowboard, then this board’s for you!
Price
Let’s start with the order of importance. As mentioned, I was directed to this board since I asked for something cheap. To give an idea it’s around $110CAD off season for this specific board and it’s around $250 for original price and discounted to $180 on more recent models. Snowboards nowadays are around $350CAD for the nice ones and can fluctuate around $300-1000CAD depending.
Specs
This board is a rocker board (think laying a banana on its back and having both ends lifted up) and will definitely not catch. I caught my edge a lot sure, but that was me being a noob.
The downside is that those ends that are lifted (the contact points), those are the edges you need to be on snow (Camber: opposite of rocker) so that you can turn decisively or carve, and also pop/ollie if you wanted to.
The flex of this board is very, very soft (for me). Now that I’m really experienced, I can described this to be around 2-4 on a scale of 1-10. I remember feeling very fluid and really feeling each curve up and down, and even torsionally/sideways when you go through bumps on a trail. It’s not a bad thing. In fact if you’re a beginner, you’d want it soft like this. It helps with learning the basics of snowboarding and setting you up with learning and progression. The softness of the board is also perfect for jibbers and park snowboarders alike!
Apart from that, I think it’s a pretty standard board. It’s well made. I’ve had a couple of stupid mistakes with this board (like running or rocks/solid things) and you would think that since it’s soft, it’s flimsy. Nope, it held up and there were no performance downgrade or anything.
Graphics are okay for me. I don’t like funky/crazy designs. I like solid, minimalistic, sleek designs 😉 I did notice however that as the years go their graphics are getting better and better. The latest one is along my taste. Also, remember this was my first board and I knew I was gonna trash this, plus graphics has nothing to do with learning/improving in snowboarding.
If you’re a beginner, don’t worry about about graphics at all. You’ll have lots of time for that later when you can link turns, stop confidently, and do varying degrees of slopes.
Conclusion
I think it’s a great board. It’s not top-shelf type of board (nor does it have to be) and to compliment that, it’s designed and meant for a specific type of rider (beginners). They even describe it as so on their product descriptions.
I have no complaints with it and I think the characteristics and features it offered were definitely essential to my learning. You don’t want a Camber board (think laying the banana the opposite direction) as a beginner because you WILL catch a lot of edge guaranteed and either you will not learn properly or you won’t be able to gauge your progression properly.
It’s a soft board too. You don’t want to stiff board too or else you wouldn’t be able to control and maneuver your board easily during your formative years in snowboarding. You don’t want to be doing the funny beginner snowboard tricks right away.
As for me, I replaced it because I evolved to a type of rider that requires the exact opposite of what this board offers. I wanted something medium/stiff, and camber.
