This is my review of the Lib Tech Skate Banana snowboard.
I’m a snowboarding enthusiast who has been working as a certified instructor for the last ten years. I’m a big fan of Lib Tech snowboards and have first-hand experience using the Skate Banana.
The Skate Banana is an extremely fun and user-friendly snowboard that delivers exceptional performance in various situations. This is an all-mountain option with a freestyle focus that I recommend to just about anyone.
In this post, I’ll give you my detailed review of this board. I’ll explain why I like it so much, the terrain and conditions it excels in, and a few minor downsides you should know about.
Let’s get to it.
Contents
Lib Tech Skate Banana Overview
The Lib Tech Skate Banana is my favorite snowboard from Lib Tech. Seeing how this is also one of my favorite brands in the industry, you can probably guess where this review is headed. I like this board a lot and think that you will too.
The board is extremely fun to ride and gives you effective performance in all types of different situations on the mountain. The model has been around for years, and its popularity continues to grow with riders of all styles.
The Skate Banana is best seen as an all-mountain board with a freestyle focus. But it sort of defies explanation when you look at its unique design and capabilities. When put into action, this board will live up to the task at hand.
The Banana rocker profile is a big part of the magic this board has to offer. The shape represents decades of innovation from Lib Tech, and the latest model of the Skate Banana puts all that hard work on full display.
This profile was initially intended for freestyle situations and includes heavy rocker, hence the Banana name. It lets you have fun in the terrain park, float over pow, and jib to your heart’s delight. It also has mild camber underfoot to give you added response and control.
The board comes with a medium-soft flex. This gives you outstanding freestyle performance with enough bite to explore the mountain at large. If there is a downside to the Skate Banana, it’s not stiff enough for true freeriding.
If you want to have fun when you ride, this is the board for you. It’s one of those rare models that can be used and greatly appreciated by every ability level of rider. Beginners will love its forgiving nature, while advanced riders can take advantage of its endless fun factor.
The Skate Banana is made with high-quality materials that give it reliable performance you can count on. It is light in weight without compromising strength and has a few innovative design features I’ll explain in the sections below.
The board also makes for a great value because of its affordable price and near-endless capabilities on the mountain. This one can work as an all-season one quiver board, and you’ll see it on the feet of seasoned snowboarders and newbies alike.
Detailed Review
The Lib Tech Skate Banana is a solid snowboard, all-around. It has a freestyle heritage that makes it stand out in the park, but it also has an all-mountain appeal that allows you to get creative in the snow.
Performance
This board will give you well-rounded performance in a variety of situations. It has all-mountain capabilities with the ability to shine in freestyle situations. It truly can stand up just about anywhere and do it well.
You can expect a fun and playful experience with the Skate Banana strapped to your feet in the terrain park. The medium-soft flex gives you plenty of flex when you want to hit a rail or jib while still giving you enough stiffness to dig in and go big.
The board does equally as well in other resort situations. It can cruise down groomers while giving you solid turning and response or handle more technical terrain without compromising its playful nature.
I’m a fan of playful boards that give you extra play without giving up too much power and response. That’s exactly what the Skate Banana achieves. It’s one of the best heavily rockered snowboards you can find.
All of these versatile performance attributes make the board perform well for all ability levels as well. That’s a rare thing and makes it an excellent option to choose if you want a tool that will push you to grow without getting too far in over your head.
You won’t get extremely high performance in freeride or backcountry situations here. That’s a tradeoff of the softer flex and lack of camber. But the board still does great in the powder and can generate pop and power when you need it.
Construction
Lib Tech has a good reputation for making quality snowboards that are well-built and ready for action. Their boards don’t usually come with a ton of bells and whistles but have a solid design that makes them consistently effective.
The Skate Banana is constructed of high-quality materials that make it an easy board to appreciate when it comes to performance and durability. You’ll get versatility that lasts, and this reliability is vital for every rider.
An Original Power wood core provides a solid start for all the fun. This is a lightweight, but strong blend of mostly Aspen wood with a bit of Paulownia mixed in for good measure. It keeps everything flexible and snappy.
Triaxial and biaxial fiberglass laminates increase strength in all directions across the board. These layers effectively sandwich the board together and result in a durable design resistant to delamination.
The Banana rocker profile is another critical construction element and probably the most significant construction feature of the board. It’s flat-out fun to ride and is the reason why the board can be ridden by riders of all ability levels.
The board also comes with an eco-sublimated TNT base that adds another level of performance and durability. This base is easy to maintain and holds wax well for steady slide and glide that you can rely on.
Additional Features
The Skate Banana doesn’t come with a lot of extra features, but it really doesn’t need them. The board has such a solid starting point, so why try to improve an already good thing? There are still a few things that add value and performance.
Magne-Traction edges are standard on just about every snowboard that Lib-Tech builds these days. This design utilizes serrated edges to give you an amazing edge-hold when the snow is less than ideal.
Lib Tech claims that Magne-Traction turns “ice into powder.” I certainly wish that was true, and even though it sounds great, it’s not entirely accurate. The edges give you above average grip in icy conditions. But ice is still ice.
It also comes with a few eco-friendly considerations that are good to look for when shopping for boards these days. The base and top sheet are both made out of an eco-sublimated material that utilizes more sustainable materials.
Value
The Skate Banana is a solid choice all-around, and I recommend it to virtually every rider out there. Even if it had a pretty high price, I would still fully get behind the board. Luckily, it comes at a very affordable price, and that makes it a great value.
When taking an objective look at everything this board has to offer in terms of performance and fun and then looking at the price tag, it’s difficult to be disappointed. It’s a quality board on its own, and a relatively low price makes it even more attractive.
If you are a snowboarder who likes to have fun (that should be 99% of people reading this), then the Skate Banana is a great value. It will give you versatile performance all over the mountain that will keep a smile on your face.
If you are a freeride or backcountry specialist, this board might not be as good of a value. I still recommend it for those days you are not off-piste, but it isn’t quite stiff enough to give you super high performance in really technical terrain.
The Alternatives
The Skate Banana is a board I highly recommend and is one of my all-time favorite models. But there are plenty of other options out there, and the alternatives you see below are all also good.
1. Lib Tech TRS
The TRS is another Lib Tech board that will give you all-mountain capabilities with a freeride focus. This board has a true twin shape and medium flex that gives you good performance in the terrain park and other areas of the resort.
You’ll also get solid construction that features Magne-Traction edges and an HP core that is lightweight and strong. The TRS isn’t a beginner board but works well for intermediate and advanced riders.
==> Read our detailed Lib Tech TRS review for more.
If you want a dedicated freestyle board, the Rome Artifact is one of the best options around. It has a freepop flat rocker profile that is super snappy and responsive in the park while being strong enough to stay stable during speedy approaches.
This is a very balanced board that works well in either direction. It also has a solid build that will hold up well during regular use in the terrain park.
If freestyle riding is not your thing and you are looking for an aggressive freeride machine, check out the Jones Flagship. This board is built to handle steep and technical terrain and delivers high-end performance when the going gets tough.
My Verdict
The Lib Tech Skate Banana is one of my favorite snowboards out there. It will give you an extremely fun experience while offering exceptional performance from the park to deep powder. It’s a competent board that can work for any ability level.
About Lorraine