Never Summer Benchmark Review: An All-Mountain Freeride Board with Serious Powder Skills

Introduction

The Never Summer Benchmark is an all-mountain freeride board that leans hard into powder capability without giving up much on hardpack. It’s built around the brand’s original rocker camber profile, a carbon-heavy layup, and a directional shape that stays surprisingly versatile across the whole mountain. We spent time on it in a 156, and it left a strong impression as a stable, precise, and genuinely fun daily driver for bigger terrain.

Who the Benchmark Is For

This is a board for riders who cover a lot of ground: groomers in the morning, steeps after a storm, powder stashes when the window opens. The Benchmark has a slightly more high-performance, mildly aggressive feel than a true one-board quiver killer, but it stays easy to control and maneuver. If you like exploring the resort you’re at, seeing varied terrain and snow types, and want one board that’s solid through all of it, this belongs on your shortlist.

Shape and Profile

The Benchmark is marketed as a directional twin, but it carries real directional features. You get a longer nose outside the contact points, a slightly shorter tail, 8 mm of stance setback, and 10 mm of taper so the tail runs narrower than the nose. Never Summer also added blower stance inserts, so on deep days you can shift your stance further back, effectively shortening the tail and enlarging the nose for easier navigation in powder.

The profile is Never Summer’s original rocker camber bend with a directional bias. It’s rocker dominant, with a significant rocker section between the feet, camber zones underfoot, and more rocker blending into the tips. The camber zone under the back foot is slightly heavier, and the nose carries a longer rocker zone to help with float.

Construction and Tech

There’s a lot of engineering packed into this layup. Never Summer’s Carbon Max Laminates put a fat carbon X through the body of the board out to roughly where your feet sit, transferring energy into the camber zones and sharpening the response. Carbon V’s in both the nose and tail maximize snap and the energy you can load up. The brand’s dampening technologies smooth out the ride, and the Power Grip sidecut uses a straight section in the middle of the sidecut that transitions into a progressive arc toward the contact points, isolating pressure around your feet and adding bite in firmer conditions.

Underneath, the Benchmark runs an ultra high molecular weight sintered base. It’s denser, tougher, more durable, and faster than an extruded base, and it’s sourced from Crown Plastics, a US-based supplier known for durable bases. Keep it waxed regularly and it stays quick all season.

Flex, Pop, and Playfulness

The flex sits on the stiffer side of medium, both lengthwise and torsionally, with a responsive feel edge to edge. Because the board is rocker dominant, you have to rock toward the end of that profile before the tension loads up, which gives you extra leverage for presses. Taller presses take a bit of work, but the looser reverse-camber feel makes buttering genuinely fun.

Pop is there once you find the sweet spot where the tension starts loading. Ollies spring nicely, and the board has good energy for a more freestyle-forward approach.

Park and Resort Performance

The Benchmark has more of an all-mountain feel than a pure park feel, and it leans toward jumps with its stability and precision. It makes a nice platform to pop off on the lip, and the rocker camber profile makes initiating rotation easy. It rides switch comfortably, so park laps stay comfortable.

Jibbing is more of a mixed bag. It jibs like a stiffer park board: it slides sideways well but carries a bit more precision than you might want, and the heavier rocker between the feet makes locking into features, especially 50/50s, a little tricky at first. That’s something you adapt to quickly.

At 156, the waist width measures 25.9 cm, approaching mid-wide territory. That extra width makes deeper carves more accessible and helps larger boots avoid drag. The 7.8 m sidecut sits in a versatile range that feels comfortable at almost any speed.

Once on edge, the board naturally wants to arc into a turn. It’s easy to initiate turns despite the stiffer feel, holds an edge better than expected, and stays stable in steeper, spicier zones. Even bombing groomers, chatter was surprisingly low; the tips on many rocker-dominant boards flutter, but the Benchmark held strong.

Powder Performance

This is where the Benchmark shines. The gradual uplift in the nose and tail interfaces nicely with soft snow, letting the board start floating rather than pushing when you transition from groomer to powder. The reverse camber bend gives a feel where the snow cradles the board from underneath; the default state is buoyancy, and it wants to bounce up out of the pow.

The solid tail, which can feel sluggish on some boards, stays maneuverable here thanks to the taper and tail rocker. Snow exits cleanly and the board keeps a nimble feel even at lower speeds in deep snow. The shallower planing bend of the solid tail also adds some switch versatility in powder.

Even at 156 at the reference stance, without using the setback inserts, it floated exceptionally well. If you were buying it as a powder-first board, sizing up one size would maximize float, but the reference size stays more versatile for everything else at the resort.

Buying Advice

The Benchmark delivers precision, a strong edge hold, excellent float, and a stable all-mountain feel with a slightly aggressive, high-performance character. It rewards riders who want one board that handles a storm day and a groomer-bombing afternoon equally well. If your riding is mostly jib-focused, the stiffer park feel may not be the match. For everyone else covering varied terrain, it’s an easy recommendation.

Conclusion

The Never Summer Benchmark blends freeride intent with powder-friendly design in a way few all-mountain boards manage. The carbon-loaded construction, dampened ride, and durable Crown Plastics base add real substance, while the directional rocker camber profile keeps it playful when you want it to be. For resort explorers and powder chasers alike, it’s a board worth a close look.