Ride Kink Review: A Jib Board With Real Snap

Introduction

The Ride Kink is Jed Anderson’s pro model, and it positions itself as a jib-first park twin with a twist: a camber profile that leans heavily toward traditional camber. Ride calls it Twin Extra Camber, a longer camber section with a small rocker patch in the tip and tail. The result is a board that keeps the load, pop, snap, and drive of classic camber while the micro rocker adds a small sweet spot for presses and butters and makes roll-ins and roll-outs a little easier.

It’s available in 143, 147, 151, 155, 158, 154 wide, and 157 wide, so there’s a size for most park-focused riders.

Flex, Feel, and Camber Profile

Flex sits in the middle of the road for a jib and park board: more play in the tips, slightly stiffer and consistent through the middle, with torsional flex that matches the longitudinal feel and rebounds the same way when you twist the board. The sweet spots in the tips are smaller, right where that rocker section sits, so you have to work a bit to find them.

Stability is moderate for what it is. This board is not winning any awards outside the park. Hauling at high speed through choppy terrain will get it bucked around a bit, and you may feel tip chatter resonate back under foot. Keep your knees bent. But chunky, rutted run-ins in the park? Smooth sailing. It pushes through everything you need to reach that rail or jump.

The defining trait is how long that camber section is. It rides like a traditional camber board even with the small rocker. You have to load it up, and when you roll back into it, you feel the rebound and the snap. This board has boost, and it will get you in the air.

Pop and Jump Performance

On jumps, small to medium features are totally fine. If you decide to step up to the big line, landing bolts keeps you comfortable, and the board has more than enough pop to boost off the lip whether you time it forward or go higher. Even if you’re lazy and let the lip do the work, it still gets you airborne. It’s a jib board with snap, and that snap shows up every time you load the tail.

Locking into presses is where the camber character becomes a double-edged sword. Because there’s so much camber, you really have to leverage your weight over the nose or tail to engage those smaller sweet spots. Once you do, it locks in and holds, with a bit of fight in there. If you know what you’re doing, you can swizzle and sizzle all day, including quick 180 outs off nose and tail presses. If you don’t, expect the contact point to hook up and whip you until you learn.

Jibbing

Jibbing is where this board fully excels. It locks into nose and tail presses, holds to the end of the feature, and has enough rebound to pop you out. When you go sideways, it cradles right around your feet and locks in like a suction cup. Boardslides feel planted. Any trick variation on a jib or feature comes with some rebound, which rewards riders who use it.

Surprisingly Good Carving

The Kink carves better than it has any right to. Ride’s Slimwall construction gives a thinner edge engagement that locks in and holds well, whether you’re doing short, tight, quick carves or medium, mellow ones. You can drive your knee into the center of the board and push off the tail to snap out of a turn, get low under a feature, or rip around slower traffic. For a soft, park-oriented twin, it’s very easy to engage, fluid, and has power when you need it.

There are limits, of course. It’s a twin park jib board, and you find those limits quickly. But within its lane, you can do what you need to do.

Who This Board Is For

The rider in mind here is the jib-focused park rider who wants a little snap out of the board, someone who might hit a jump from time to time or rides a small hill and just wants to rip outside the park too. It’s a fun twin, softer-flexing park board that’s still middle of the road, with easy-to-engage camber, great snap, and great edge hold. It’s the kind of board that makes you not want to get off it, and it stands among the more memorable twins in this category.

If you’re comparing options in the same space, comparable boards include the Salomon Sleepwalker, the Public Dispute, and the Rome Artifact Pro, with the Ride C6, Battalion Blaster, and K2 Spell also worth a look.

Conclusion

The Ride Kink earns its place as a jib board with snap. Near-full camber gives it pop and edge hold that most soft park twins lack, while the micro rocker keeps presses and butters accessible. It demands that you know how to leverage a cambered board, and it will punish sloppy presses, but for the park rider who wants rebound, hold, and a genuinely fun ride, it’s an easy board to love.