A guest post by David Zemens, snowboarder from Metro-Detroit and author of Shredding Gnar Snowboarding Blog.

2010 is the first year for the RIDE Machete, and it’s been getting rave reviews just about everywhere. I jumped on the bandwagon and bought one over the weekend, so I’m throwing my review out there for all the world to read, hopefully this helps you out!

Conditions: very-hard pack, light dusting of man-made + real snow, some ice, ~22F and windy

Length: 161cm Wide

Tech Specs:

• Available Sizes: 52, 55, 57W, 58, 60, 61W, 62, 64
• Sidecut: LowRize rocker
• Shape: Twin
• Stance: Center
• Flex: 6.5ish/10 stiff
• Retail price: $429

First Impressions: The Machete is flat between bindings and reverses from foot to tip/tail, a very mild rocker. I thought adjusting to this from camber was pretty much effortless. The edges are beveled 1 degree, and I’m pretty sure this saved me once or twice on the icy.

Switch/Pop: Rode switch nicely, but this is to be expected on true twin. It had a good amount of pop and was awesome stable landing ollies off rollers & small park jump (I didn’t go big).

Stability/Handling: The Machete handled speed very well (thank you, slimewalls!!!), landed jumps effortlessly, and pressed with the best of them.really suits me; even though I want a “park” board I’m really more of an “all mountain” rider who sometimes hits park jumps and very occasionally wipes his ass on boxes & rails. The Machete held its edge well on the very-very-hardpack, didn’t wash out on icy patches. The “slimewall” has an amazing ability to absorb chatter. I’d ride over frozen snowmobile tracks expected to get that chop-chop-chop-chop but nothing. Smooth sailing broseph.

Flex: RIDE says the flex on the Machete is 6/10 but I thought it had waaaay more flex than the most recent park board I’ve ridden (’09 Burton X8)—I was able to practically double the height on my tail presses. This flex lends to the overall playful feel of this deck, but don’t be put-off by that if you’re looking for a charger.

Overall: I probably wouldn’t use this for my “powder” board, and I might not prefer it for bombing black diamonds and steeps, but for an all-around board that’ll cruise the groomers and be equally comfortable rocking out in the park for a few hours, you can’t go wrong.

It’s almost February, and if you’ve been considering a new deck and you want to be able to use it for the remainder of this shred season, try and find one of these, but do it quick. Sources tell me that RIDE is selling out of the Machetes and quickly, so when they’re gone from the shelves, they’re gone for good.

Related posts:

1. Ride DH2 In-Depth Review
2. Burton Jussi 2010 Review
3. 2010 Burton Custom V-Rocker Review: It’s Not What You Think