# Reviews: why all the hate for thegoodride?



## akcom (Sep 1, 2018)

Hi all,
I've used thegoodride before as a reference for their board reviews, but I've noticed they get a lot of hate around here and elsewhere. Can someone tell me why? Also, any suggestions for alternatives? I like the angry snowboarder, but I'm looking for other reviewers sa well.

Thanks!


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## lab49232 (Sep 13, 2011)

akcom said:


> Hi all,
> I've used thegoodride before as a reference for their board reviews, but I've noticed they get a lot of hate around here and elsewhere. Can someone tell me why? Also, any suggestions for alternatives? I like the angry snowboarder, but I'm looking for other reviewers sa well.
> 
> Thanks!


People here hate the GoodRide largely for the pay to play idea. Basically The reviews are all basically bought and largely untrustworthy.

The dirty truth, no review sites are free of this. Every site has boards they can't ride or dont get paid to ride, or given for free to ride and bias comes through as a result, seriously ALL of them. So really go with what you like most. That being said, the Goodride has TONS of good info for specs, but just kind of leave the rest of it aone. Your best bet is to learnn specs and what they mean and go from those so you have a better idea of what to expect.


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## kriegs13 (Nov 28, 2016)

They just don't ever seem to know what they are talking about. Not everyone has to be a super geek when it comes to specs but they don't seem to know any. I can understand that maybe they are getting boards sent to them before spec sheets are readily available but they cant seem to even give a realistic description of camber profile or side cut. 

Goofballs while not being funny.

I have yet to see them do any impressive riding. Again, I don't need a pro to tell me whats up. I'm no hot shit myself. And I actually like reviews from people who are regular riders (more on that later). But I can't take a review on a carving board seriously without seeing the reviewer lay a solid carve. 

Long haired dude looks like Wynn Duffy from justified.

Only plus side..they have a pretty massive database and their format doesn't suck. I will use the page as a point of reference to track changes when considering whether or not to pick up any given used board. 

Reviewers I do like:
-You mentioned angry. Every argument for or against their site/personality/burrito filling preference has been presented and beat in to the ground. I like the written reviews a whole lot. Nivek explains bindings without BS or specific loyalties and reflects either personal experience or conversations about the bindings with shop people that I trust.

-Boardarchive/SBPC and that whole situation. I liked their early stuff a lot more. TJ has a good way about breaking down boards for his target audience (a lot of dingleberries in the youtube/gram land) and knows his stuff. He's a much better rider than I am so I feel confident in his board reviews. Bindings on the other hand, clearly in Unions pocket. Nothing wrong with that. Happy he is able to grow his business ties and good for them or getting in on his brand. But don't bother looking for info on anything other than Unions from them (the comparison to malavitas in the one video doesn't count)

-Sideways Gear Guys...I just found them and they seem to be pretty new. They claim to be industry vets. Doesn't mean much to me. But they do describe boards in their reviews the way that people like us think about boards. They also have ample footage of riding in various conditions. They are both more than competent and clearly spend time riding and thinking about it. 



p.s. I responded to your message but notifications in this forum suck. hit me back!


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## jstar (Sep 21, 2016)

I've been watching a bit of the 'sideways gear guys' stuff, not bad. Meant to tell them to 'keep it up' last time I saw them in Van.

Snowboard robot has nice video, but extremely limited reviews.

The good ride I end up skipping through 99% of their banter just trying to find some useful info.


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## Manicmouse (Apr 7, 2014)

kriegs13 said:


> Long haired dude looks like Wynn Duffy from justified.


Haha nice! Definitely going to check out their reviews now!! Great show.


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## kriegs13 (Nov 28, 2016)

Manicmouse said:


> Haha nice! Definitely going to check out their reviews now!! Great show.


haha I resisted watching for so long then just binged it all a couple of months ago. Wynn was by far my favorite character. He's such a dirtbag but it seems like he's the only sane one. 

I was baked as hell and someone on EZL was making fun of one of his TGR videos and and I noticed a striking similarity...TGR = dixie mafia?


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## Manicmouse (Apr 7, 2014)

kriegs13 said:


> haha I resisted watching for so long then just binged it all a couple of months ago. Wynn was by far my favorite character. He's such a dirtbag but it seems like he's the only sane one.
> 
> I was baked as hell and someone on EZL was making fun of one of his TGR videos and and I noticed a striking similarity...TGR = dixie mafia?


Who is Boyd Crowder in the gear review world? He's awesome! Really don't know how he didn't die multiple times during the series.


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## kriegs13 (Nov 28, 2016)

Manicmouse said:


> Who is Boyd Crowder in the gear review world? He's awesome! Really don't know how he didn't die multiple times during the series.



Guf is probably the only online snowboard persona i could picture hanging out in Kentucky for reasons other than the Derby. So i guess he can be boyd.

Everyone in that show should be dead 30 times over. I think that's why i like Duffy so much. He's like a terrible human being but every time something crazy happens he's just there observing in utter disbelief like "damn, i've seen and done some crazy s__t, but y'all are f____d! It was so rewarding how the story ended with him.


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## drblast (Feb 28, 2017)

akcom said:


> Hi all,
> I've used thegoodride before as a reference for their board reviews, but I've noticed they get a lot of hate around here and elsewhere. Can someone tell me why?


Their reviews have gotten worse over the last few years where it's like they're not even trying anymore. The text reviews are really uninformative and the videos have about twenty seconds of content and five minutes of BS. They look like fun guys to hang out with and I don't care if they're not pro riders; I'm not either and I appreciate that perspective.

But doing a run or two on a board that's not set up for you and then reviewing it is just worthless. Check out the Rome binding review where in the middle of the video they realize they had the binding set up wrong.

They also seen to have an inability to review anything that's not what they like with any objectivity. Angry's Gnu Muillar review is a good example of how to do it right.


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## Nivek (Jan 24, 2008)

Simply put, they won't bite the hand that feeds, they can't actually snowboard, and they just regurgitate marketing info. So you can't trust their reviews, you can't trust their conclusions, and they don't offer any info you can't find yourself from the brand.


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## taco tuesday (Jul 26, 2014)

They often don't seem to have a clue what they're talking about. I wish I could remember what board it was but it escapes me right now, there was one video I watched and they were going on and on about how stiff this board was and how unpleasant it was to ride. It was a run of the mill mid stiff freeride board. They made it sound like a terrible board but it just wasn't their preference. Angry on the other hand will tell you this board is stiff, if your a big burly hard charging aggressive rider, check it out, it might be for you. If not, don't even bother.

How about when they review powder boards on groomer days and tell you how if will perform in pow...


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## BurtonAvenger (Aug 14, 2007)

taco tuesday said:


> They often don't seem to have a clue what they're talking about. I wish I could remember what board it was but it escapes me right now, there was one video I watched and they were going on and on about how stiff this board was and how unpleasant it was to ride. It was a run of the mill mid stiff freeride board. They made it sound like a terrible board but it just wasn't their preference. Angry on the other hand will tell you this board is stiff, if your a big burly hard charging aggressive rider, check it out, it might be for you. If not, don't even bother.
> 
> How about when they review powder boards on groomer days and tell you how if will perform in pow...


I've told this story a few times, but I'll just put it here for frame of reference. 

I was out at Snowbasin for the WWSRA demo with the then Signal Snowboards rep Steve Norwood. Basically I turn some screws, get a free place to stay and a free lift ticket, get to ride some boards from other brands I couldn't snag in Colorado. Steve got piece of mind that he could go make some laps with some accounts. 

So I'm sitting there on a nice 45 plus degree sunny bluebird day. It hasn't snowed in Utah in 2 weeks give or take a couple days. James Biesty comes sauntering up to the tent and asks to take out the Signal Epic. So I just let him know it's their powder board and that it might be a little squirrely on the boilerplate ice that most of the mountain has on it but should be OK in the melting chunder off some of the runs, but don't think it's going to be great or a fair assessment of it. He proceeds to tell me how he knows more about snowboards than me, (fine whatever I get this more times than most people can count) and that he's gods gift to snowboard reviews, (OK fine I get it your shit don't stink). So I set him up and send him on his way and proceed to just sit there baking in the sun working on my demo tan. 

About 45 minutes goes by and he comes back, boards covered in springlike slush. So I say, "how was it?" and without skipping a beat he goes into this tirade about how it's the sickest powder board ever and he got into waist deep untouched snow. I'm sitting there with a Snowbasin local who used to be a semi pro rider and he looks at me with the 'what the fuck is this guy on' look. He then proceeds to tell us how easy it was to float this thing and how it was just slashing all over. OK, well there hasn't been any fresh snow in 2 weeks, it's 45 degrees, and anything off the groomers is pretty much death chunder, but whatever. So he leaves and the local and I are looking at each other and he says, "what a fucking kook, we haven't seen snow in weeks, even the backcountry is baked. Where the hell did he find untouched waist deep snow?". That was pretty much the first time I had an in person interaction with him and realized dude didn't know his ass from a hole in the ground. I've had run ins with him since and the guy just doesn't get it. 

The best way to sum up The Good Ride is it's a Yelp Reviewer that got comped a free meal and they want the whole world to know they got a free meal. It might influence your idea to eat at the restaurant, but my guess is it's something you skip over before you leave a 1 star rating because there was a pube in your soup. 

Literally yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the day I started angrysnowboarder.blogspot.com next week is the anniversary of the day I registered the domain name. I've seen every type of snowboard reviewer come and go in that time. I've seen the industry completely change with how it deals with reviews. I'd say you guys as consumers are in a far better place now than you were 10 years ago and in an even better place than when I wrote my first online review when I was 20 on snowboard.com. 10 years ago I was fighting with marketing people and company owners to believe in the concept only being supported by reps. Now you have every new company and their brother offering to send you products to promote their company and trying to buy you off. Bias will always be there and some are far more biased than others, that's just a given, but trust and honesty are what I feel resonates with the average snowboarder. It's something I learned working various sales floors, if you can sell yourself to the people you can then sell the product to them. The other big thing I believe in isn't that you should review the product for yourself first and then tell people about it, but instead review it for who it is for and then decide if it's for you. I've ridden so many things I just fucking hated, but I have no problem recommending it to people or placing it in a top 5 list. 

At the end of the day the longer anyone does reviews the more they should grow. If you're not growing you're stagnating and that just stifles what you're doing and progressing it forward. The one thing I want to impart to everyone reading this is there's nothing wrong with having your trusted reviewer, maybe you love The Good Ride or Board Archive, or Sideways Gear Guys. Maybe you hate Angry Snowboarder or Snowboard Robot or whomever. Go with who you trust and who you think best represents snowboarding to you. Not everyone is going to be your definition of snowboarding.


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## bazman (Jan 15, 2017)

Congrats Sir Angry on 10 years! Keep it up.

yesterday was the 10th anniversary of the day I started angrysnowboarder.blogspot.com next week is the anniversary of the day I registered the domain name


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## lab49232 (Sep 13, 2011)

BurtonAvenger said:


> So I'm sitting there on a nice 45 plus degree sunny bluebird day. It hasn't snowed in Utah in 2 weeks give or take a couple days. James Biesty comes sauntering up to the tent and asks to take out the Signal Epic. So I just let him know it's their powder board and that it might be a little squirrely on the boilerplate ice that most of the mountain has on it


The only part that confuses me 45+ degrees and bright sun and yet it's mostly boilerplate. How long does it take for snow to soften up over there?


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## BurtonAvenger (Aug 14, 2007)

That mountain casts a weird shadow. If it's not in direct sun, it's not a fun time.


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## mojo maestro (Jan 6, 2009)

Gold plated bathrooms @SnowBasin...........


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## keel_bright (Jan 13, 2013)

Met one of the Sideways Gear Guys at a shop in Vancouver. Spent a good half hour talking about the intricacies of boards and they know their stuff. I like that he was willing to throw shade at boards he didn't like, Ride Warpig for example. Definitely a sub for their channel now.


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## kriegs13 (Nov 28, 2016)

keel_bright said:


> Met one of the Sideways Gear Guys at a shop in Vancouver. Spent a good half hour talking about the intricacies of boards and they know their stuff. I like that he was willing to throw shade at boards he didn't like, Ride Warpig for example. Definitely a sub for their channel now.




They actually talk about that in their pig review. And it’s something that I completely agree with. The pig should be sized down to be special. Close to your actual board size? Fine but meh. Once they got on the smaller size, they were pumped. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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