The GNU Ladies Choice has firmly established itself in snowboarding history, largely thanks to its association with the decorated female snowboarder, Jamie Anderson. This board perfectly embodies the balance between progression and playfulness, making it a top choice for riders of all skill levels.
Design and Technology
The Ladies Choice features advanced asym technology and a C2x camber hybrid contour, meticulously designed for freestyle flow. Jamie Anderson's eco-conscious approach is evident in the construction materials and processes, with the board utilizing a sustainably harvested FSC certified wood core and water-based inks. The eco sublimated graphics by Sarah King continue a decade-long partnership, resulting in an all-mountain freestyle work of art.
It comes with GNU’s magna traction along the sidecut. The Ladies Choice has GNU’s C2X camber profile. This means it has rocker between the feet, and a medium aggressive positive camber under the feet. The rocker in the middle gives the board a nice flex in the middle so it turns quickly and twists easily. It also makes the Ladies Choice fun in freestyle terrain.
Riding Experience
The GNU Ladies Choice is a great intermediate to advanced all mountain freestyle board. It can handle just about anything you take it through. Good for a rider that likes to ride centered and rides a lot of switch. Would be great for someone who sees a lot of icy conditions as well.
The Gnu Ladies Choice is different and many will appreciate the changes. The Ladies Choice use to be a women’s version of the men’s board but it changed up a bit to be more of it’s own board. The Addition of EC2 BTX changes up the ride a lot. Before the C2 BTX was loose like the men’s Riders Choice. The EC2 incorporates similar EC2 from the men’s side that offers a little more stability between the feet than the old C2 BTX. It’s still forgiving and playful but offers a little more stability for mountain riding. Also the edge hold isn’t as grippy which is more advantageous for riders who see softer conditions often but still like to have a bit more grip when the conditions get hard.
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On Snow Feel
There is a much more of a stable ride giving this a little more of an all mountain freestyle feel that allows you better flat basing and one footing. It’s still a great park board like the old model and the pop is almost there too. It’s very close to being called stable where the Ladies Choice is closer to bordering on loose between the feet.
LADIES CHOICE | 2024-2025 GNU SNOWBOARD
Powder Performance
A little more of an easier plane over powder than the older model and it makes the ride just a little bit better. It’s pretty good for a twin in the deep stuff but the thicker the snow gets the harder it takes to stay afloat.
Turning and Carving
The asym thing makes it a lot more fun edge to edge regular or switch if you ride close to a duck stance.
Speed and Edge Hold
Little improvement here with stability at speed too. Pretty fun. The edge hold still grips ice and has some visible bumps between the feet.
Switch Riding
The Asymmetrical side cut makes for easier switch riding than a true twin. If you aren’t a strong rider you will find it easier to ride this switch than a true twin with a normal symmetric side cut.
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Jibbing
It’s not the Lady Pickle or Narrow Skate Banana but it has solid skills in the jib park.
Past Models and Evolution
The Gnu Ladies Choice has been a long time coming. The Gnu Riderss Choice has established itself as one of the leaders of the modern freestyle rides out there so it’s about time Gnu made a ladies specific version of this. The hybrid rocker shape does have some short comings but the advantages far outweigh its flaws.
Initial Impressions
It’s a little more loose than most C2 BTX boards but it has more spring and all around park playfulness making it an excellent park board. It’s loose but at a certain point the camber at the tip/tail make it less washy than it feels it should be. We’d say that due to the pretty loose feeling between the feet we felt it better suited in the park than the mountain. We felt the TRS Narrow (women’s model) was a better all mountain freestyle ride but at the same time less poppy.
Powder Performance (Detailed)
A twin with a centered stance isn’t ideal for powder but we have to say that the Ladies Choice does a very good job for it’s design. If you like to take on the powder world regular and switch the Ladies Choice will be very fun thanks to the fact that it always tries to point up instead of down like camber does.
Speed and Stability (Detailed)
The Ladies Choice is pretty damp for a Twin but the significant rocker between the feet make for a little bit of a squirrely ride when picking up speed on a flat base.
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Handling Uneven Terrain
At the end of the day the Ladies Choice did very well negotiating the ruts and weaving in and out of all the people.
Flex and Carving
The Longitudinal Flex is very middle ground of medium but it will soften up over time like all boards do. It’s pretty medium when it comes to the torsional flex. This is still a twin with a hybrid rocker shape which is not the best for carving but it’s pretty good. You can lay into a carve in all good conditions and also some pretty crappy conditions.
Switch Riding (Detailed)
This to us was easier riding switch than even a true twin thanks to sidecuts that are shaped according to the duck stance most riders use on a twin.
Jumps and Jibbing
The Ladies Choice is very lively and popy on jumps and we were pretty surprised by this. Rails and boxes aren’t terrible for this board even though its a little on the stiff side of the park world. If this is your staple you might want to look for something else but you can hit a mellow jib or two. It’s not for those that like the long, big kinked out rails and jibs.
Overall Impressions
The Gnu Ladies Choice is one of the best boards we have tested to date. This board has a fantastic edge hold and is super stable across every type of snow condition. It excels across the entire mountain and in the park, making it an excellent choice for anyone who spends significant time in both the park and the trees.
It's a super playful board with tons and tons of pop, and we would highly recommend it for pretty much everyone; it basically does a large portion of the work for you while riding, and you will feel like a better and more confident rider the moment you strap in.
Detailed Performance Analysis
Edge Hold
The Ladies Choice has superior edge hold in all conditions. Regarding edge hold, the Ladies Choice is one of the best you can get. We rode this board in all types of snow, both off and on-piste, and it never lost an edge or washed out from under us. The Ladies Choice has Magne-traction edges, meaning they are serrated - similar to a steak knife. These knife-like edges really bite into all sorts of snow - even the icy patches. The Ladies Choice delivered on edge hold on everything from slush to steep ice. This increases the effective edge length and gives you phenomenal edge hold in all conditions, even when riding steep icy sections.
Deep Snow
Deep snow was no issue for this board. This board is a blast to ride in the pow, although it wasn't our absolute favorite for the deepest days. However, all of the boards that outperformed the Ladies Choice in the deep snow have a ton of very powder-specific features, such as a directional shape, a fishtail, or a really long nose with a very setback stance. These boards might outperform the Ladies Choice on deep powder days, but their powder-specific design features are detrimental when riding other terrain or playing in the park.
For being such a versatile and well-rounded board, we were amazed at how well the Ladies Choice floated and handled in the freshies. It has an astounding amount of float for being essentially a twin board with a centered stance.
Stability at Speed
We love this board for its awesome stability at speed. We were quite surprised at how stable this board felt at speed, given its medium flex and a relatively softer ride. At first glance, it doesn't seem like it would be an excellent carving board, but our initial impressions turned out to be completely wrong once we got the Ladies Choice up to higher speeds and started doing turns.
Playfulness
We found the Ladies Choice to be playful in just about any condition. This board's C2 Rocker profile makes it great for carving and gives it a really strong and stable feel, even on uneven terrain. We occasionally noticed a little bit of chatter, but the Ladies Choice's flex and profile seem to absorb it. The Ladies Choice is a super fun, playful board.
While the Ladies Choice might not have been the best at powder, it truly excels when it comes to playfulness. It's an absolute blast to ride. The lightweight balsa/aspen/paulownia core gives the Ladies Choice a super fun and poppy ride. It has a medium flex and is one of the most fun boards that we have seen so far in the park and on natural features. Its camber-rocker-camber profile makes it particularly fun in the park, and it's great for rails and jibbing. This board earned top marks for its pop.
Freestyle and Park Performance
This is one of the best freestyle/park boards that we have tested, which is slightly surprising given its fantastic edge hold and excellent performance in powder. The giant swallowtail board may give you slightly more float in powder, but good luck taking that on rails.
We thoroughly appreciated that this board's design is a fantastic option for ladies who want to spend equal time shredding the trees and hitting the park and spend their days roaming the entire mountain. It has tons of pop - enough to launch you when doing an ollie. We thought it was the best board of the bunch for riding switch, and it stomps the landings exceptionally well.
Value
While this is one of the best boards you can get, it is also a decent value.
Final Thoughts
All in all, it is hard to go wrong with the Ladies Choice by Gnu. It's Jamie Anderson's signature model and excelled across the board in our rating metrics. It's super stable, crushes it in the park, and has plenty of pop, all while being a blast to ride in powder.
We had a blast riding the Ladies Choice in all sorts of terrain. However, this board is a true twin freestyle board, making it an awesome park board. It's also great for groomed terrain and in the trees, but it just can't quite match the float of powder-specific boards in the deepest snowfalls.