Burton Blossom Snowboard Review: The Versatile Park Powerhouse

The Burton Blossom and the Burton Custom Camber are two exceptional snowboards that share Burton’s signature quality, higher-end feel, and traditional camber profiles, yet cater to different riding styles. This article compares both boards to help you decide which one will complement your riding style for the upcoming season.

At its core, if you’re more of an all-mountain freestyle rider who frequents the park, the Blossom is an excellent choice. Conversely, if you ride every inch of your resort with some park included, the Burton Custom Camber will serve you better.

Full Specs and Ratings

• Burton Blossom: Rated 92.68 / 100 - In the Park Category
• Burton Custom Camber: Rated 89.52 / 100 - In the All Mountain Category

Let’s dive into a detailed comparison to help you make an informed decision.

Comparison Chart

This chart highlights the performance of each board in specific categories, indicating where one board excels over the other.

In the above table, the Burton Custom Camber wins by one point mainly for its go-anywhere and do-anything versatility. The Blossom is noticeably versatile, too. It’s just more centered and park-focused.

Read also: Is the Ultra 310R the right jet ski for you? Find out here

Summary of Results

The Burton Custom Camber and Burton Blossom are both exceptional boards that have some specific strengths for specific types of riders. The key is really to see if those strengths align with the style of riding you do most often.

• If you prioritize aggressive carving, top-tier speed, and powerful jumps with a precise feel, go with the Burton Custom Camber.
• If you spend most of your time in the park and love jibbing and jumping with a powerful yet forgiving feel, choose the Burton Blossom.

The Burton Custom Camber: The Resort Dominator with Precision and Power

The Burton Custom Camber is Burton’s best-selling snowboard beloved for its award-winning performance and versatility for helping you ride everywhere at your resort.

This board offers a responsive feel with excellent pop and power for carving and launching off jumps and side hits. This board features a carbon construction that promotes carving performance, power, and response.

Despite the Burton Custom Camber’s aggressive traditional camber profile, it’s got the tech to make its nose and tail a little softer, and that makes the ride still approachable for most riders. It’s a hard charger when it needs to be and casual and forgiving when you want it to be. The base of the board is fast, and when you ride it, it feels like a higher-end, quality board.

It’s the type of board that inspires confidence, so you push yourself a bit harder while you’re on it.

Read also: Is the Gnu Antigravity Snowboard Worth It?

The Burton Blossom: The Versatile Park Powerhouse with an Extra Boost of Pop

The Burton Blossom quickly became a park staple due to its exceptional ability to carve, jib, and pop massively high off of jumps. It offers a pressable medium flex, combined with a traditional camber and carbon I beam in its construction, making it feel stable and explosively poppy. The Carbon I Beam is an added beam that runs the length of the board from tip to tail, and it makes this board flex torsionally for butters and jibbing while being extremely poppy (even springboard-like) off jumps.

It also has Burton’s Super Fly II 700G wood core, which makes it incredibly lightweight and durable. The Blossom is designed for fun and versatility in the park while still being ready to explore outside of the park.

How to Think About the Similarities Between Both Boards

In terms of tech, think of these boards like this.

• The Burton Blossom is basically just like the Burton Custom Camber but with a centered stance and more park-focused features to help you jib and jump.
• The Burton Custom Camber is just like a Blossom with a slight setback stance and features that help it carve better and be more versatile than the average snowboard.

Overview of the Burton Blossom

• Versatile Higher End Park Board: Excels in all aspects of park riding (jibbing and jumping) while still being capable of all-mountain riding. Think of it as an all-mountain / resort board first and a park board as a second type of board.
• Responsive and Powerful: Offers strong power and pop for carving and jumps, boosting rider confidence.
• Damp Feel: Features 45 Degree Carbon Highlights to absorb vibrations, providing a smooth ride and filtering out chatter.
• Durable: Built lightweight and durable with a 3-year warranty and eco-friendly Super Sap epoxy.
• Really Fast Base: Utilizes a Sintered WFO Base for noticeable speed and excellent wax retention.
• High-End Feel: This board feels like a premium snowboard underfoot, delivering a fast, smooth, and stable ride.

The Primary Differences of These Boards

While these boards are very similar, here are the most notable differences.

Their Shape & Stance: Twin vs Direction Twin

• The Blossom: Park-Focused Twin Shape / You Can Land Switch

  The Blossom is an actual twin symmetrical board, while the Custom Camber is a directional twin. On the Blossom, you stand perfectly centered, and the board has the same specs and dimensions as the nose and the tail. This shape helps you in the park because if you land switch stance coming off a jump, the board rides exactly the same with either foot pointing forward.

  Read also: Battle Bindings: Performance and Value

• Custom Camber: Resort Focused Directional Twin Shape / Promotes Powerful Carving and Powder Performance

  The Burton Custom Camber has a directional twin shape with a setback stance. That means that you stand on this board .49″ (almost half an inch) closer to your tail rather than perfectly centered. This shape is the better shape for carving performance.

Why is it the better carving performing shape?

The directional twin effectively lengthens the front of your board from your front foot through the nose and then shortens it from your back foot through your tail. By having a longer nose and shorter tail, you can apply more concentrated pressure and leverage into the tail section of your edge, which allows you to get a more powerful and stable feeling turning experience.

Additionally, the directional twin is the more versatile resort shape because it helps you float in powder. By having your weight back, your board keeps your nose up and out of the snow so you can glide effortlessly in deeper snow instead of having the snow pile on top of the nose, making your board harder to steer.

Their Carbon Construction

The other main difference in these boards is their carbon construction.

• The Blossom features Burton’s Carbon I Beam construction, while the Custom Camber features Burton’s Carbon Highlights construction.
• The I Beam promotes pop and power-off jumps, while the Carbon Highlights promote versatility and carving.

So, what specifically are they?

• The Blossom’s Carbon I-Beam is a carbon fiber stringer that runs down the center of the board, adding longitudinal stiffness and pop. The beam acts like a springboard to launch you higher off jumps or to help the board rebound to give you an extra boost while popping out of jib features.
• The Custom Camber’s Carbon Highlights are sheets of carbon fiber that are integrated directly into the board’s core, and this improves the board’s carving performance by improving its torsional stiffness and edge hold.

If you look closely at the construction chart above, you’ll see 45-degree zigzag patterns in the 2nd and fourth within these layers. These are the carbon layers of the Custom Camber. They’re a large part about what makes the Custom Camber such a uniquely versatile board. These carbon layers make the board lighter, incredibly durable, and noticeably stiffen its torsional flex (its toe to heel flex).

The benefit to having a slightly stiffer torsional flex is that the board becomes more predictable, responsive, and controlled for carving.

How These Boards Compare

Now that you see how the tech helps each of these boards in their own areas let me explain how they felt under my feet when comparing both in the categories where one excels over the other.

• For Groomed Resort Riding: It’s a Tie, But the Custom Camber is the Better Carver

  Both are incredibly good on groomed runs, but the Custom Camber is the better feeling carver. The setback stance and directional flex felt predictable yet powerful as I carved my local resort.

  The Blossom works really well on groomed runs (out of the park), too. It’s a damp-feeling ride that holds a decent edge for cruising.

  If you’re riding groomed terrain, either work. I prefer the Custom Camber, though.

• For Powder Performance: The Custom Camber Wins

  While neither board is a dedicated powder board, the Burton Custom Camber takes the lead for powder performance. Its directional twin shape with a .49inch (12.5mm) setback stance helps it float better and requires less effort in light to mid-depth powder compared to the true twin, non-setback Blossom.

• For Carving: The Custom Camber Wins

  The Burton Custom Camber offers a more aggressive and precise carving experience. Its Dualzone EGD technology strategically aligns the wood grain along the edges, providing noticeably more response and power when digging into turns. It’s also got the directional twin shape to offer you a more stable feeling turn to begin with.

  While the Blossom carves well enough for all-mountain use, it’s not as carving-focused as the Burton Custom Camber is.

• For Responsiveness: It’s a Tie, But the More Responsive Carver is the Custom Camber

  Both boards feature Burton’s responsive Dualzone EGD feature. This means that Burton laid the wood core differently right under your toes and heels to give the board a more responsive feel when trying to get it on edge. It makes both of these boards incredibly responsive.

  However, due to the directional twin shape of the Custom Camber, I’d still go more with that board if response and power for carving are what you’re looking for.

• For Speed: Tie

  Both boards feature Burton’s incredibly fast WFO sintered base. Speed-wise, both boards offer an identical level of glide. I’d rate it at an 8 out of 10 on the speed scale, where it is noticeably above average. It is one of the main reasons for the higher price tag for both of these boards.

  The WFO base is made with an ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (P-Tex). It offers a greater level of wax retention and feels a bit faster than the standard sintered base when it is waxed and maintained.

  I rode the new Custom Camber at an indoor slope that tends to feel dry and usually slow. However, the Custom Camber had no issues maintaining its speed in the dry indoor conditions. It was more than fast enough to keep me flowing from feature to feature.

• For Ice and Poor Conditions: It’s a Tie

  Both the Burton Blossom and Custom Camber handle icy and poor conditions well. The Custom Camber boasts good edge grip to power through, while even though the Blossom is more of a park board, it still has a decent amount of edge hold while still feeling stable and controlled on icy patches, too.

  You’ll feel controlled on ice with either of these boards, but neither has any noticeable edge tech built into them specifically to help them grip the ice. Just keep your edges sharp and your knees bent, and you will have no issues.

• For Switch Riding: The Blossom Wins

  The Burton Blossom, being a true twin with a fully symmetrical design and rounded tips, excels in switch riding. It rides identically in either direction, making it incredibly balanced and intuitive for park laps and practicing spins. While the Custom Camber, as a directional twin, is also capable, the Blossom’s dedicated twin shape gives it the edge for consistent switch performance (rated 5.0/5 for switch).

• For Jibbing: It’s a Tie

  Here’s where things might get surprising, but it’s a tie for jibbing.

  The Burton Blossom is the stronger option for popping out of your jibs rather than locking into them, and the Burton Custom Camber is the easier board to press and balance on your jibs.

  It ultimately comes down to their carbon construction and the differences in their flex patterns.

How Does The Flex Compare in the Burton Custom Camber vs Blossom?

Flex wise, the Burton Blossom is actually one flex point stiffer than the Burton Custom Camber. This is due to it’s extra Carbon I-Beam feature to give it an extra boost of pop.

The Burton Custom Camber is rated with a 5.5 out of 10 flex while the Burton Blossom has a 6.5 out of 10 flex. The Blossom feels like the noticeably stiffer board due to the carbon beam wanting to constantly snap the board back into its original shape.

While neither of these boards is overly soft, both boards can still nosepress with some muscle and practice.

Which is easier to nosepress?

The Custom is the easier board to nosepress, believe it or not. Even though it is more of an all-mountain board, the Burton Custom Camber can actually lock into a press a little easier than the Burton Blossom. The Blossom is more of a jump leaning park board.