REASONS TO BUY
Ridiculous pop
Great float in powder
Wants to go fast
REASONS TO AVOID
Lacks playfulness
May be too stiff for some
Difficult to carve
Arbor Candle Rain Review
The perfect board if you're ready to take your freestlyle tricks from the park to the entire mountain
A timeless and classic shape built with modern materials and techniques.
Credit: Natalie Kafader
By Ross Patton ⋅ Senior Review Editor ⋅ November 3, 2024
RELATED: The Best Snowboards for Men
Our Verdict
The Candle Rain was built with snowboarding legend Pat Moore on the design team. The inner makeup of double carbon stringers, wood powerply, and a Highland III core is shaped with a small sidecut radius. The strengths of this board are no mystery — the Rain is made for big jumps and tricks. Our testing team loved to take this board on platform step-downs and spontaneous jumps with powder landings.
Our Analysis and Test Results
When the crew went out to hit a kicker, the Candle Rain was the first board to be grabbed.
Credit: Ben Wynn
Edging
The Arbor was designed for quick turns, featuring an aggressive sidecut of 8 meters on a 159 cm deck. However, a stiffer flex and small radius makes it more challenging lay into deep carves unless your going fast. However, the Rain is perfect for quick turns while initiating a spin off a jump, and it does really well when taking off from natural, more spontaneous jumps. This board didn't perform as well in this metric as options that are made with fresh groomers in mind.
The board's stiff, cambered profile and longer sidecut enabled smooth turns at high speeds, but required more effort at slower speeds.
Credit: Natalie Kafader
Float in Powder
While the Rain might be less fun on the groomers, the opposite is true in powder. The 8-meter sidecut creates a balanced feel between heel and toe side. We were able to make quick powder turns with ease, but mostly, we wanted to charge hard on the stiff design of the Rain whenever we got lucky enough to find a fresh patch of pow.
The mounting holes are set back about 1.5 cm toward the tail, so it's not a true twin, but you have the option to set the Rain up in a near true-twin stance if you want to. It is a great board for riding switch in powder if that's your thing.
5 insert packs give you the opportunity to setback the stance for more float.
Credit: Natalie Kafader
Stability at Speed
The Candle Rain is a board that was made to go fast. The wood powerply, Highland III core, and carbon stringers make the chop nearly disappear when kicking up the MPH.
When we took it into the backcountry, we were grinning at it's ability to take on every chute, bowl, and powder field we came across. But a word of warning – the deep sidecut can take you from barreling downhill to cutting sideways in a half second.
Plenty of camber and a stiff profile make this thing a missile.
Credit: Natalie Kafader
Playfulness
Flex is the main thing that decides a snowboard's playfulness. Candle gives the Rain an 8 out of 10 flex rating, and we agree, the Rain is a pretty stiff board. You'd probably like a softer board if you want to goof around on sunny, soft days.
Pop and Jumping
All of the elements of the Rain work together as you're heading into a jump. Small bumps are reduced to almost nothing, and the deep sidecut allows you to make micro-adjustments as needed.
The aggressive positive camber of the Rain immediately grabs onto the snow when it touches down. The stiff flex and the sidecut radius work in tandem to keep you balanced and in control of your landing.
One of the best feelings in the world and even better on the Candle Rain.
Credit: Ben Wynn
Should You Buy the Candle Rain?
The Candle Rain is not for everyone. It's at home in powder, on sketchy in-runs, and do-or-die chutes. This board is not made with beginners in mind. In fact, if a beginner tried to learn on the Rain, they might be discouraged.
The sintered base on this model is fast and should hold wax well.
Credit: Natalie Kafader
What Other Snowboard Should You Consider?
If you prefer carving deep turns, the Cardiff Goat Pro Carbon is an incredible all-mountain board.
—Ross Patton
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