Cardiff Goat Pro Carbon Review

The Cardiff Goat Pro Carbon is a powerhouse amongst our incredible lineup of reviewed snowboards. Not only is this model built with carbon fiber and titanal, but its stiff flex pattern and oversized sidecut amount to an ultra-light, high-octane, and downright dominant board when it comes to tackling treacherous terrain. Although the price tag is relatively steep, the Carbon Goat is a good daily driver for upper-level intermediates and experts who are seeking a souped-up all-mountain board.

Edging

During our testing, we encountered a range of conditions, from crispy corduroy to hardpack, icy jumps to fluffy powder, and the Goat Pro Carbon faced each one with tenacity. This snowboard is a fun, fluid, and high-performance edging machine that kept us on the hill longer than expected.

The Goat provides a pure on-edge experience due to its awesome in-turn feel that is predictable, engaging, and dynamic. This board's feel is largely due to its poplar, paulownia, and titanal infused core. The fluid and progressive character is coupled with a strong, nearly centered carving stance, allowing you to feel where the energy is in the core, which makes it easier to achieve that explosive turning style. Its long 10-meter sidecut and extended effective edges are designed for making arching, drawn-out turns at high speed, and it is truly tough when going through adverse snow. Like most boards with longer sidecuts, this one requires more effort and muscle to make short-radius carving turns. With the added stiffness of its carbon fiber design, we found it challenging to master tight turns.

Despite having some difficulties at slow speed, the Goat's traditional camber profile with an early rise tip provides plenty of edge hold, and we had a fun day making arching turns in fresh corduroy. The early rise in the tip helps you finish your turn on time and promotes a more catch-free ride when entering the next carve. The tail of the board is easy to slash around for speed control and helps spray snow, allowing you to channel your inner surfer.

Float in Powder

Some of our testers' favorite days are spent making powder turns, and we imagine most of our readers might feel the same. During our testing, though, each board played a different role in this success, and the Cardiff Goat Pro Carbon was one of the top-contending snowboards during a deep-pow day. 

The amount of float from the Goat will surely surprise you. We glided over powder fields at various angles and found it performed best when we could maintain some speed. Its gigantic nose is shaped like a big spoon and has a pronounced rise on both the tip and tail for extra glide. 

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The generally traditional mountain board outline has 12mm of taper and does a surprisingly good job of keeping you on track. In addition, its stiff construction and tail help when laying into those deep barreling gouges through fresh. While it's not the floatiest board in our review, the lightweight design and use of carbon fiber mean that the Goat is constructed to be ridden in deep snow.

Stability at Speed

As we have mentioned, the Cardiff Goat Pro Carbon loves to go fast. It's built for all-mountain terrain, and our testers felt that this model only improved the faster it went. 

We found ourselves making long swooping turns on the 10-meter sidecut. As we drew big arching lines in the snow, we felt supported by the board. The stiff flex pattern and longer effective edge provided more stability when any portion of the rail was engaged. Due to the camber profile and long sidecut, the Goat tracks straight down groomers well. The base is high quality; when maintained, it holds wax and glides as well as some of the best in the industry. When you get off-piste, the semi-damp ride of the Goat helps mute micro chatter and uneven snow. It minimizes larger features as the board can handle bumpy runouts of chutes and cliffs. The stability offered by this board is perfect for jumpers, carvers, and hill bombers alike. 

Playfulness

Most boards that are playful generally have shorter sidecuts and are made with flexible materials; the Cardiff Goat Pro Carbon is not built in this fashion at all. That being said, despite its 10-meter sidecut and carbon fiber build, this board is surprisingly playful compared to what our testers were expecting. 

By having a user-friendly balance point in its Poplar and carbon-based core, the Goat can do some pressing and buttering, but we really found its playfulness when buttering off of things. It's a springy board with pop and snap that makes turns of different shapes and knuckle hucking down runs behind our friends a blast. The main challenge of this snowboard was the extra effort required to make tight radius turns, which led us to rank it lower in the playfulness metric.

Pop and Jumping

A board can vary drastically in pop and jump for a multitude of reasons, such as core material, flex, and shape. Fortunately for our testers, the Cardiff Goat Pro Carbon has some of the best pop throughout our lineup. 

Generally speaking, stiffer boards have more pop, and the Goat offers a fired-up amount of twang. It's a popular and carbon core infused with titanium and laid up with carbon stringers, providing more sprock off of jumps, sidehits, and flatground. When it comes to larger jumps, we felt beyond confident in this board's approach, knowing the long sidecut and camber profile tracks well, and the high-quality base is plenty fast. 

The slightly setback stance generally feels centered over the board for a balanced takeoff and landing. Because of its all-mountain shape and stiff tail, the Goat is here to help you stomp landings and ride away clean, rather than wheeling out to your back.

Should You Buy the Cardiff Goat?

The Cardiff Goat Pro Carbon continually proved itself not only throughout our testing process but also in every corner of the mountain. It stands out for its high-end materials, lightweight yet sturdy build, and extended sidecut, ultimately ending in a next-level board for intermediate users and fast, hard chargers. This board is truly top of the line when it comes to performance, pop, and power. Consider this model if you want a next-generation all-mountain charger with a stiff pattern and little compromise.

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