Cardiff Goat Pro Carbon Splitboard Review

The Goat Pro Carbon Splitboard is a hard-charging, yet surprisingly maneuverable ride, if its rider is skilled enough to manage it. We enjoyed many of the days we spent with the Goat under our feet this season, from deep days in the trees to big mountain objectives. The Goat offers surprisingly versatile performance for its category. While many boards in the big mountain freeride category can feel a bit stiff and make sluggish turns at slow speeds or in tight places, the Goat maintains a good amount of maneuverability. While it's not an easy board for beginners or more chill riding, a strong rider will appreciate the Goat as a one-board quiver.

Powder

The Goat Pro Carbon is right at home in powder. While it is not a heavily tapered or nose-heavy shape, it is quite wide and has plenty of nose for front foot steering in powder. This board is clearly designed for freeriding in soft conditions and never made us feel like we were nose diving or fatiguing our back leg. When riding powder, the Goat prefers long, drawn-out turns and is especially stable at speed. In tighter situations, it is maneuverable, but you can feel the larger tail and less tapered shape holding you back from making tight and fast turns in the trees. Compared to other boards in this category, it really stands out for its maneuverability, but across the whole market, there are more “turny” boards.

One of the highlight experiences riding powder on the Goat is popping off of pillows and dropping cliffs. The added maneuverability of the Goat allows for easy setup before takeoff, or for making last-minute decisions, but the board's stiff flex and supportive tail provide excellent landing gear. There is a large sweet spot on this board, which is forgiving if you get a little too far in the back seat or close to going over the handlebars, allowing you to save your balance easily. Charging through deep freeride terrain was our favorite place to be when out on the Goat.

Firm Snow

In firm and challenging snow conditions, the Goat makes normal turns without introducing gross body movements to get the board around. In crusts, it doesn't feel hooky and maintains its maneuverability. However, we definitely preferred higher speeds to get us through bad snow conditions; at slower speeds, it can feel like work to get the tail to release.

The Goat has a long 11-meter turn radius, which should help with edgehold in firm snow. In our experience, it offered good edge hold, but not top-of-the-class performance on firm snow. The Goat does not feel chattery, which is nice, but it does struggle to initially find purchase. In firm snow, we found ourselves slowing down to maintain control. There are many factors that can contribute to this, but we think the wider width of the goat contributes to its initial struggle to find grip in firm conditions. Folks with wider feet may have fewer problems with slippage.

In steep terrain where edgehold can be paramount, we found the Goat felt stable, but it was more work to bring it around in jump turns. The long tail helps you feel balanced and adds security, especially when carrying speed in steeper chalk snow, but that tail is a tradeoff for maneuverability. The stiffer flex, wider width, and long tail on the board had us working harder in technical and tight steeps. For strong riders that can bring the board around in this terrain, you will be rewarded with a strong and stable platform, but we find we prefer the Goat more in terrain where you can make fall line turns instead of jump turns.

Playfulness

The Goat leans to the poppy side of the playfulness spectrum, but its maneuverability compared to other boards in its class makes it quite fun if you're one who likes to throw the occasional nose butter or spin off a side hit. The long tail on the Goat makes it more than capable of landing switch or even setting up switch if you feel so inclined. Though most people out on splitboards will likely find themselves setting up switch for an air very seldom.

If your idea of playfulness on a splitboard is tight and fast turns, the Goat is decent for its category, but we wouldn't recommend it for that. If you like jumping off side hits and finding airtime, the Goat is a great option. The Goat feels easy to load up for popping off side hits, is stable in the air, and is stable landing in soft snow.

Climbing

The Goat's full camber profile and stiffer flex provide good grip on steep skin tracks, and the carbon construction keeps things light underfoot. Cardiff bumps the touring mounts slightly forward on their splitboards to create a better balance point for kickturns and breaking trail. We appreciated this more forward mount, but it offers less adjustability, and we question whether the tradeoff is worth the minor gains that ultimately good technique can make up for. The Goat has tapered corners on the inside edges, which prevent it from getting hung up on the skin track; we found that this feature helped a bit in soft snow conditions. We also appreciated the longer sidecut on the Goat for improving stability for sidehilling. For us, it felt like the Goat had better traction on the sidecut edge compared to the competition. The only thing that detracts from the Goats uphill experience is just its width, which makes it harder to edge in firm snow.

Should You Buy the Cardiff Goat Pro Carbon?

If you're a strong rider who appreciates good stability at speed, pop, and powder performance, but are tired of sluggish freeride boards, the Goat Pro Carbon is one of our top choices. The Goat's best-in-class maneuverability, coupled with its confidence-inspiring stability, make it a game-changing option in the freeride category.

What Other Splitboards Should You Consider?

The Goat is a great option if you find yourself most often riding open terrain, but if you're spending a lot of your year riding more trees and low-angle terrain, the Goat may feel like a lot of board to haul around. If that's the case, check out the Weston Backwoods, which really shines riding in tighter terrain and handles poor snow conditions quite well. For those looking for a poppy splitboard with more maneuverability, we think the Jones Ultralight Stratos is a great option that offers a narrow waist width and softer flex but still feels supportive.