Jones Howler Snowboard Review | GearJunkie Tested

After months of waiting, the T-bar was spinning at Crested Butte Mountain Resort. It had been an unseasonably dry December and January. Finally, the snow was stacked up enough to open the infamous High Lift, a surface lift serving double-black extreme terrain. After riding groomed runs and park laps all season, I was yearning to get off-piste and back into my favorite cliff bands.

At the top of the lift, I strapped into a 160 W Jones Howler, with Jones Mercury FASE bindings, the perfect board in my quiver for big mountain freestyle riding. I strapped in and rode the mellow ridge full of fresh powder, making my way to the top of Paradise Cliffs. While the options before me were big to very big, I found myself on the smaller end of the spectrum: a natural diving board with a 13-foot drop before an open powder field.

The only thing left to do was point the nose downhill and let the Howler and my legs do the work of landing. I sent it, pressing the camber flat into the snow before popping off the edge.

I landed in an explosion of white, the Howler begging me to keep my speed after landing. The board encouraged big, wide turns through the snow and after the terrain reopened, easily cut through the chunder caused by other tracks.

The Howler absolutely eats conditions: Straight-lining chundery landings is what this snowboard is designed to do.

In short: The all-new Jones Howler ($700) is Jones’ next evolution of a hard-charging freeride board designed by professional athletes like Victor De Le Rue and Elena Hight for their personal use on the Freeride World Tour. If you know anything about the tour, it’s all about going as fast and as big as possible, and putting down large airs and spins on less-than-ideal conditions.

The Howler is as aggressive as one can get with a snowboard. It’s a minimally tapered, directional, full-camber design with 3D Contour Base 3.0 and a 4-out-of-5 stiffness rating. The only limiting factor of the board is the rider’s legs and confidence levels.

Check out other snowboards in our Best All-Mountain Snowboards Buyer’s Guide.

Jones Howler Review

Making Bad Snow Fun

The 2026 season was the worst on record in terms of snowpack at my home mountain of Crested Butte Mountain Resort in Colorado. The majority of the season was unseasonably dry and warm, making riding conditions less than ideal with frequent crusty, icy, chundery snow.

There were multiple rain-on-snow events — which are unheard of in here. While I was able to get in a few proper powder days on the Howler, most of my days were in subpar conditions. Compared to other all-mountain boards like the Burton Custom Flying V, the Howler handles uneven, icy, and chundery snow really well.

Excellent Edge Hold

The full-camber profile holds a fantastic edge and initiates deep carves on even the iciest groomers. This snowboard excels at speed, encouraging you to make bigger, faster turns all while absorbing and dampening chatter and bumps.

The ride is confidence-inspiring to say the least. If your legs can handle it, the board will power through anything. I wouldn’t describe the ride as playful: Stiffer boards are less forgiving.

It feels powerful, especially when charging through adverse snow conditions, popping off jumps and side hits, and straight-lining through chundery runouts. It’s hard to find a more capable snowboard for steep terrain and adverse conditions.

In the challenging steeps and low snowpack, I quickly found the limiting factor was my legs and confidence and not the snowboard. While my intentions were not to primarily abuse the board with durability tests, my aggressive riding in the low snowpack meant I hit more than my fair share of rocks on the Howler. Yes, there are scratches, but to my surprise, no core shots, giving me the impression of very good long-term durability in poor conditions.

Profile, Shape, Flex

The Howler is a directional snowboard with a wide shovel nose, very slight tapered swallow tail, and 2cm of setback. These features give it just enough float to be good in powder. Though, on a very deep day, a proper powder board would be a better choice. The tail is large enough for switch landings even in powder, though — far from a twin.

The key to its hard-charging ability and pop lies in its camber-heavy profile. On deep carves, you can really press the profile into the snow before springing out for fast edge changes. The camber helps spring-load ollies and pop with the board loving airtime, perfect for sending 360s and backflips in the park or clearing cliff bands in the steeps.

Another unique feature is Jones 3D Contour Base 3.0. Along the nose and tail, the center of the board sits deeper in the snow. The idea is to reduce drag on the edges of the tips both for better float, and for faster and smoother turn initiation. Unloading the camber profile and changing edges, the board feels fast and smooth, especially between deep carves.

On deep turns on my other favorite wide snowboard, the Never Summer Nohku, I would sometimes catch the nose — something I haven’t experienced with the Howler, I think in part due to this 3D base contour.

Flex: Stiff and Solid

The last notable feature of the Howler is its stiffness. Jones classifies it as mid-stiff but rates it 4 out of 5 on the stiffness scale. When riding the board even in 160 W, it feels like the appropriate amount of stiffness without being too much or starting to hinder movements, especially for big mountain riding and holding an edge on the steeps or variable snow.

When it comes to the park, which Jones rates this board a 9/10 for, it does feel too stiff to be good at butters or jibbing on rails. Although, jumps, spins, and landings all feel amazing with the level-4 grade. 

Sustainable Features

Jones has made a name for itself when it comes to high-performing sustainability. The new Howler comes packed with sustainable features so you can feel good about your environmental impacts while enjoying that same environment. 

Starting at the core, Jones uses responsibly harvested bamboo on top of other woods. Instead of full carbon stringers, Jones uses Bcomp’s Carbon Flax stringers. These stringers provide superior impact resistance and damping, all while using flax fibers, which contribute to significantly lower CO₂ emissions compared to conventional materials.

The topsheet is made from castor beans, which offer a much lower environmental impact compared to traditional materials. After a season of use and a few rides in the bed of my truck, it still looks brand new. The board uses a bio-based epoxy that reduces CO₂ by 33% compared to conventional petroleum products, by utilizing a plant-based carbon. Both the edges and sidewalls are made from recycled materials, all while being engineered to withstand long-term durability.

This board even comes from the factory with a plant-based WEND wax to avoid putting excess chemicals into the snow.

The sustainability doesn’t stop with sourced materials. Jones’s snowboard factory is also fair trade certified, and a portion of the proceeds supports 1% for the Planet and Protect Our Winters.

Lastly, this board is highly durable and is holding up very well to my rock-bashing with the base, edges, sidewalls, and topsheet showing minimal wear. Meaning, I won’t have to replace it anytime soon.

Top and Bottom Art

With such a poppy board, it’s likely to spend significant time flying through the air where you can easily show off the poppy colors. All in all, the board colors look good with a variety of bindings and outfits.

For 2026 the Howler comes in only one color pattern. The topsheet features an abstract black and white color pattern that feels like shadows playing across a snowy slope. The Jones logo is prominent yet not too big on the nose. Between the bindings is a small black and neon green/yellow strip that emulates spray paint. It features a wolf howling at the moon along with the board size. Below the back foot, HOWLER is spelled out in that same neon green outline.

The base features a similar abstract pattern but this time with the very poppy neon yellow-green amongst black. A larger Jones logo is prominent on the nose, an outline of JONES in black is on the tail.

My favorite part is that the base reflects its neon green-yellow color onto the snow.

Critiques

After spending some time on the Howler, I learned where it shines, and at the same time, what it’s not good at. A stiff and aggressive board, it feels best when ridden hard and fast, but the opposite is also true. To truly unlock the board’s potential, it really needs to be ridden at the edge.

Tired legs or mellow laps aren’t a strong suit for the Howler. It’s also not as forgiving or playful at lower speeds. Beginner snowboarders should look elsewhere in terms of shape and stiffness, as this board is too much for them.

My other minor qualm with this board is really just a need to refine its niche. Jones lists this as a 9/10 for both Park and Pow. But in my riding, I would rate these as a 7 out of 10 for both categories.

In park mode, the flex is too stiff for jibbing rails or pressing and holding butters. When it comes to pow, the board does well, especially when it’s steep. But for lower-angle powder or even powder without the freestyle component, I would find better float from a Jones Hovercraft or other powder-specific board.

Yes, this board will do it all: freestyle, big mountain, park, and pow. But it really is only top-of-the-line at big mountain freestyle. All in all, it’s hard to find any true critiques of the Howler.

Conclusion: Who Is This Board For? 

The Jones Howler is a standout board if you’re a freestyle snowboarder. Its traditional camber provides great pop, edge hold, deep carving, and stomping ability.

This board is packed with sustainable features that translate to performance, including lighter weight, eco-friendly materials that absorb and dampen the chatter associated with rough snow. It loves airtime and spins, is confidence-inspiring in adverse conditions, and wants to go as fast as your legs will let it, at all times.

So if you like charging aggressively, finding natural hits to jump off, taking speed across the mountain, and riding like you’re on the Freeride World Tour, the Howler will be your perfect companion. Just make sure your legs are up for the challenge — maybe hit the gym before next season, because you no longer can use the board as a limiting factor for your riding.