Arbor Candle Rain Review

Performance Comparison

The Candle Rain is our hands-down favorite for all-mountain freestyle on cliffs and kickers. It's not the best for buttering or playful carves, but it more than makes up for what some would consider to be shortcomings with power, pop, and responsiveness when it matters most – cranking tricks off jumps and landing in powder.

Edging

This metric was a tough one to score for the Candle Rain. With a small, aggressive sidecut of 8 meters on a 159 cm deck, it practically wants to carve in a circle. However, this comparatively small radius paired with a stiffer flex means it's much harder to lay into deep, playful carves at medium speeds.

If you'd rather have us cut the technical jargon and get to the point – the Rain is perfect for the quick turns you'd make while initiating a spin off a jump; especially kickers or natural jumps where you don't have the room for the setup turns and long, drawn out carves you might utilize on a park jump. Because our reviews are written for most all-mountain snowboarders, we gave this board a lower score than models we tested that were designed with the fresh corduroy harvester in mind.

Float in Powder

While the Rain might be a bit difficult for some riders to tame on the groomers, this does not at all hold true for powder. We found the 8 meter sidecut to be ideal in the deep stuff where there is less of a sweet spot in terms of toe-to-heel balance meaning you can lay into quick, short powder turns with ease. However, with its downright stiff construction our testers found themselves charging hard on this board any time they came across an open field of the good stuff during our season-long testing period. It floats, it slashes, and it slices through chopped-up runouts like nobody's business.

The hole pattern is set back 1.5 cm, but with plenty of mounting options and a mere 3 mm taper from nose to tail, you have the option to set the Rain up in a practically true-twin stance should you desire to do so. This brings us to one of our favorite elements of this beast of a snowboard – it is phenomenal for riding powder switch.

Stability at Speed

Another strong suit for the Candle Rain is its ability, no, it's need, to go fast. The combination of the wood powerply, the Highland III core, and carbon stringers means you'll hardly even notice chop with this all-mountain bandit on your feet.

When we got the chance to point the Rain down some untouched groomers, the only thing slowing us down was the natural limitation of the slope. When we took it into the backcountry, far away from ski patrollers and flatlanders hiding below rollers, we were grinning from ear to ear after pointing every chute, bowl, and powder field in sight. But a word of warning – go easy on the high speed carves because the deep sidecut can take you from barreling downhill to barreling sideways across the fall line in the blink of an eye.

Playfulness

We consider a snowboard's playfulness to be how it performs at low speeds on smaller features, shallow powder, or a mellow open groomer. If you're looking to dial in your funbox tricks, try your hand at tail-blocks, or mimic the wild butter combinations you saw in a TikTok reel, the Candle Rain isn't going to be of much help.

The primary factor that determines a snowboard's amount of playfulness is its flex. Candle gives the Rain and 8 out of 10 on their flex meter, 10 being the stiffest. In our experience, that rating is spot-on. Unless your definition of playfulness is hitting the biggest jump in the park, you're better off going with a softer board for goofing around on sunny, soft days.

Pop and Jumping

When it comes to touching some sky, it's hard to top the capabilities of the Candle Rain. All of the elements of this board come together as you're speeding into a jump – The stiff flex absorbs small bumps like dirtbike suspension, the deep sidecut is perfect for making micro-adjustments on the approach, and the near-true-twin shape is great for taking off switch.

All of these factors play into the most important part of any maneuver – landing and riding away. We've found that reverse camber or camber combinations can often lead to looping out or tumbling over the bars in a big impact landing, but the aggressive positive camber of the Rainlikes to put a death grip on the snow the second it touches down. In those first few moments of not knowing whether you're going to be getting Apres high fives or going for the tomahawk of a lifetime where this thing really earns its stripes. The stiff flex and the sidecut radius are both components that you'll want on your side as you regain your balance and control on your way to glory country.

Should You Buy the Candle Rain?

The Candle Rain is not for everyone. This snowboard is a hard-charging freestyle destroyer, built for all gas, no brakes. It's at home on sketchy in-runs, do-or-die chutes, and landing switch in the powder. This board is not for beginners or those searching for a playful deck. In fact, if a beginner tried to learn on the Rain, they might be opting for some hot chocolate by the fire instead of going back out after lunch.

What Other Snowboard Should You Consider?

If freestyle isn't your focus and you're all about carving deep turns, the Cardiff Goat Enduro is your go-to all-mountain powerhouse. For a board that cranks up the playfulness while still delivering solid performance on jumps and in powder, see the Yes Standard Uninc. Finally, our hands-down favorite for deep powder is the Burton High Fidelity.