What makes a good snowboard? Is it the brand? The shape? The cost?
Before you ask these questions let’s go to the basics on picking how to choose a snowboard. If you’re new to snowboarding as I once was, you get a lot of technical words thrown at you like camber, flex, fusion bases, 4×2 inserts and so on. But all you really want is a good snowboard for you to start out and grow your skills in this amazing sport.
A few basic things you should look out for in a good snowboard:
- The height of the board
- How stiff it is
- How much it costs
Let’s start with a basic way of how to size a snowboard – your height. Now what you would want to look for is a board length that , when your standing up with it, sits just under the chin because same rule of thumb as surfing that the shorter you go, not only is it that tad slower for the beginners out there but also the board turns much easier. If you were to go on something a bit longer now – say round the nose area, it would make it harder to turn and given the extra speed you would get from it would make it much more difficult to control. Not to say that a longer faster board is bad thing, but it would be a good snowboard suited more for a semi experienced all mountain rider as we will cover later on.
It might not seem like a lot of difference when you look at the distance between your chin and nose but you will notice the difference on the snow – ie. You start to feel the board ride you down the hill before you can get your turns cut properly.Now you know what length you should be looking for, let’s consider the next essential feature – how flexible it is.
“Flex ability effects your choice of a good snowboard…but before looking at the flex rating you need to know what sort of snowboarding you want it for.”
Flex ability effects a snowboard in several ways – a firmer board is more stable, handles better at high speeds and is a bit easier to ride for beginners, where as a soft board is very playful, not good on powder snow, but excellent in the park for rails and jibs. So before you know what flex rating you should be looking at – you need to know what sort of snowboarding you want it for.
Park riding maybe? Maybe a bit more of an all mountain board for all terrain areas? Jibbing rails and boxes? For riding powder snow?
Each board is slightly different and has technology and features that will allow better performance in certain areas of snowboarding. Price is another factor that is essential to take into consideration when considering what a good snowboard is. As it’s important to get value for money – what is a good snowboard for someone else, may not be a good snowboard for you! There are plenty of
places to shop online for the best snowboards – all the best brands and the most competitive prices for all around the world.There are two main types of good snowboards that most people will go and choose from – loosely falling into these categories.
Park/ Freestyle snowboards – What is a good park snowboard (coming soon)
All mountain snowboards – What is a good all mountain snowboard (coming soon)
To put it simply; all mountain boards are designed to ride anywhere on the mountain – they usually have a slightly high flex rating, are good for jumps, tree runs, going fast down groomers, and hitting back country and powder. They also perform well in the park and pipe. They are the ultimate all-rounder good snowboards and always an excellent choice for any rider and price ranges can vary from the cheap to the very expensive.
Some of the best all mountain snowboards are – (coming soon)
Park and freestyle boards are built specifically for freestyle and park riding. Excellent for hitting jibs, rails, boxes, tricks on jumps, wall rides and spins, they are typically a softer flex and come in lots of different camber option
s. They can be very fun to ride, but don’t perform well at high speeds or in powder snow.
Some of the best park boards are – (coming soon)
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