Choosing which snowboard to ride can be a minefield. Especially as there are so many amazing ones out there! Fortunately pro rider Katie Blundell has written this handy guide.
WHERE TO START
First things first:
Are you going away for the whole season or just for a weeks’ holiday?
Are you heading to the mountains to do an instructor course or a freestyle camp?
Will you most likely be found in the park or in the back country?
How much snowboarding have you done previously
What sort of snowboarder are you aspiring to be? Freestyle/ Instructor/ Olympic Pipe rider?!
Once you’ve got the answers to all of the above, you are halfway there to making the biggest decision of your life… well one of them anyway!
“Remember – a board that’s right for one person might not necessarily be right for you. So the best thing you can do before buying a snowboard is to test drive it first. Most of the big UK snowboard brands hold demos at snow domes and in the mountains, and some shops in resorts will even let you test a board directly from them before you buy.”
To make the decision process that little bit easier, I’ve compiled a list of boards below that I’ve either tested or heard good recommendations about depending on what kind of snowboarding you’re planning on doing this winter:
THE BEST SNOWBOARDS FOR ALL MOUNTAIN RIDING
This is the most popular type of snowboard as it tackles everything that the mountain has on offer and is a good all-rounder. All Mountain boards are incredibly versatile, so that you can cruise the piste, hit the park or ride the powder. They also make great beginner boards as they are robust and pretty forgiving. They are normally directional with a deeper side cut to make blasting around the mountain fast and easy.
FOR MEN: K2 Eighty Seven
Directional shape and retro feel gives this board a surfy edge to it. Made with a layer of bamboo to give it a “snappy” feel. Good responsiveness from the Carbon Web Construction and Camber between the inserts, allowing control in your carves.
FOR WOMEN: GNU Klassy
Directional, with a quick turning nature, fast edge to edge and a lively feel. This board performs well in variable conditions making it a good all mountain choice. Solid tip and tail for power, pop and stability. An aggressive board but fun too!
THE BEST BOARDS FOR FREESTYLE
Freestyle is a genre that has many more different styles of snowboarding under its umbrella including rail riding, kickers, street/urban and piste jibbing. In general, freestyle snowboards are softer flexing, twin tipped with a mellower side cut to be more maneuverable whilst doing tricks. Ideally you need a softer one for rails and a stiffer one for kickers, or one that’s in the middle that would be suitable for both. Rocker or Traditional Camber is personal preference; I always found Rocker good for rails, and Camber good for jumps. Many boards have a combination of both technologies or even a “Zero Camber”. Here are two boards I feel cover ALL areas of freestyle effectively.
FOR MEN: Capita Outer Space Living
This board is said to do it all….spin, tweak, press, bonk AND ride fast. It’s in the middle of the flex scale meaning it can hold its own in the park but is also playful enough for pressing and flexing. It has a strengthened top sheet which helps transfer the power to the core. The twin nose and tail are rockered while the camber begins just outside the inserts, making it strong on take offs with good pop. It’s perfect for park riders at any level.
FOR WOMEN: Arbor Cadence
My current board and I LOVE it! It has a softer flex making it easy to learn tricks on, but then feels stiff and stable enough when you need to go off jumps and make those landings. It’s a combination of flat and reverse camber which helps with catches on take-offs. Then it also has Rib Technology to hold an edge when you need it to. So much pop too, with minimal effort! Not that this should sway you, but it also features some awesome graphics as well!
“NB: If you are riding Urban (features in the street, stairs sets, rails and wall rides) use a board that you don’t mind getting TRASHED!”
THE BEST BOARDS FOR PIPE RIDING
Pipe riding is also part of the freestyle family so you would need a freestyle board, but one which is slightly stiffer with a more aggressive sidecut. It needs to speed along the flat bottom of the pipe, grip up the walls (sharpen your edges!), give quick responses and have plenty of pop off the lip.
FOR MEN: Ride Machete GT
This is a solid board with added carbon and pop rods, making it ideal for pipe riding. It has a combination of flat camber and rocker to make it easy enough to do spins and tricks out of the pipe but stable enough to hold an edge and keep strong.
FOR WOMEN: Roxy Torah Bright Pro Model
Obviously this is going to be a top choice coming from the Half Pipe Queen herself. It’s an aggressive board which holds its own in varying half pipe conditions. It has an aggressive rocker profile under your feet to keep the movement and then a camber profile tip/ tail to provide you with stability. Its also has something called Magne-Traction for extra grip as sometimes the Halfpipe can get a little icy. A sintered base means it goes really fast too!
THE BEST BOARDS FOR POWDER
These boards have a set back stance, longer in length, bigger nose/ smaller tail to float and are directional. If you get the right board for free riding it will feel AMAZING. If you use the wrong board (ie: a short rail board) it will be hard work.
FOR MEN: Burton Skeleton Key
I’ve heard that this board is supposed to be amazing in powder with a mega surfy feel and turning capabilities. It has a fish shape making it float on top of the powder. It is snappy in tight turns and holds an edge in wide turns. It also has a set back camber profile and can cut through any chunder the mountain throws in your path.
FOR WOMEN: Salomon Rumble Fish
This board is great for everything free riding has to offer, including time ploughing through the powder, darting between the trees, jibbing off side hits and carving circles in the hard-pack. It’s flat in the centre, with mellow camber under foot and rockered in the nose and the tail. Even though it’s a true twin, it holds its own on the big-mountain terrain.
THE BEST BOARDS FOR AN INSTRUCTOR COURSE
For a snowboard instructor course it’s a good idea to ride a full standard camber board as you can learn things the “proper” way. A slightly stiffer board will be beneficial as it will be resilient to the variable terrain/ conditions on the mountain and will be better for your long days of training/ instructing.
FOR MEN: Arbor Coda Camber
This is for a seasoned rider who needs versatility from a board. It’s called an “everyday performer” making it pretty perfect for an instructor course. The Camber System gives it a fully engaged performance when charging around the mountain but also focuses your technique.
FOR WOMEN: Ride OMG
I used to ride this board for bigger jumps but I feel it would make a great technical board and be excellent for instructing. It’s stiff, but poppy when you need it to be, really fast and a long lasting board. The OMG literally demolishes through anything on the mountain so you’ll feel confident when you ride it. The rocker on the nose and tail of this board start just before a normal board would, so it is slightly more forgiving. T
THE BEST BOARDS FOR SPLIT BOARDING
This is another area of snowboarding that is amazing to get into. It opens up a whole new world to snowboarders and requires a high level of fitness and technique. A split board is a snowboard that can be separated into two parts like skis. You then use them with climbing skins to climb slopes, put them back together at the top and be ready in no time at all to enjoy the descent down the mountain.
FOR MEN: Burton Custom
This is a legendary Burton Board – a real icon and now one of the most versatile split boards in the market. It’s stable due to its directional twin shape and traditional camber, yet fun and playful. It’s the perfect board for those wanting to progress their split boarding/ touring skills.
FOR WOMEN: Burton Anti- Social W
This is a great women specific split board to start out on which is nice and comfortable to ride. It has excellent float-ability in powder due to its s-rocker shape, but stable and reliable at the same time. It’s currently only available in one length (150cm) but that could well change, so keep an eye on it!
KIT LIST – MORE STUFF YOU SHOULD GET FOR THE MOUNTAIN
Here are some other essential items you will need to have for your snowboard trip – best get writing that Christmas list…
Goggles
A real must have to protect your eyes from the glare of the sun and snow. Different lenses are used for different conditions so make sure you buy ones that allows you to easily swap over the lenses. Everyone has a different face shape, so you will need to try them on before you buy to make sure you’ve got a tight fit all around the eyes, no gaps and no pinching bits. Oh, and ideally you need to be able to still breath through your nose…Ive always used Dragon Goggles as they fit my face the best and I like the graphics. They do both guys and girls goggles and have a really easy changeable lens system. Sunglasses are ok too, but they can fall off more easily and if it’s snowing it can come through the sides and into your eyes.
Gloves
Again it all comes down to personal preference but just make sure you’ve got a good spec glove or mitten. I use mittens as I think they keep my hands warmer and I’m less likely to bend a finger back.
At the other end of the spectrum, if you are spring riding/ riding somewhere warmer, you don’t want your hands getting too hot. So you should be looking at thinner gloves/ mittens or even a “pipe” glove. I always use Celtek mittens, again because I love the colours, and they’re quality! Celtek do both guys and girls gloves. For pipe gloves, RAD gloves from Australia do some awesome unisex ones.
Boots
Again, try them on for size before you buy! You’re looking for boots that are tight with your toes touching the end, but not digging in anywhere or are uncomfortable in any way. The stiffness of them is down to personal preference, but generally you’ll need softer ones for park riding and stiffer ones for all-mountain riding. Saying that, I always rode stiff boots as I felt they gave me more support and were more responsive. Salomon boots fit my shape feet the best (narrow, skinny heal, small).
One thing to look out for is heel lift – if you have this in a boot you will get cramp on the mountain. When you bend your knees in your boots your heel should stay on the bottom of the boot. There is NOTHING worse than sore feet while snowboarding, so you need to get this right – it’s definitely the most important part of your snowboard equipment.
Bindings
These come in different sizes and most snowboard brands do them. Make sure they fit to your boot and that they fit on your board. Some brands have different base plate systems so they don’t fit on every board, so double check they are compatible. The stiffness varies, again generally softer for freestyle and stiffer for all-mountain. Once you have your biding you can fiddle around with the set up on your board, for example, the angles, forward lean, straps, stance width etc. At the moment I’m using Union Bindings which are pretty stiff, but that’s how I like them! Union bindings are really durable so they do both guys and girls bindings.
Jacket/ Pants
Sooooo many options available! Skinny pants, baggy pants, long jacket, short jacket, bright colours/ subtle colours, street style or Euro style! Always check the waterproof rating, its breathability and how warm the items are. It’s nice to have vents as a little extra feature on warmer days. Also a snow skirt on your jacket and snow gaiters at the bottom of your pants will stop unwanted snow getting in. Most importantly you need to be able to move freely in your snowboard outfit, so do some crazy dance moves when you try it all on just to make sure. My new outerwear this season is from Nikita, as I love the street style cut of their items. For guys, 686, Nitro, Bonfire are all pretty decent brands.
Thermals
Layering for snowboarding can be really complicated as you’ve got so much choice, including base layer/ middle layer/ outer layer that come in different textures, components and properties! So I just keep it basic. I wear an all-in-one Ninja Suit and there are quite a few brands out there that offer them nowadays. I have an Airblaster one…leopard print of course. I wear this and then a hoodie and jacket over the top. If it’s warm I’ll ditch the jacket, if it’s mega cold, I’ll put another t-shirt on underneath my hoodie. Before the Ninja Suit, I used to just wear thermal leggings with a matching thermal top.
Helmet
I really think this is one of the most, if not THE MOST, important piece of snowboard equipment to have. Brain injuries are not something to be messed with and if you can do something to help prevent them then surely that’s a good thing. I know they feel weird to wear at the start, but if you persevere with them, eventually you won’t even notice that you’re wearing one. My helmet has saved me quite a few times and I dread to think what would have happened if I wasn’t wearing one.
But you MUST make sure it fits properly. A bad fitting helmet is actually worse than not wearing a helmet at all. So it’s good to get this one professionally fitted. It should be tight and shouldn’t move around or slip backwards / forwards. Always check that your helmet is suitable for the snow and high impacts, and if you tend to wear a hat underneath then factor this into the size you get.
I have always used Bern Helmets and they have done me proud, and as far as helmets go, they look pretty cool too! When you try a helmet on for size, try to imagine you’ve got all your snowboard gear on too. Without it, you’ll feel silly and your head will look like a malteaser. Once you have your full outfit on I promise you it will look better.
Socks
Take a few pairs with you as it’s best not to wear the same ones for days on end…They come in different thicknesses and materials and lots of different patterns. Check the size is right as if they are too big they can wrinkle in your boots and cause blisters. To be honest I don’t use any brands in particular – just whatever happens to be around at the time. If you’re going to a particular cold place for riding, maybe get some really good thermal ones. Nothing worse than having cold tootsies! Stinky Socks are a bit different to your run-of-the-mill socks and they are lovely and warm too.
Face mask/ neck gaiter
This is just an extra little accessory to keep you warm and dry. You can get ones that go over your head and cover most of your face that are amazing on really cold snowy days. Again, Celtek do some pretty funky unisex ones and Thug Rugs do amazing over-your-head ones for both girls and guys. I’ve yet to figure out how to wear a Thug Rug with a helmet but there must be a cool and practical way to do it?!
All of these items are available in most UK snowboard stores or can be found online. If you’re Exeter based, pop in to see the guys at The Board Basement as they will help you get kitted out and give you really great advice. It’s also a good excuse to chat all things snowboarding and get excited for the winter.
