Are you looking to learn how to snowboard well or improve your existing skills on the slopes, in nature, in powder snow or in a snowboard park? I will try to help you get to know this snowboard boards the most important criteria and types for choosing a snowboard, and answer the question of how to choose a snowboard for your idea, style, skill level or body type, height, foot size or weight.

 

 

Snowboard – is it important to choose the right snowboard?

The thoughtfully chosen snowboards It ensures stable, problem-free sliding, good handling and the opportunity to master advanced snowboarding techniques, and later perform snowboard tricks of various difficulty levels. Choosing a model that does not match your knowledge, exercise culture, body weight or skiing style will not only cause discomfort and annoyance, but sliding will cost more effort and reduce the pleasure of winter touring, but it can also expose the practicing snowboarder to dangerous situations that can result in serious injury.

The same is true if you go to a groomed ski slope, slope, fresh powder, off-piste terrain or a freestyle park (a special area reserved for freestyle snowboarders) with the wrong equipment. The wrong size for your body type, weight, athleticism, energy and fitness level can also affect the durability of the board - the equipment will be more susceptible to damage or breakage. Before buying a particular model, you should make sure that the weight range specified by the manufacturer corresponds to your standard body weight.

When choosing a snowboard, gender is also very important due to different physical characteristics. Women's snowboards are usually 140-155 cm long, narrower due to smaller female feet, and have a softer flex, which is related to different anatomy and a lower center of gravity than men's, so it is worth keeping these aspects in mind when making the final decision. snowboards when selecting.

 

Snowboard types

The our snowboard When choosing a snowboard, we must consider our snowboarding style and the terrain we will be skiing on most often.
How many times do we go to the park in a year? How many times do we go off-piste in a year? How far do we dare to leave that piste at that time? Will we slide in tight spots? Will we ever get into a meter of powder? Do we snowboard at an average of 40 km/h, or do we test the board's top speed? Do we try to go 100 down a steep piste?
Do we snowboard from one edge of the slope to the other, or do we rather move in a narrower lane, turning a lot? What percentage of our skiing is done in the opposite direction (in our clumsier direction, “switching”)? Do we want to go in the opposite direction at all? Or not so much, because we can only go slowly that way, and we don’t like this pace? Or are we determined in our choice by another balance sport that we have practiced for a long time, with more routine basics?
Are we going to walk up a mountain in our snowboard boots? What is more important: a stable landing from a big jump, or a stably pulled deep banked turn? Is it important to land a jump switch just as well as in our skillful direction? Do we do tricks on the smooth slope (tailpress, nosepress, or e.g. 180° flips), or do we just crush at speed? Or do we prefer to snowboard constantly changing directions, slowly, and looking around? What color slopes do we like, blue, red, black?

This is all important information for snowboards in terms of our choice.

Snowboards for snowboarders are divided into several basic types according to riding style, the most popular of which are soft boards (boards that can be used with soft, sewn snowboard boots): all mountain, freestyle, freeride and jibbing, freecarving, and hard boards: race: Giant slalom and slalom.

Allmountain board, a snowboard that can be used anywhere, perhaps the most common choice

These are truly universal snowboard boards They are suitable for riding and snowboarding on a wide variety of terrains, from designated ski slopes to snow parks to freeride cross-country skiing. They are suitable for both snowboarding learners and intermediates who want to improve quickly.

Freestyle board – it's important to know that I'm talking about technical freestyle, because otherwise any sponge-shaped snowboard is broadly considered a freestyle snowboard.

Originally developed in artificial snowboard parks, it is characterized by efficient development in the air and tricks performed using ramps, artificial elements, jumps, barriers or boxes, tubes, and other artificial elements. True freestyle snowboards It is made with a wide and short construction and a soft flex.

Freeride and Off Piste snowboards

This style of snowboarding is based on sliding on terrain outside of groomed slopes and usually on untreated, natural snow. Freeriding requires equipment that provides adequate buoyancy in powdery snow. There is no more beautiful, more captivating terrain than a deserted mountainside covered in virgin snow, with trees, bushes, clearings, and rocks. That's why I do snowboarding.

Jibbing

This involves going over technical artificial obstacles such as barriers, boxes, walls or benches. The best boards for this style of snowboarding are short and soft flex boards, whose sidewalls are made with technology that ensures high resistance, e.g. against injuries. Very few people do it professionally, because it consists of extremely acrobatic and injury-prone tasks, it is a sport for the few. Sometimes a talent emerges among wakeboarding professionals.

Race

A high-speed style for advanced snowboarders, requiring a lot of physical strength, characterized by the use of fast, long and narrow snowboard boards. These narrow, stiff and long models are used in rock-hard plastic boots. The problem is that, in addition to the otherwise very spectacular, fast and beautiful movement that often puts too much strain on the knees, a new pair of boots for something like this starts at over €500. And bindings are also hard to come by, which is why this otherwise Olympic style is slowly shifting to the increasingly popular freecarving.

Freecarving – the successor to Alpin Race, raced with sewn shoes, but with a similar flavor

It is becoming increasingly popular. It can also be enjoyed on artificial snow.

It is spectacular, characterized by dynamic, sudden maneuvers or sharp turns, and deep banked boarding. With the right routine, your forearms can even touch the snow. This is a style for advanced boarders. Those who are good at this usually find themselves in freeride soon.

In recent years, they have been fitted with stiff six-back, freestyle bindings, they have become relatively wide for versatile use, and are used with high flex index boots (flex 9, 10). They are comfortable, versatile, and spectacular. My favorite shoes to wear with them are one of the most popular freeride boots in the USA, the Ride Insano.

 

How to choose a snowboard? The most important elements

Elements such as shape, turn radius, type of turn radius, sole type, density, resistance, and flex, snowboard side geometry (rocker, camber, and mixtures thereof), and snowboard width all influence the optimal fit of a snowboard, as well as how long it will last.nowboard board let's choose for ourselves.

Shape: the overall top view shape of the snowboard

There are directional and symmetrical snowboards (Twin Tip). In the first case, it is not true that the shape only allows skiing in one direction. The snowboards can be used on prepared, prepared, “loaded” slopes or on fresh snow. The center of gravity of directional snowboards is shifted backwards to their center (reaction). These are the snowboards in the world with the fastest center of gravity and the most beautifully sharpened, they can make the deepest tilts, the fastest turns. If we want to learn to carve beautifully, or we want to race at maximum speed, or we want to react to rapidly changing terrain situations suddenly, or if freeriding, deep snow skiing is the direction of our desires, then it is worth buying a directional board. I would add that this will only make sense if we do not use freestyle (“duck”) -15*/+15* degrees or -12*/+12* etc. settings, but an all-mountain, attacking stance, where the back foot is at a minimum of 0 degrees, or at a positive angle, not a negative one. Because if our back foot is in a negative position, we cannot compress deeply and bring our knees down, and then we can screw up the more stable, faster and more controlled deep center of gravity turns that these boards offer.

Any directional snowboard with a tail that is raised at least 2 cm is steerable and can be used for reverse (clumsy-going, “switch”) skiing.

Only very rare, un-folded, fork-tailed snowboard boards cannot be used for switchboarding, and some old (mainly beveled) alpine snowboards, but these are rare to come across these days.

We need to understand that when we choose a directional snowboard, we choose a “direction”, a “direction” that we have chosen, which is the direction we usually prefer to snowboard in, and we want to support our glide in that direction with everything possible. We can also board in our less skilled direction, in “switches”, without any problems, but we give more support to the direction that we have proven to be more skilled in.

The second option, Twintip, however, provides the same equal support both forward and backward. This will be the best choice for those who feel that: “They can only stand symmetrically on the board in a duck, in Hungarian…”

Here, everyone should think deeply about why they do it this way? Is it really just convenient? Or does everyone around you do it this way, right? Mass psychosis? Or have you seen movies like this, and that's why this setting is the model? Because it won't be effective if you have a really low center of gravity and slide through bushes.

But of course, you can also win at it. If someone is so skilled that they can move their head and feet in both directions with equal talent (or vice versa: equally untalented in both directions), then a Twintip board is worth choosing. If someone is a good wakeboarder, has a serious sliding and jumping routine, and likes the same in snowboarding, then a Twintip board will be favorable for them.

If he jumps off pipes and boxes with one right and one left, then the Twintip setup is his board. If he lands the same number of 180s as he does straight jumps or 360s, then the Twintip board is his board. However, for a smooth ground trick, such as a nose slide, it is not at all mandatory to buy a Twintip board.

If anyone has any doubts about this, please watch some of the 6-8 minute films by Korua Shapes: “Yearning for Turning”, they will definitely make you think. I don’t see many good freestyle snowboarders in real life, that’s a fact, carving is more developed here. In Canada, a talented guy would pass me by every two minutes. There are a lot of Twintips there snowboards I need it, that's for sure.

So, in these Twintip board models, the center of gravity is located in the geometric center of the board. It stretches the same in both directions, “symmetrically.” Therefore, they will never float properly in deep snow, where the front half of the board must generate disproportionately more buoyancy than the back half. You have to know that Kazu Kokubo is a genius, but no one should try to build friendly, easy-to-use freeride equipment based on his thinking, because without his knowledge, it will not work well.

Turning radius - this is very important and you can't really read much about it.

This parameter is responsible for the maneuverability of the snowboard. The larger the turning radius, the smaller the maneuverability, and vice versa, with a smaller radius you can make tight turns. However, the largest radius allows for the highest speed, the smaller the radius, the price of high maneuverability, the lower the top speed.

So again, everyone has to figure out what's most important around their house! For example, the Jones Hovercraft, a Guinness record-setting snowboard, is one of the fastest freeride boards: its radius is 10 m.

A Twinpig, created by the company Ride, has practically become a new, super-maneuverable category in the world, and its radius is 5-6 meters. A Jones Frontier all-mountain board or a Korua Pencil carving board have the same radius: 8.2 meters. In the past, the standard radius for a men's board was 9 meters, and for a women's board it was 9 meters.

Base type of the sole

For snowboards, there is extruded base material, which is the slowest, does not require regular lubrication, needs waxing less often, and is a cheaper material. There is also the “sintered” base and the “elektra base” (sintered graphite), which are distinguished by their speed and good resistance to mechanical damage, but require serious waxing before almost every snowy trip if we are “tüchtik”.

There are different metrics that each base material company uses. A higher number indicates a denser, faster, more expensive and more valuable base. For example, Extruded 1000 or Extruded 1500, Sintered Base 4000, but Jones snowboards also have Sintered Base 9900.

Flex – or the flexibility of a snowboard

Here we get a number, like in ski and snowboard boots, or like in the flexibility of snowboard bindings. This is a general number and it tells a lot, but I would divide it into three parts. snowboard: on the rump in front of the nose, between the legs and behind the hind legs.

And I would like to ask for a data for each. That would tell you more. The softer tip starts the turn easier, because it tends to go up better in powder snow. The harder tip holds better and is more resistant to firn, ice or drifting. But then, the factories only give a general data, which is why I still bend the new models today.

The flex index (flexibility) determines the stiffness of a snowboard and divides the equipment into soft and hard. Soft versions are easy to handle, require less force, are easier to maneuver, and are more forgiving of mistakes such as incorrect movement or poor technique, but they perform best on groomed slopes and are therefore intended for beginners.

A stiff flex allows for fast, agile, energetic movement, but does not provide spontaneous high maneuverability, so it is a better choice for advanced or expert snowboarders. Stiffness is usually determined on a scale of 1-10, where 1 is very soft flex and 10 is very stiff. For all-mountain/freeride boards, I really like a 6 flex, the best women's beginner board in the USA is the Nidecker Elle 3 flex. Jeremy Jones skied the 6000 meter high “Shangri-La Wall” in Nepal with a 10 flex Jones Flagship board (Guinness record, as the only one).

A beginner should choose a 3-4-5 flex, an advanced one a 5-6-7 flex, and an expert a 7-8-9-10 flex.

But it's not that simple, because with my 80 kg expert knowledge I can ski with a 6-9 flex, but under a 130 kg guy it will only be a 4-6 flex, because this is also relative.

Snowboard length – how do I choose the right model for my height and weight?

For a long time, one of the basic ways to check if the length of a snowboard is right for your height was the so-called chin test.

Standing straight, we held the equipment vertically in front of us and checked how long it was. If it was at shoulder and throat height, then the model was right for us.

Nowadays, snowboard manufacturers use their own measurements that take into account weight in addition to height. Therefore, before buying a particular snowboard, carefully study its table and check how its parameters compare to the recommendations of the particular brand.

When choosing the length of the board, body type and experience are also very important considerations. Thinner people should choose a slightly shorter and softer model. So they round down. An exception may be if their legs are very strong and dynamic for some reason (e.g. dancers, long-distance runners, gymnasts, weightlifters, etc.). For heavier riders and/or advanced snowboarders, a longer, stiffer board that reaches the nose, forehead or eye level is a better choice, as it is more stable at high speeds and the edge grips well even in icy conditions. However, this requires you to bring more power, more physique and better skills to the slope for gliding. For first-time snowboarders, a shorter, more maneuverable model is a good choice.

However, this version can also work well on half pipes or kickers, where maneuverability is a very important parameter.

The weight range sticker is usually placed at the bottom of the tables. Take the lower value literally from the interval, but round the upper value up by 10% in reality.

There are very special snowboards, where the length of the board can be 6-10 cm shorter than we are used to. These are usually super maneuverable, small radius, but very wide, agile, advanced snowboards. Such as. the Yes 420 or the Ride Warpi, Superpi, Twinpig.

For freeriding, choose the longest board, as this is where you need the most buoyancy. For freestyle turns and halfpipes, choose the smallest board. It is important to know that a board designed for real maneuverability will still turn great if it is 10 cm longer. You need to buy a “good” snowboard, not one that is 2 or 5 cm shorter.

I have a 172 cm Dupráz snowboard that I use to cut through even the densest forest. Many have witnessed it, I won't exaggerate.

If the board is as hard as concrete, then we can round down when choosing. If it is softer, then feel free to go up. Based on the shape, side geometry, width and flex, there are very big differences between the size requirements and the choice of snowboards. A Korua Pencil 164 is much more maneuverable than a Custom X 158, despite being 6 cm longer.

 

Snowboard width

This parameter depends primarily on foot size, and secondly on what you want to do on the snow.

The correct width of a snowboard is ideal when the toes and heels do not extend beyond the edge of the board and when the board is tilted at 45°, they do not rub against the snow.

If your feet don't fit, or you wear a shoe size of 45 or larger, choose the Wide version (marked with a W), which is wider than the standard models. Their center is about 26 cm wider, and their toe is usually 30 cm wider.

Most standard snowboards are 24-26 cm wide, which corresponds to shoe sizes 38-45. However, this should not be recommended 1:1, as snowboard boots have different designs (e.g. angled heels, integrated insoles), so two size 42 models may have different insole lengths. A 300 Burton shoe is 1 cm larger on the outside than a 300 Ride shoe.

What everyone would do well to believe and remember: a widened snowboard does not turn worse than its non-widened counterpart of the same type. In my experience, my widened snowboards have always turned the best. Despite my 44 foot, which is not particularly large for a 188 cm tall person, I only use widened snowboards, and I love to turn a lot and narrowly. I look for tight spots. If someone's wide snowboard doesn't turn well, then the normal version of that model won't turn well either. You need to buy a good snowboard, not one that's unnecessarily short. The best example of this is perhaps the Swiss company Korua, which makes the most maneuverable snowboards in the world, and without exception only makes widened boards. (That's why you don't see unnecessary "wide" designations in their catalog, because they're all wide.)

By the way, the wider board lands much more stably from jumps and has much more buoyancy on fresh snow.

 

Types of snowboard construction

Some snowboards look like a banana (full rocker, or rocking chair shape) and are great for fast, sliding tricks or learning basic beginner techniques, while others have a concave curve in the middle (camber or bridge) for fast downhill skiing. There are four types of snowboards: rocker, flat, camber, and hybrid, or a mix of all of these.

Each has its advantages and disadvantages!

 

Rocker or rocking chair shape - looking at a snowboard from the side

Also known as banana or reverse camber, rocker is characterized by a raised nose and tail that resembles a yellow banana. This design is forgiving of technical shortcomings and slippage and handling errors, which you will appreciate as a beginner snowboarder. It is perfect for overcoming the first obstacles, making turns and other tricks easier, and also for riding powder when descending from the slope. Another advantage is that it is less likely to cause painful “edge catching” during caught, steep turns. Which is the most unpleasant, valley-facing falls.

Why don't I sell full rocker boards? Because a normal person can learn to board in seven days at such a pace that it's annoying to death that a board with a mid-rocker constantly drifts out from under them. I really like the rocker in front of my front foot because it makes it easier to start the turn and float up, but I really don't like it between my two feet...

Flat-centered snowboard

The flat structure, also known as flat camber, is characterized by a flat profile, and this is always meant for the middle of the snowboard, which provides easy handling and maneuverability. It is suitable for the youngest snowboarders (including children), for all-mountain and freestyle skiing. It is similarly benign and handy as full-rocker center boards, but it can be bought for the long term, because it holds the edge better and is safe up to higher speeds, it starts to drift at higher speeds. I like to recommend it to beginners.

Camber – well, this is the ancient design, without it there would never have been edge retention and serious speed…

Camber, or bridge shape – this is the best way to create even edge pressure, and thus of course the best edge hold.

The oldest construction – if you lay the snowboard on a flat surface, you can see that the middle part of the board is convex towards the sky. This means versatility and stable riding even at high speeds. This is the classic construction and can handle icy conditions and holds the edges well in turns, but it requires more skilled technique and advanced snowboarding skills. The larger the bridge, the more suddenly you can raise your center of gravity in a short distance – so it is also popular with park freestylers, not just advanced or expert snowboarders aiming for steep slopes.

Hybrid – hahaha any hybrid that has at least two variations!

If we divide a sheet into three parts, where the situation is more extensive, then it could be the beginning, between the legs and after the legs, with three types of bites at the end - that would already be 27 variations.

The hybrid model combines the features of the above snowboard constructions to varying degrees (depending on the manufacturer). It is recommended for advanced snowboarders and racers. My favorite and favorite of the hybrids is the camrock construction. Translated into Hungarian: rocker zone between the front foot and the nose, camber (bridge) zone between the legs, rocker zone again between the back foot and the tail.

These boards are very forgiving, agile, and maneuverable, yet have almost as much edge grip and top speed as older, pure camber (traditional) snowboards. Most companies follow this (Jones, Nidecker, Yes, Rome, Bataleon, Burton, Nitro, THE Snowboards, Salomon, etc.).

Several companies have also made boards with a small camber under both feet, two small rockers at the toe and heel, so of course there is a strongly humpbacked rocker zone in the middle of the board. I recommend this mainly for park slides, where the rail or the rounded edge of the box runs right under your feet during the trick. So I would rather give it to a twintip freestyle park target group. Never Summer, Lib Tech, Gnu mainly produce these. I don't really like this geometry, although I don't park much anymore. It doesn't hold up as well as I would like in carving, edge grip, and icy sections, and I'm not selling that. But let's just say that the rocker zones located after the nose have been a salvation for easier cornering in the last 20 years, so if you have an older traditional board that doesn't have a rocker zone, I think it's time to slowly switch.

In this article, I didn't want to go into the additional turning benefits of 3D spatial (spoon-shaped) noses, and the edges with mellow traction geometry, which provide additional advantages in many situations, but if you're interested, you can read about some of the additive benefits of such auxiliary geometries in our good advice section. For example, the "Taper" in directional snowboards.

 

Happy boarding and fresh snow to all of you! Buy a modern, good board, not a cheap one, and you never want to spend the price of a 6-hour Austrian ski pass on a snowboard that will last you ten years!

Endru - freeride snowboarder

Experience since 1991 (from past to present I have dealt with the following brands: Nobile, Hemp, Burton, Drake, Cool, GAS, Sims, Original Sin, Rossignol, Lib Tech, Othre, Askew, Funstorm, Emery, K2, Hot, Hammer, Apo, Dupraz, Trans, Palmer, Lamar, Sims, Nitro, Salomon, Ride, Jones, THE Snowboards, Rome, Bataleon, Now, Yes, Flow, Forest, Nidecker, Volcom).

Now a Jones Ultra Mind Expander 162, Jones Flagship 164, Jones Storm Chaser 160, Hammer Stream 165, Korua Pintonic 164, Korua Pencil 164+, Dupraz 172, and I am the happy owner of three board girls.

 

Come and find the one that suits you, borrow it snowboard at a good price! Contact us with your questions our contact details on one!